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FROM    THE   LIBRARY   OF 

REV.   LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON,   D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED    BY   HIM   TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


Sect,on  /osof 


LIFE    OF    R.    W.    DALE 


WORKS  BY  DR.  R.  W.  DALE 
The    Epistle    to    the    Ephesians :    Its    Doctrine    and    Ethics. 

Tenth  Edition.      Crown  8vo,  cloth,  7s.  6d. 

The  Epistle  of  James  and  other  Discourses.      Second   Edition. 

Crown  Svo,  cloth,  6s. 

The   Living   Christ   and   the   Four   Gospels.      Eighth    Edition. 

Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s. 

Christian  Doctrine.     Third  Edition.     Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s. 
Impressions  of  Australia.     Crown  8vo,  cloth,  5s. 
Fellowship  with  Christ.     Third  Edition.     Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s. 
Laws  of  Christ  for  Common  Life.     Ninth  Edition.     Crown  8vo, 

cloth,  6s. 

Nine    Lectures    on    Preaching.      Tenth   Edition.       Crown    8vo, 

cloth,  6s. 

The  Jewish  Temple  and  the  Christian  Church.     Tenth  Edition. 

Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6s. 
Week-day  Sermons.      Sixth  Edition.     Crown  Svo,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 
The  Ten  Commandments.     Eighth  Edition.     Crown  8vo,  cloth,  5s. 
Christ  and  the  Future  Life.     Third  Edition.     Cloth,  is.  6d. 
The  New  Evangelicalism  and  the  Old.     Crown  Svo,  cloth,  1  s. 


LONDON:  HODDER  &  STOUGHTON. 


//  b  ^ 


MAR  12 


THE 


LIFE   OF   R.  W.  DALE 


OF    BIRMINGHAM 


BY    HIS    SON 

A.  W.  W.   DALE 


WITH     PORTRAIT 


NEW    YORK 

DODD     MEAD     AND     CO. 

149,     151     FIFTH    AVENUE 
1899 


I  call  a  man  remarkable  who  becomes  a  true  workman  in  the 
ineyard  of  the  Highest.  Thomas  Carlyle. 

Filio  satis  amplum  patrimonium  memoriam  mei  nominis  relinquo. 

Cicero. 


PREFACE 

BUT  for  the  pleasant  duty  of  thanking  those  who  have 
helped  me  in  my  work,  I  should  not  have  encumbered 
this  memoir  with  a  preface.  As  something  must  be  said, 
may  I  add  a  few  words  of  personal  explanation  ? 

Let  me  say  at  once  that  the  burden  of  the  biographer 
was  one  from  which  I  shrank.  The  sin  of  Ham  lies  as 
an  open  pit  in  the  way  of  any  son  who  writes  his  father's 
life ;  and  the  determination  not  to  say  too  much  may 
easily  lead  him  to  say  too  little.  Had  it  been  possible, 
therefore,  I  should  have  left  the  task  to  others.  But  it 
soon  appeared  that  the  friends — they  were  but  few — who 
might  have  undertaken  the  work  were  fully  occupied  in 
other  duties,  and  that  if  any  memoir  were  to  be  written 
I  must  write  it.  And  so,  accepting  a  responsibility  that 
I  should  never  have  sought,  I  have  tried  to  discharge  it 
as  best  I  could.  The  shortcomings,  of  which  I  am  only 
too  conscious,  would  have  been  even  greater  than  they 
are  but  for  the  kindness  of  those  who  have  come  to  my 
aid. 

The  inherent  difficulties  were  increased  by  special 
causes.  My  father  kept  no  diary,  except  for  two  or  three 
short  periods  far  on  in  life.  The  men  with  whom  he  was 
most  closely  associated  in  public  work  he  met  every  week. 
He  was  in  London  so  often  that  he  had  no  need  to  write 
at  length  about  questions  of  lasting  interest  to  Dr.  Allon, 
Dr.  Guinness   Rogers,  and  his  other  friends.      His  inner 


VI  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

life,  between  the  earlier  and  the  later  years,  he  kept  to 
himself.  He  lived  before  the  world — or  alone.  It  was 
not  until  he  was  withdrawn  from  active  service  that  he 
recorded,  save  in  public  utterance,  the  spiritual  experiences 
through  which  he  was  passing.  My  mother,  had  she  been 
living,  would  have  been  able  to  add  many  personal  details  ; 
but  her  sudden  and  tragic  death,  eighteen  months  ago, 
has  left  me  without  the  help  that  she  alone  could  give. 

Adequately  to  express  my  obligations  to  all  who  have 
assisted  me  is  impossible.  I  have  to  thank  Dr.  Guinness 
Rogers,  Dr.  Fairbairn,  Mr.  Barber,  the  Rev.  Philip  Barker, 
and  Mr.  Mander  for  the  portions  that  they  have  re- 
spectively contributed  to  this  volume,  and  my  friend  Dr. 
Forsyth  for  many  valuable  suggestions,  and  for  most 
generous  help  in  the  labour  of  revision.  I  am  greatly 
indebted  to  those  who  have  furnished  me  with  letters,  and 
have  allowed  me  to  use  them  ;  in  many  cases,  letters  that 
are  not  printed  have  been  of  material  service  in  fixing 
dates,  and  in  supplying  details.  Those  friends  whose 
names  are  not  included  in  this  list  must  not  imagine  that 
my  gratitude  is  as  scanty  as  my  space. 

Trinity  Hall,  Cambridge, 
\Oth  October  1898. 


NOTE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION 

I  regret  to  find  that  some  expressions  on  pages  614,  615  have 
given  pain  to  one  of  my  father's  most  loyal  friends.  Nothing 
could  have  been  further  from  my  mind  than  to  suggest  that  the 
article  in  the  British  Weekly  was  a  deliberate  or  a  discourteous 
attack  on  a  helpless  invalid.  While  demurring  to  the  writer's 
conclusions,  I  heartily  acknowledge  the  large-hearted  spirit  in 
which  he  wrote,  and  the  generous  consideration  with  which  he 
closed  the  controversy  as  soon  as  he  discovered  the  harm  that  it 
might  involve. 

Trinity  Hall,  Cambridge, 
15/A  December  1898. 


CONTENTS 

BOOK    I 

(1829-1859) 

CHAPTER    I 

PAGE 

Childhood  and  School         ••....        i 

CHAPTER  II 

From  Andover  to  Spring  Hill       .  .  .  ,  .14 

CHAPTER    III 
College  Days   ..... 


CHAPTER    IV 

Settlement  at  Carr's  Lane 

CHAPTER   V 

The  Co-Pastorate       .... 


39 


7i 


viii  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

BOOK    II 
(1859-1872) 

CHAPTER   VI 

PACK 

Sole  Pastor      ......  .     135 


CHAPTER    ATI 

The  Bicentenary  Controversy  and  the   Melbourne  Invita- 
tion ......... 


CHAPTER    VIII 
Life  in  Birmingham    .  .  .  .  .  .  .186 

CHAPTER    IX 

Life  in  Birmingham— Theology  and  Literature  .  .     207 

CHAPTER    X 

The  Chairmanship  of  the  Union   .....     229 

CHAPTER    XI 

Political  and  Public  Work.  .  ...  .  .     249 

CHAPTER    XII 
The  Education  Bill  of  1870  and  the  Nonconformist  Revolt    266 


CONTENTS  ix 

BOOK    III 

(1873-1886) 

CHAPTER    XIII 

TAGH 

From  East  to  West    .  .  .  .  .  .  .305 

CHAPTER    XIV 

Congregational  Principles  .  .  ,  .  .  -341 

CHAPTER    XV 

Church  and  State      .  .  .  .  .  .  .368 

CHAPTER    XVI 
A  Municipal  Gospel    .......     398 

CHAPTER    XVII 
The  New  Liberalism  .......    418 

CHAPTER    XVIII 
The  Irish  Question    .......    448 

CHAPTER    XIX 

The   School  .Board,   the   Grammar   School,   and   Mansfield 

College       .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .475 

CHAPTER    XX 
The  Discipline  of  Sorrow    ......    508 


X  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

BOOK    IV 
(1886-1895) 

CHAPTER    XXI 

The  Education  Commission  and  the  Australian  Visit  .     547 

CHAPTER    XXII 
Drifting  Apart  .  .  .  .  •  .  .     571 

CHAPTER    XXIII 

The  International  Council  .  .  .  .  .600 

CHAPTER    XXIV 

Prevailing  in  Weakness       .  .  .  .  .  .617 

CHAPTER    XXV 

"Repose  and  Hope  amid  Eternal  Things"         .  .  .     646 

CHAPTER    XXVI 

The  Dark  Valley        .  .  .  .  .  •  .667 

CHAPTER    XXVII 

Dale's  Position  as  a  Theologian,  by  Principal  Fairbairn  695 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 

Reminiscences  of  Dr.  Dale,  by  Dr.  J.  Guinness  Rogers         .     723 

Appendix  of  Dr.  Dale's  Publications      .  .  751 

Index      .....  .  -759 


BOOK    I 


CHAPTER  I 

CHILDHOOD    AND    SCHOOL 


Robert  "William  Dale  —  Family — Father  and  mother  —  Schooldays  at  Mr. 
Wilby's,  at  Rayleigh,  at  Mr.  Willey's — Mr.  Offord— Early  essays  and  first 
appearances  in  print — Dr.  Campbell,  his  character  and  influence — The 
Theological  Class  at  the  Tabernacle — Home  influences — Becomes  Mr. 
Willey's  assistant. 


Robert  William  Dale  was  born  in  London  on  ist 
December  1829.  His  father,  Robert  Dale,  was  a  native 
of  Booking,  a  village  about  a  mile  from  Braintree  in  Essex. 
There,  and  at  Coggeshall,  the  family  had  been  settled  for  a 
considerable  time.  The  original  stock  cannot  be  traced, 
but  it  is  certain  that  the  Dales  had  a  strain  of  foreign 
blood  in  them.  When  the  Flemings,  driven  from  the 
Continent  by  religious  persecution,  took  refuge  in  England, 
many  of  them  established  themselves  in  Essex,  bringing 
their  crafts  and  industries  with  them.  Braintree  was  the 
centre  of  a  large  and  important  colony,  and  they  inter- 
married with  many  of  the  families  in  the  neighbour- 
hood— probably  with  the  Dales  among  the  number. 

It  is  possible  that  the  family  was  connected  with 
Samuel  Dale  of  Bocking,  the  intimate  friend  of  John  Ray, 
the  famous  naturalist,  himself  distinguished  by  his  scientific 
researches..  He  began  life  as  an  apothecary  at  Braintree, 
but  in  1730  he  became  a  physician,  continuing  to  practise 
in  the  same  district.  His  contributions  to  Ray's  most 
important  works,  and  his  own  "  Pharmacologia,"  published 
in  1690,  together  with  other  scientific  treatises,  secured 
his  election  to  the  Fellowship  of  the  Royal  Society.      He 


2  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

was  a  strong  Nonconformist,  and  was  a  deacon  of  the 
Independent  Church  at  Bocking.  A  link  in  the  pedigree 
is  missing,  and  the  case  is  one  of  probability,  not  of  proof. 
But  there  is  identity  of  place,  of  name,  and  of  principle  ; 
and  the  connection,  if  admitted,  would  account  for  family 
traditions  of  an  earlier  prosperity,  which  at  the  end  of  the 
last  century  had  already  passed  away. 

Robert  Dale  left  Bocking  in  his  youth,  and  went  to 
London  to  seek  his  fortune,  without  much  success.  In 
the  year  1820  he  was  living  at  No.  44  Bedfordbury,  in 
the  Parish  of  St.  Martin  ;  and  a  certificate  shows  that  he 
provided  one  Charles  King  to  serve  as  his  substitute  in 
the  Middlesex  Militia.  He  moved  about  a  good  deal, 
and  it  is  not  easy  to  follow  him  in  his  wanderings.  He 
seems  for  the  most  part  to  have  kept  to  the  same  neigh- 
bourhood— the  streets  near  to  Finsbury  Square  and  the 
Moorfields  Tabernacle  ;  but  at  the  time  when  Robert 
William  was  born,  he  had  settled  on  the  south  side  of 
the  river,  and  was  living  in  Hawkesbury  Grove,  on  the 
edge  of  a  large  open  space,  now  covered  with  houses,  in 
the  Parish  of  St.  Mary,  Newington.  In  the  course  of  a 
few  months,  however,  he  made  his  way  back  to  Finsbury, 
and  took  a  house  in  Clifton  Street,  where  he  remained  for 
several  years. 

He  had  set  up  in  business  as  a  dealer  in  hat-trimmings. 
Silk  hats  were  as  yet  unknown  on  this  side  of  the 
Channel ;  the  beaver  of  our  ancestors  still  reigned  supreme, 
and  he  made  and  supplied  the  various  trimmings  which 
the  hat  manufacturers  required.  Had  the  old  fashion 
continued,  he  might  have  made  a  competence,  if  not  a 
fortune  ;  but  within  a  k\v  years  the  beaver  was  super- 
seded, and  trade  was  turned  into  other  courses. 

At  the  age  of  two  -  and  -  twenty  he  had  married 
Elizabeth  Young,  the  daughter  of  a  tradesman  living  in 
Aldersgate  Street,  at  a  house  just  opposite  to  Falcon 
Square.  The  two  families  were  already  connected.  Mr. 
Young,  after  losing  his  first  wife,  Rebecca  Yeates — his 
daughter's  mother — had  married  again  ;  and  his  second 
wife  was  a  Dale — Robert  Dale's  aunt  on  his  father's  side. 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOL  3 

Neither  Robert  Dale  nor  his  wife  had  much  schooling, 
even  for  their  times  ;  but  they  were  intelligent,  and  under- 
stood the  value  of  education.  Moreover,  in  the  Yeates 
family,  one  of  its  members — Elizabeth  Young's  uncle — 
was  a  scholar  of  some  distinction  ;  his  "  Indian  Church 
History"  remains  to  attest  his  literary  interest  and  industry.1 
His  example  would  count  for  something  ;  for  the  presence 
of  even  one  man  of  letters  in  a  family  is  rarely  without 
its  effect. 

In  character  and  in  outward  appearance  husband  and 
wife  presented  a  striking  contrast.  He  was  a  man  of 
average  height ;  not  in  any  way  noteworthy ;  reserved 
and  retiring,  shunning  society  rather  than  seeking  it ; 
without  the  enterprise  and  the  vigour  that  are  required 
for  conspicuous  success.  She,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
small  and  dark,  with  an  amazing  fund  of  energy  and 
activity,  capable  of  strong  enthusiasm  herself,  and  able  to 
stir  and  inspire  others.  Both  were  members  of  the 
Tabernacle  Church,  Moorfields,  founded  by  George 
Whitefield,  then  presided  over  by  Dr.  John  Campbell. 
They  were  poor,  and  did  not  mix  much  with  their  more 
prosperous  neighbours  ;  but  they  held  a  distinct  position  of 
their  own,  and  the  blameless  consistency  of  their  life  com- 
manded the  respect  and  the  regard  of  those  who  knew  them. 

The  early  part  of  their  married  life  was  full  of  anxiety 
and  sorrow.  Out  of  six  children  only  two  survived — 
Robert  and  Thomas — and  even  they,  as  might  be  expected, 
during  childhood  were  far  from  robust.  Thomas  was 
much  the  younger  ;  for  the  ten  years  before  he  was  born, 
Robert  was  the  only  child  in  the  home,  and  the  mother's 
affection  was  concentrated  on  him  with  a  rare  intensity 
of  devotion.  The  memories  of  the  children  that  she  had 
lost  made  her  all  the  more  tender  to  the  son  who  was 
spared.      If  she  said  little,  her  feeling  was  all  the  stronger 

1  "Indian  Church  History,  or  An  Account  of  the  First  Planting  of  the 
Gospel  in  Syria,  Mesopotamia,  and  India,  with  an  accurate  relation  of  the 
first  Christian  Missions  in  China  collected  from  the  best  authorities  extant  in 
the  writings  of  the  Oriental  and  European  historians,  with  genuine  and  select 
translations  of  many  original  pieces,  by  Thomas  Yeates,  London."  Printed  by 
A.  Maxwell,  Bell  Yard,  Lincoln's  Inn,  18 18. 


4  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

for  her  reticence.  Among  her  few  intimate  friends  she 
made  no  secret  of  her  dreams  and  aspirations.  Her  one 
desire  for  her  boy  "  Bobby,"  as  he  was  then  called,  was 
that  he  should  grow  up  to  be  a  minister  of  the  Gospel. 
"  One  impression  remains  with  me  to  this  day,"  says  the 
Rev.  James  Key,  "  the  passionately  earnest  desire  of  his 
mother  that  he  should  be  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ.  For  this  she  seemed  to  live  ;  for  this  she 
prayed  incessantly ;  for  this  she  laboured  ;  for  this  she 
would  make  any  sacrifice.  From  his  birth  she  gave  him 
to  God,  and  she  watched  over  him  with  earnest  prayer." 
Her  closest  friend  at  that  time  was  a  Mrs.  Ferris,  the 
elder  sister  of  Dr.  Harris,  then  prominent  as  a  preacher, 
and  President  of  New  College.  The  Dales  and  the 
Ferrises  sat  side  by  side  in  the  front  row  of  one  of  the 
galleries  of  the  church.  Mrs.  Dale  and  Mrs.  Ferris  had 
little  conferences  at  the  close  of  the  services,  while  they 
sat  for  a  time  as  the  congregation  retired.  They  were 
like-minded  women,  and  although  they  rarely  visited  at 
each  other's  houses,  they  drew  together  at  the  social 
meetings  of  the  church.  With  Mrs.  Ferris,  and  among 
other  friends  belonging  to  the  same  circle,  Mrs.  Dale 
spoke  freely  of  her  hopes  for  her  son's  future. 

The  boy  himself  is  but  a  shadowy  figure  during  these 
early  years.  Hardly  an  incident  of  his  childhood  has 
been  recorded.  He  was  not  adventurous,  and  adventures 
did  not  come  in  his  way.  One  friend  describes  him  as 
wearing  a  white  pinafore  and  a  black  belt,  and  recalls  the 
invariable  punctuality  with  which  he  set  off  homewards 
at  the  time  fixed  by  his  mother.  Another  adds  that  he 
was  never  to  be  seen  with  a  hoop  in  the  streets  or  playing 
about  with  the  children  of  the  neighbourhood.  His  first 
school — and  he  must  have  gone  to  school  early — was  in 
Worship  Square.  It  was  kept  by  a  Mr.  Wilby,  who 
followed  the  Pestalozzian  system.  The  teaching  was  good, 
and  the  impression  that  it  left  was  permanent ;  for  fifty 
years  after,  Dale  expressed  his  indebtedness  to  the 
training  that  he  had  received  there,  though  he  did  not 
explain  whether  its  merits  were  due  to  special  methods  of 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOL  5 

instruction  or  to  its  effect  in  stimulating  the  mind.  He 
was  already  quick  and  intelligent.  Two  or  three  of  the 
books  that  he  then  used  have  been  preserved.  There  is  a  Aged  9. 
little  French  Testament  with  an  inscription,  half  in  French, 
half  in  English — "  Monsieur  Dale,  pupil  of  Monsieur 
Wilby,  Pestalozzian  Academy,  Worship  Square."  Below, 
the  owner's  name  is  repeated  in  Greek  characters,  roughly 
traced  and  evidently  the  work  of  a  beginner.  A  copy  of 
The  Marrow  of  Modem  Hymn  Books — edited  by  Dr. 
Campbell,  in  its  day  largely  used  in  Sunday  schools 
and  Bible  classes — belongs  to  the  same  period.  His 
handwriting  at  that  time — he  was  not  quite  ten — is  clear 
and  firm  for  his  age.  There  is  also  a  little  volume  of 
poetry  bearing  the  same  date — "  R.  W.  Dale,  1839."  It 
contains  Blair's  "  Grave,"  Gray's  "  Elegy,"  and  "  Death,  a 
Poem  by  Beilby  Porteus,  Bishop  of  London " — not  a 
very  cheerful  collection  and  not  too  flattering  to  Gray. 

A  few  months  later  he  was  taken  away  from  the  Pesta- 
lozzian Academy,  and  was  sent  to  a  school  at  Rayleigh  in  Aged  10. 
Essex.  The  change  was  not  a  success.  The  master  had 
no  real  aptitude  for  his  work  ;  he  did  not  impress  his 
scholars,  nor  did  he  understand  them.  Fifteen  or  sixteen 
years  later,  his  former  pupil,  bringing  his  wife  with  him 
— it  was  soon  after  his  marriage — called  on  him,  but 
met  with  a  most  ungracious  reception.  All  that  the 
old  pedagogue  would  say  was  that  he  was  glad  to  see 
"  untoward  boys  turning  out  well."  The  phrase  was  never 
forgotten,  and  in  describing  the  incident  to  an  old  school- 
fellow forty  years  after,  Dale  adds  with  humorous  in- 
dignation :  "  Untoward  boys  turning  out  well  !  The  old 
wretch  !  He  had  not  done  much  towards  it  ;  and  my  only 
sin — so  far  as  he  knew — was  that  I  did  not  think  so  well 
of  him  as  of  my  former  master.  And  so  far  as  his  brains 
were  concerned,  I  was  right." 

In  1840 — or  early  in  1841 — the  Dales  moved  from 
Clifton  Street  into  Earl  Street.  The  house  which  they 
occupied  was  then  number  1 2  in  the  street,  but  is  now 
number  1 6.  Robert  was  at  once  removed  from  Rayleigh, 
and  was  placed  in  the  school   kept  by  Mr.  John   Tyson 


6  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

Willey  at  3  Christopher  Street,  a  few  hundred  yards  away 
from  his  home.  The  school  was  one  of  considerable 
repute,  attended  by  the  sons  of  clergymen,  doctors,  and 
tradesmen  living  in  and  around  Finsbury  Square,  which 
at  that  time  had  not  become  a  mere  business  quarter. 
Some  of  the  boys  had  come  to  it  from  public  schools, 
such  as  the  Merchant  Taylors'  and  St  Paul's,  where  the 
education  was  almost  exclusively  classical,  to  learn  writing 
and  arithmetic  and  similar  subjects  which  at  those  historic 
foundations  were  scandalously  neglected.  Mr.  Willey's 
was  essentially  a  commercial  school :  more  time  was  given 
to  French  than  to  Latin  ;  but  mathematics  were  carefully 
taught.  The  school  was  large  and  successful.  Its  numbers 
touched  the  hundred.  Not  a  few  of  its  pupils  distinguished 
themselves  in  after  life.  Its  prosperity  was  due  to  the 
energy  and  the  perception  of  its  head.  He  understood 
boys,  and  had  a  keen  insight  into  character.  In  those 
days  a  lad  chose  his  calling — or  had  it  chosen  for  him — 
at  an  earlier  age  than  is  common  now,  and  Mr.  Willey  in 
his  teaching  took  careful  account  of  the  career  for  which 
his  scholars  were  intended.  He  had  the  faculty  of  making 
friends  of  his  boys  and  their  parents,  by  whom  he  was 
regarded  with  affection  and  confidence.  His  advice  was 
freely  sought  and — what  is  more  rare — was  followed. 
Time  and  separation  increased  rather  than  lessened  the 
gratitude  of  his  scholars.  In  his  old  age,  Mr.  Willey,  after 
retiring  from  his  calling,  outlived  his  resources.  He  had 
already  been  presented  with  a  handsome  testimonial ;  but 
his  old  pupils,  on  learning  his  circumstances,  clubbed 
together,  and  provided  an  annuity  which  was  his  chief 
support  during  the  last  fourteen  years  of  his  life.  The 
heartiness  with  which  the  plan  was  taken  up  and  carried 
out  was  a  remarkable  tribute  to  the  lasting  effect  of  his 
character  and  influence.  Excellent  as  it  was  in  many 
ways,  the  school  necessarily  lacked  some  of  the  elements 
that  assist  in  developing  mind  and  character.  The  teach- 
ing though  vigorous  and  stimulating,  was  confined  within 
comparatively  narrow  limits.  Opportunities  of  culture — 
in  the  larger  sense — were  all  too  slight.      The  place  had 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOL  7 

110  such  traditions,  no  such  associations,  as  ennoble  our 
great  public  schools  ;  nor  did  it  know  that  large  and 
generous  activity  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  modern 
foundations  of  our  great  cities.  It  did  not  reach  back 
into  the  past ;  it  did  not  closely  touch  the  present.  It 
could  boast  no  brilliant  names  to  be  at  once  the  pride  and 
the  inspiration  of  succeeding  generations.  But  it  had  at 
least  this  merit — that  if  little  was  attempted,  the  little  was 
well  done ;  that  such  knowledge  as  it  imparted  was  solid 
and  thorough  ;  and  that  the  moral  tone  of  the  place  was 
sound  and  wholesome. 

In  spite  of  its  limitations,  the  school  had  a  life  of  its 
own,  in  which  a  lad  might  learn  as  much  from  his  com- 
panions as  from  his  teachers.  There  was  a  playground 
at  the  back  of  the  building  ;  and  although  games  had  not 
then  become  a  passion,  the  schoolboy  was  not  without  his 
diversions.  In  the  rougher  sports  and  pastimes  of  the 
place  Dale  seldom  took  part.  He  did  not  excel  either 
in  speed  or  strength,  and  was  no  athlete  ;  he  always 
cared  more  for  books  than  for  play.  But  at  the  same 
time  he  was  not  so  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  school 
as  to  be  unsocial,  and  whenever  a  boy  found  himself  in 
difficulties  over  his  lessons,  with  a  problem  to  solve  or 
a  passage  to  construe,  no  one  was  more  ready  to  give 
assistance  ;  and,  as  in  attainments  he  was  far  in  advance 
of  most  of  his  schoolfellows,  his  aid  was  as  freely  sought 
as  it  was  freely  given.  With  some  of  the  boys  he  was 
brought  into  more  close  and  intimate  association  — 
especially  with  two  brothers,  George  and  John  Offord. 
The  Offords  and  the  Dales  were  neighbours,  and  the 
children  spent  much  of  their  playtime  together.  The 
influence  which  this  friendship  exerted  upon  a  boy  who 
had  lived  too  much  alone  was  very  great ;  it  brought  a 
new  force  to  bear  upon  him,  and  a  force  making  wholly 
for  good.  Fifty  years  later,  in  an  address  delivered  at 
Mill  Hill  School,  Dale  described  the  brothers  and  what 
they  had  done  for  him  : — 

A  great  many  years  ago,  when  I  was  quite  a  little  boy,  among 
my    schoolfellows    I    had    two    brothers,    who,    between    them, 


8  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

illustrated  what  then  seemed  to  me,  and  what  still  seems  to  me, 
the  ideal  of  boyish  excellence.  The  younger  of  them  had 
singular  gentleness,  kindness,  sympathy ;  he  was  strong,  but  his 
strength  had  no  roughness  in  it ;  his  spirit  and  manner  were 
always  affectionate,  gracious,  and  beautiful.  The  elder,  who 
died  in  early  manhood,  was  frank,  bold,  courageous,  and 
adventurous.  The  younger  brother  left  England  soon  after  I 
entered  the  ministry.  I  met  him  more  than  thirty  years  later  in 
a  distant  part  of  the  world,  and  I  shall  never  forget  his  emotion 
when  I  told  him  how  much  I  owed  to  him.  Neither  of  them 
knew  at  that  time  how  much  they  were  doing  for  me ;  but  to 
those  two  schoolfellows  of  mine  I  am  under  far  larger  moral 
obligations  than  to  any  of  my  teachers. 

This  was  not  the  only  help  he  gained  from  the  friend- 
ship. At  the  Offords'  house  in  Clifton  Street  there  was 
a  large  unused  room  at  the  end  of  the  yard,  which  was 
given  up  to  the  two  boys  and  their  younger  sister.  They 
kept  their  tools  and  playthings  there,  and  it  was  a  fine 
place  for  games.  Here  the  children  and  their  friend 
spent  many  an  hour ;  and  then,  when  tired  of  play,  they 
would  leave  their  games  and  come  and  stand  by  Mr. 
Offord's  bench — he  was  a  saddler  and  harness-maker, — 
watching  him  while  he  cut  out  work  for  his  men,  and 
listening  while  he  talked  of  many  things.  He  was  a  man 
with  wide  interests,  well  read  in  prose  and  poetry,  full  of 
ideas,  free  and  apt  in  expression.  He  would  question  the 
boys  upon  any  topic  that  interested  them,  would  draw  out 
their  ideas,  help  them  to  discover  the  extent  of  their 
Knowledge,  and  then  send  them  off  to  write  an  essay  or 
a  paper  on  the  subject.  These  essays,  written  not  as  a 
task,  but  for  pleasure,  were  Dale's  first  efforts  at  com- 
position ;  and  it  was  to  Mr.  Offord — as  he  told  a  friend 
long  afterwards  —  that  he  owed  his  earliest  impulse 
towards  literature.  When  Mr.  Offord  died  in  1877,  Dale 
wrote  to  his  daughter,  recalling  his  debt : — 

26th  April  1 87 7. 

Your  father  had  so  great  a  place  in  all  my  memories  of  my 
early  days  that  with  his  death  a  piece  of  my  own  life  seems  to 
have  gone.  He  was  very  kind  to  me.  I  wonder  how  it  was 
that  a  man  with  all  his  power  and  resources  could  have  been  so 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOL  9 

kind  to  a  lad.  ...  I  should  find  it  hard  to  say  for  how  much 
of  my  own  preaching  he  was  responsible ;  his  conversations  with 
me  about  his  two  great  preachers,  Mr.  Binney  and  Alfred  Morris, 
made  impressions  on  me  which  must  have  done  a  great  deal  to 
shape  my  whole  way  of  thinking  about  the  preacher's  work. 

It  was  no  doubt  through  such  prompting  and  en- 
couragement that  he  made  his  first  appearance  in  print. 
He  was  about  twelve  years  old  at  the  time. 

It  was  rather  an  audacious  proceeding,  for  there  were 
no  children's  columns  in  those  days.  But  a  thought  had 
come  to  me — I  cannot  tell  how — about  the  difference  in  idea 
between  the  Lord's  Day  and  the  Jewish  Sabbath — the  Jewish 
Sabbath  commemorating  the  creation  of  the  world ;  the  Christian 
Sunday — the  Lord's  Day — commemorating  the  resurrection  of 
our  Lord,  which  was  the  beginning  of  the  new  creation  ;  the  one 
giving  "  rest "  from  past  labours,  the  other  renewing  life  and 
strength  for  labours  yet  to  come.  The  difference  took  possession 
of  me.  I  thought  of  it  day  after  day.  At  last  I  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  worth  making  known  to  others,  and  so,  in 
my  very  best  writing,  I  sent  it  to  the  editor  of  the  Youth's 
Magazine.  He  inserted  my  brief  contribution,  which  did  not 
occupy  more  than  an  inch  and  a  half  or  two  inches  of  his  space.1 
I  have  no  doubt  that  the  success  of  this  juvenile  "article"  was 
chiefly  owing  to  its  extreme  brevity.  I  said  what  I  had  to  say 
in  the  fewest  possible  words,  and  then  said  no  more.   .  .   . 

My  next  venture  bad  a  certain  comic  element  in  it.  Dr. 
Campbell,  the  pastor  of  the  church  to  which  my  father  and 
mother  belonged,  and  which  I  generally  attended  while  I  remained 
at  home,  had  just  launched  the  Christian  Witness,  a  threepenny 
monthly  magazine.  It  had  an  immense  success.  If  I  remember 
aright,  it  secured,  at  starting,  a  circulation  of  30,000  copies,  which 
in  those  days  was  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  religious 
periodicals.  Those  of  us  who  belonged  to  Dr.  Campbell's 
congregation  thought  that  the  success  of  the  Christian  Witness 
was  the  great  ecclesiastical  event  of  the  century ;  we  had  some 
encouragement  in  thinking  so  from  Dr.  Campbell  himself.  I 
was  about  thirteen  years  old — perhaps  fourteen, — and  I  thought 
that  it  would  be  a  great  thing  to  write  something  that  would  be 
read  by  30,000  people;  for  in  those  days  I  imagined  that  every- 
body that  bought  a  magazine  would  be  sure  to  read  it.  But  I 
felt  certain  that  if  the  doctor  knew  that  any  article  sent  to  him 
for  the  great  magazine  was  mine,  he  would  think  me  the  most 

1    Youth's  Magazine,  November  1S42,  p.  36S. 


io  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

presumptuous  member  of  the  human  race ;  and  I  am  not  sure 
that  I  did  not  believe  that  he  would  be  right.  So  I  sent  my 
little  article — it  was  longer  than  my  first,  but  still  very  short — 
anonymously,  and  signed  it  "  Gaius,"  which  was  a  common 
signature  for  old  men  to  use  in  religious  magazines  in  those  days. 
What  the  article  was  about  I  cannot  remember,  but  the  great 
editor  appeared  to  think  that  his  aged  contributor  had  sent  him 
something  which  deserved  the  attention  of  his  30,000  subscribers  ; 
and  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  I  saw  the  contribution  of 
"  Gaius  "  in  the  Christian  Witness.1 

In  these  reminiscences  Dale's  memory — as  was  only- 
natural  after  an  interval  of  fifty  years — is  sometimes  at 
fault.  The  little  article  in  the  Youth's  Magazine — his 
first  literary  venture — is  even  shorter  than  he  supposed  ; 
only  three  lines — thirty  words — all  told.  Some  of  the 
ideas  that  he  attributes  to  it  are  of  later  growth  :  there 
is,  for  instance,  no  reference  to  the  contrast  between  "  rest  " 
and  "  renewal."  And  he  had  evidently  forgotten  the 
signature — "  Rupert."  The  second  article,  with  which 
Dr.  Campbell  was  hoaxed,  cannot  have  been  written  till 
he  was  about  fourteen  and  a  half;  for  the  Christian 
Witness  first  appeared  in  the  year  1844.  No  contribution 
by  "Gaius"  appears  in  the  early  numbers  of  the  magazine  ; 
so  that  the  article  must  have  been  published  without 
the  signature  ;  it  cannot  now  be  identified. 

The  reference  to  the  Christian  Witness  suggests  that 
no  account  of  the  influences  which  went  to  shape  the  boy's 
character  would  be  complete  without  some  mention  of  the 
Tabernacle  Church  and  its  minister,  Dr.  John  Campbell, 
who  at  John  Wilks's  death  had  succeeded  to  the  pastorate. 
Time  has  dealt  hardly  with  him.  For  many  years  his 
ministry  was  powerful  and  effective.  He  was  respected, 
if  not  beloved,  by  the  members  of  the  two  congregations 
at  Moorfields  and  in  Tottenham  Court  Road  over  which 
he  presided.  But  his  voice  failed  him  before  his  strength, 
and  he  then  forsook  the  pulpit  and  threw  himself  into 
literary  work.  His  activity  was  boundless.  He  edited 
the  official  organs  of  Congregationalism,  and  also  started 

1  "Number  Ten,"  a  magazine  published  by  the  Young  Men's  Bible  Class 
at  Carr's  Lane,  Birmingham  :  April  1894. 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOL  n 

periodicals  of  his  own.  The  power  that  he  thus  came  to 
exercise  was  very  large,  and  it  was  used  without  modera- 
tion or  wisdom.  It  was  a  time  of  unrest,  and  men  of  the 
younger  race  could  not  fail  to  be  affected  by  new  ideas  in 
criticism  and  theology.  Dr.  Campbell  imagined  that  it 
was  his  special  mission  to  resist  the  movement.  He  was 
combative,  and  delighted  in  controversy.  If  he  lacked 
learning,  he  had  great  activity  of  mind  and  was  full  of 
resource.  He  contended  for  the  faith — as  he  understood 
it — with  a  passionate  ardour  ;  but  in  his  contention  he 
was  too  often  violent  and  too  seldom  just.  At  last  the 
fate  that  always  awaits  men  who  fight  for  truth  in  such  a 
temper  overtook  him :  he  degenerated  into  a  heresy- 
hunter, — dogmatic,  denunciatory,  vindictive, — a  thousand 
times  more  hurtful  to  the  cause  that  he  championed  than 
the  most  persistent  of  its  avowed  opponents.  And  so  it 
has  come  about  that  his  virtues  and  his  services  are  all 
but  forgotten,  and  that  he  is  remembered  only  as  a  type 
of  blatant  and  abusive  bigotry.  But  in  the  later  thirties 
and  in  the  earlier  forties  this  stage  had  not  been  reached. 
Dr.  Campbell,  if  he  was  already  an  editor,  had  not  ceased 
to  be  a  preacher  ;  and  his  preaching  was  not  without  effect : 
it  certainly  had  a  part  in  stirring  the  religious  interests 
and  in  shaping  the  religious  convictions  of  the  lad  who 
listened  to  him  Sunday  by  Sunday,  sitting  by  his  father 
and  mother  in  the  north  gallery  of  the  church. 

Some  points  of  resemblance  between  the  two  men  are 
worth  noting.  Untiring  industry,  the  energy  with  which 
literary  activity  and  the  work  of  the  pulpit  were  combined, 
the  habit  of  expounding  whole  passages,  and  even  books 
of  Scripture  rather  than  separate  and  isolated  texts,  a 
readiness  to  attack  great  subjects,  and  a  militant  loyalty 
to  Congregational  principles,  were  characteristics  that 
Dale  shared  with  his  first  pastor.  How  far  the  similarity 
was  accidental,  and  how  far  due  to  the  unconscious 
influence  of  example,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  But  there 
need  be  no  hesitation  in  tracing  to  this  source  the  first 
exuberance  of  his  literary  style  and  the  dogmatic  temper 
of  his  youth  and  early  manhood. 


12  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

It  was  not,  however,  to  Dr.  Campbell  alone  that  Dale 
owed  his  early  religious  training.  For  some  time  he 
attended  the  catechetical  class  established  for  the  children 
of  church  members  who  were  sufficiently  advanced  to 
receive  instruction  in  doctrine  ;  provision  was  made  in  a 
separate  school  for  those  who  were  ignorant  of  the 
elements  of  the  Scriptures.  There  he  learned  the 
Assembly's  Catechism,  and  won  a  prize  for  proficiency. 
In  due  time — but  while  he  was  still  a  boy — he  was 
promoted  to  the  theological  class  held  in  the  vestry, 
established  by  Mr.  Child,  and  at  a  later  date  conducted 
by  Mr.  William  Stroud.  His  interest  in  such  studies  was 
keen  from  the  first,  and  it  is  clear  that  he  was  strongly 
attracted  by  the  new  domain  of  thought  now  opened 
before  him.  His  sense  of  indebtedness  to  his  teachers 
and  companions  —  for  the  members  of  the  class  were 
expected  to  take  part  in  exposition  and  illustration — was 
deep  and  enduring  ;  and  the  first  of  his  books,  The  Talents, 
is  dedicated  to  "  Mr.  William  Stroud  and  the  Bible  Class 
conducted  by  him,  as  an  imperfect  expression  of  the 
author's  gratitude."  l 

In  the  home  there  was  nothing  to  impair  the  force  of 
these  influences.  The  parents,  indeed,  were  poor  ;  luxury 
was  unknown  ;  even  books  were  few.  But  they  had  a 
genuine  regard  for  knowledge,  and  valued  it  for  its  own 
sake,  not  merely  for  the  rewards  and  the  advancement 
that  it  might  bring.  Any  sign  of  intellectual  develop- 
ment, any  extension  of  mental  interest,  was  encouraged. 
The  sympathy  of  friends  was  welcomed  ;  their  suggestions 
were  never  disparaged  with  that  narrow-minded  selfishness 
which  is  far  too  common.  They  were  proud,  the  mother 
especially,  of  the  possibilities  and  the  promise  of  their  son. 
But  theirs  was  not  a  demonstrative  household.      It  had 


1  The  superintendent  of  the  Bible  Class  must  not  be  identified  with  William 
Stroud,  M.D.,  the  author  of  a  well-known  work  on  The  Physical  Cause  of  the 
Death  of  Christ  (London,  Hamilton  and  Adams,  1S47),  to  which  reference 
is  made  in  the  Lectures  on  the  Atonement  (pp.  462,  foil.).  He  was  a  neighbour 
of  the  Dales,  by  trade  a  shoemaker,  eminently  distinguished  by  spiritual 
knowledge  and  power.  The  two  men  have,  in  one  instance  at  least,  been 
confused. 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOL  13 

too  little  warmth  or  sunshine,  and  it  was  too  much 
inclined  to  reserve  where  frank  and  open  expression 
would  have  been  both  natural  and  wholesome.  But 
affection,  however  tongue-tied  and  inarticulate,  was  deep 
and  strong  ;  nor  was  family  life  embittered  by  alienation 
or  distrust.  Simplicity,  integrity,  and  a  robust  religious 
faith,  contributed  to  develop  solidity  and  strength  of 
character. 

Such,  then,  are  the  facts  that  have  been  preserved 
relating  to  the  years  of  Dale's  boyhood.  The  exact  range 
of  his  studies  is  uncertain.  All  that  can  be  said  with 
certainty  is  that  he  must  have  learnt  Latin,  French,  a 
little  Greek,  and  a  fair  amount  of  mathematics,  in  addition 
to  the  English  subjects  which  were  carefully  taught  in 
Mr.  Willey's  school ;  and  it  is  safe  also  to  add  that  he 
read  widely  on  his  own  account,  acquiring  an  amount 
of  miscellaneous  knowledge  most  unusual  for  a  boy 
of  his  age.  In  the  summer  of  1843  his  school  days,  Aged  13 J. 
as  a  pupil,  came  to  an  end ;  but  he  remained  with 
Mr.  Willey  for  six  months  more,  until  the  end  of  the 
year,  as  an  assistant,  or  usher,  as  he  would  then  be  called, 
taking  part  in  the  teaching  and  receiving  from  the 
principal  some  private  help  in  his  own  studies  in  return 
for  his  services.  One  incident,  to  which  he  once  or 
twice  referred  when  talking  of  his  boyhood,  shows  that 
he  already  exerted  much  authority.  Mr.  Willey,  for  some 
cause  or  other,  was  absent,  not  merely  from  his  classes 
but  from  his  house,  for  three  days  ;  but,  with  the  help  of 
another  pupil,  his  young  assistant  carried  on  the  work  of 
the  school  without  interruption  or  even  irregularity.  He 
must  have  looked  older  than  he  was,  and  must  have  been 
exceptionally  mature  in  manner  to  make  such  a  position 
tolerable.  "  A  tall,  swarthy  lad,  in  spectacles,  sitting  at 
the  usher's  desk,  and  looking  as  if  he  meant  to  be  minded, 
as  he  was" — such  is  the  picture  which  remains  of  him 
half  a  century  after. 


CHAPTER    II 

FROM    ANDOVER    TO    SPRING    HILL 

Leaves  home  for  Andover — Religious  difficulties — Joins  the  Church — Religious 
work — First  sermon — Magazine  articles — Desires  to  enter  the  ministry 
— Disappointed  hopes — At  Brixton  Hill — Correspondence  with  Mr. 
Gillespie  the  metaphysician — An  usher  at  Leamington— Village  preach- 
ing— -Publishes  The  Talents — Friends  at  Leamington  —  Applies  for 
admission  to  Spring  Hill  College — Difficulties  removed — Examined  and 
admitted — First  impressions  of  the  College. 

Aged  14.  It  was  in  January  1844  that  Dale  left  home  to  begin  life 
on  his  own  account.  He  had  been  engaged  as  assistant 
by  Mr.  Ebenezer  White,  a  schoolmaster  at  Andover,  a  little 
country-town  in  Hampshire.  There  cannot  be  much 
doubt  as  to  the  way  in  which  the  arrangement  was  brought 
about.  The  Rev.  J.  Spencer  Pearsall,  the  minister  of  the 
Congregational  Church  there  which  Mr.  White  attended, 
had  been  a  member  of  the  Tabernacle  Church.  Through 
Dr.  Campbell  an  introduction  was  given,  and  Mr.  White 
came  up  to  London  for  an  interview  before  concluding  the 
arrangement.  He  found  Dale  engrossed  in  Butler's 
Analogy,  and  thought  it  "  rather  a  deep  book  for  such  a 
youth."  The  impression  which  he  received  was  favour- 
able, and  it  was  arranged  that  the  engagement  should 
begin  at  the  end  of  the  Christmas  holidays. 

In  many  respects  the  position  was  admirably  suited 
for  a  lad  leaving  home  for  the  first  time.  Mr.  White  him- 
self was  a  man  of  high  character  and  of  kindly  disposition. 
If  he  had  no  claim  to  exact  scholarship,  his  general 
knowledge  was  exceptionally  wide  ;  for  he  had  studied 
men  as  well  as  books,  and  had  travelled  not  only  on  the 


FROM  ANDOVER  TO  SPRING  HILL  15 

Continent  but  in  South  America,  at  a  time  when  travellers 
were  comparatively  rare.  He  was  generous  and  benevo- 
lent ;  poverty  and  suffering  did  not  appeal  to  him  in  vain. 
Though  at  that  time  he  was  not  a  minister,  he  took  an 
active  part  in  the  work  of  the  church,  and  preached 
occasionally,  if  not  regularly,  at  the  service  held  on  Sunday 
afternoons.  He  subsequently  gave  up  educational  work 
and  took  charge  of  a  village  church  in  Berkshire.  To  his 
young  assistant  he  was  kindly  and  considerate.  The 
influences  of  the  school  were  favourable  to  the  develop- 
ment of  mind  and  character  ;  and  the  burden  of  work  was 
not  too  severe. 

But  schoolmastering  never  was,  and  never  could  have 
been,  Dale's  true  vocation.  At  Andover  he  did  his  best 
to  discharge  his  duties,  and  not  without  success  ;  but  the 
work  was  essentially  uncongenial.  For  individual  boys — 
the  sons  of  his  friends,  and  others  whom  he  came  to 
know  in  after  years — he  had  a  genuine  affection  ;  but  both 
by  temperament  and  training  he  was  incapable  of  com- 
prehending the  habits  and  tastes  of  the  typical  schoolboy, 
a  creature  with  riotous  animal  spirits,  regulating  life  by  a 
complex  but  irregular  moral  code  of  his  own,  and  with  an 
instinctive  dislike  of  any  intellectual  exertion.  Dulness  he 
could  endure— regarding  it  as  an  affliction  ;  what  he  could 
not  tolerate  or  understand  was  the  absolute  and  unfeigned 
indifference  to  knowledge  and  the  contempt  for  literature 
in  all  its  forms  which  are  engrained  in  nineteen  school- 
boys out  of  twenty.  But  he  was  not  unpopular  with  his 
pupils ;  they  knew  that  he  bore  them  no  ill-will  ;  they 
could  always  reckon  on  his  readiness  to  help  them  in  a 
difficulty.  One  of  them  still  has  "  a  very  distinct  recol- 
lection of  the  kindness  and  geniality  of  his  disposition, 
and  of  his  great  industry  as  a  student."  With  two  day- 
boys named  Tasker  he  became  very  intimate,  and  he 
spent  much  of  his  time  out  of  school-hours  in  their  father's 
house,  finding  a  cordial  welcome  among  the  older  people. 
The  position,  with  all  its  drawbacks,  was  not  intolerable, 
and  the  eighteen  months  at  Andover  were  by  no  means 
the  least  happy  period  in  his  early  life. 


16  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

His  first  year  there  saw  a  momentous  crisis  in  his 
spiritual  history.  His  religious  instincts  indeed  had  been 
stirred  many  months  before.  He  had  already  set  out  on 
the  search,  had  begun  to  strive  after  the  great  discovery. 
It  was  never  his  habit  to  say  much  about  himself  in  his 
public  utterances,  but  the  references  to  these  early  experi- 
ences are  full  and  complete  enough  to  make  it  possible  to 
trace  the  path  along  which  he  found  his  way  into  the 
light.  As  far  as  possible,  the  history  shall  be  given  in 
his  own  words.  "  A  sermon  by  the  Rev.  J.  Sherman, 
which  I  heard  when  about  thirteen,  suggested  thoughts 
about  God,  and  my  relation  to  Him,  which  were  new  as 
being  practical,  and  awakened  anxieties  which  lasted  for 
many  months."  l  The  preaching  of  Dr.  Campbell  helped 
to  keep  alive  this  impression,  but  failed  to  bring  the  peace 
that  he  sought ;  and  he  then  turned  to  John  Angell 
James's  Anxious  Enquirer,  a  book  of  almost  unparal- 
leled influence  in  the  religious  literature  of  this  century. 
"  I  read  it,"  he  says,  "  on  my  knees,  and  in  keen  distress 
about  my  personal  salvation.  Night  after  night  I  waited 
with  eager  impatience  for  the  house  to  become  still,  that 
in  undisturbed  solitude  I  might  agonise  over  the  book 
which  had  taught  so  many  to  trust  in  God."  2 

But  still  the  trouble  lasted  ;  peace  and  assurance  were 
still  withheld.  He  was  perplexed,  baffled,  distressed, 
almost  in  despair.  He  believed  in  Christ — of  that  he  was 
sure — but  to  no  purpose.  What,  he  asked  himself,  was 
amiss  in  his  faith  ?  Was  his  belief  not  of  the  right  kind  ? 
Did  he  not  believe  in  the  right  way  ?  Misled  by  the 
chapter  on  "  Knowledge "  in  the  Anxious  Enquirer,  he 
had  confused  belief  in  Christ  with  belief  in  certain  great 
doctrines  about  Christ ;  failing  to  recognise,  as  he  after- 
wards discovered,  that  faith  in  a  person  and  the  acceptance 
of  facts  or  doctrines  relating  to  a  person  are  two  distinct 
things. 

I  continued  to  suppose  that  I  was  to  be  saved  by  believing 
the  history  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  the  great  Evangelical 

1    Ordination  Services  of  the  Rev.  R.   IV.  Dale,  pp.  31,  32. 
2  Life  of  John  Angell  fames,  pp.  2S8,  2S9. 


FROM  ANDOVER  TO  SPRING  HILL  17 

doctrines  concerning  His  nature  and  death.  Conscious  that  I 
had  not  attained  the  rest  and  strength  which  ought  to  follow 
"saving  faith,"  I  began  to  think  that  perhaps  my  belief  was 
powerless  because  it  was  the  mere  result  of  education,  and  not 
of  independent  inquiry.  Under  this  impression,  I  turned  in  my 
boyish  simplicity  to  Paley's  Evidences  of  Christianity,  hoping  that 
when  I  had  verified  for  myself  the  historical  foundations  of 
Christian  truth,  my  belief  would  rest  on  a  right  basis  and  exert 
greater  power.1 

Even  then  the  quest  was  not  over ;  the  dawn  still 
delayed. 

I  thought  that,  perhaps,  if  I  believed  in  Christ  at  all,  I  did 
not  believe  in  the  right  way ;  but  then,  how  was  I  to  discover 
the  right  way?  This  set  me  off  on  metaphysical  adventures, 
which  yielded  no  discoveries  of  the  kind  I  wanted.  At  last — 
how,  I  cannot  tell — all  came  clear;  I  ceased  thinking  of  myself 
and  of  my  faith,  and  thought  only  of  Christ ;  and  then  I  won- 
dered that  I  should  have  been  perplexed  for  even  a  single  hour.2 

In  the  early  summer  of  1844  he  was  received  into  the  Aged  14$. 
Congregational  church  meeting  in  East  Street,  Andover, 
and  he  at  once  began  to  take  an  active  part  in  its  life  and 
work.  Boy  as  he  was,  the  gift  of  intercessory  prayer — 
however  undeveloped  and  immature — was  already  his,  and 
an  old  member  of  the  church  still  recalls  a  prayer  which  he 
offered  at  the  close  of  a  Sunday  evening  sermon.  "It 
deeply  impressed  "  her  "  by  its  fervour  and  appropriate- 
ness— especially  as  he  was  then  a  youth  wearing  a  round 
jacket."  He  also  gave  short  addresses  in  the  Sunday 
School,  which  were  much  appreciated.  In  the  course  of 
a  few  months  he  was  encouraged  to  try  his  capacity  for 
more  ambitious  forms  of  service. 

Andover  was  a  place  rich  in  Nonconformist  traditions. 
The  church-roll  of  the  eighteenth  century  contained  the 
names  of  men  distinguished  by  rank  and  learning.  But 
to  a  lad  of  generous  temper,  overflowing  with  ardour  and 

1  Life  offohn  Angell fames,  p.  301. 

2  The  Epistle  of  James  and  other  Discourses,  pp.  264,  265  ;  cf.  pp.  205, 
206.  Elsewhere  {Ordination  Services,  p.  32)  it  appears  that  a  sermon  of  the 
Rev.  Alfred  Morris  on  "Christ  the  Spirit  of  Christianity"  helped  to  remove 
the  difficulties  and  misapprehensions  with  which  he  had  been  contending. 

C 


1 8  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

enthusiasm,  the  tales  which  men  still  living  could  tell  of 
their  efforts  to  carry  the  Gospel  into  the  neighbouring 
villages,  and  of  the  fierce  resistance  they  had  encountered, 
must  have  been  far  more  thrilling  than  any  records  of  a 
remote  and  shadowy  past.  Thirty  years  before,  the  village 
of  Abbott's  Ann,  at  no  great  distance  from  the  town,  had 
witnessed  a  bitter  and  prolonged  conflict.  A  blacksmith 
in  the  village  began  to  hold  services  in  his  house,  and 
obtained  help  from  Andover.  An  attempt  was  made  to 
put  down  the  movement  by  violence  and  outrage  ;  how 
intense  the  strife  became  is  shown  by  the  legends  of 
miraculous  intervention  to  which  it  gave  rise.  At  length, 
opposition,  having  exhausted  its  resources,  gradually  died 
down,  and  the  "  Methodists  " — as  they  would  be  called — 
were  left  in  undisturbed  possession.1  It  was  a  battle  on 
a  very  humble  scale,  but  typical  of  a  conflict  that  was 
then  being  waged  in  many  parts  of  rural  England.  The 
men  who  had  faced  the  risk  of  being  stoned,  beaten,  or 
ducked,  who  had  lost  their  cottages,  or  had  been  turned 
out  of  their  farms  for  conscience  sake,  when  they  told 
the  story  of  those  eventful  years,  must  have  shone  with 
the  dignity  of  heroism  ;  and  their  influence  gave  vigour 
and  passion  to  the  convictions  of  the  younger  generation 
that  listened  to  them. 

Mr.  White  was  not  the  man  to  repress  the  zeal  of  his 
assistant,  and  Dale  began  to  preach  in  the  spring  of  1845, 
either  in  April  or  May.  His  first  sermon  was  delivered 
in  a  room  at  Providence  Cottage,  Lower  Clatford,  then 
occupied  by  a  basket-maker  named  Rolf.  The  text  was 
taken  from  Ezekiel  xviii.  29  :  "  O  house  of  Israel,  are 
not  my  ways  equal  ? "  and  the  sermon  was  a  defence  of 
Calvinism,  coupled,  however,  with  an  assertion  of  universal 
redemption.  He  preached  for  the  second  time  in  the 
little  chapel  at  Abbott's  Ann,  which  had  been  built  some 
years  before  by  the  father  of  his  friends,  the  Taskers. 
His  preaching  attracted  a  good  deal  of  attention.  He 
was  not  timid  in  attacking  great  subjects.      He  had  read 

1    Outlines  of  Congregationalism,  toith  an  Historical  Account  of  its  Rise  and 
Progress  in  the  Town  of  Andover,  by  the  Rev.  J.  S.  Pearsall.    London,  1844. 


FROM  ANDOVER  TO  SPRING  HILL  19 

and  thought  much  for  a  lad  of  his  age.  His  self-possession 
was  remarkable,  and  he  was  never  at  a  loss  for  words. 
But,  as  he  often  returned  to  Andover  during  his  college 
course,  and  preached  whenever  he  came,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  it  was  the  impression  produced  in  those  later 
years  that  has  survived  in  the  memory  of  those  who 
listened  to  him.  Yet  already  it  was  clear  that  he  was 
made  for  the  pulpit,  and  that  only  as  a  preacher  of  the 
gospel  would  he  find  the  work  for  which  he  was  best  fitted. 
His  surplus  energies  were  not  confined  to  preaching. 
It  was  a  period  of  growth  and  activity  for  all  his  faculties  ; 
and  about  this  time  he  also  began  his  first  systematic 
attempts  in  literature.  During  the  earlier  months  of 
1845  ne  contributed  a  series  of  articles  to  the  Young 
Men's  Magazine,  distinguished  by  two  characteristics 
— the  vigour  with  which  they  are  written,  and  their 
practical  intention.  They  aim  at  definite  objects. 
They  are  the  utterances  of  one  who  has  a  message  to 
deliver.  The  subjects  are  suggestive  in  themselves. 
The  importance  of  study  —  the  duty  of  Bible  reading 
— the  claims  of  God  to  an  unreserved  consecration  of 
all  our  powers — the  value  of  decision  of  character,  are 
not  the  themes  that  would  be  chosen  for  purposes  of 
literary  display  ;  nor  are  they  so  treated  in  these  essays. 
The  writer  thinks  more  of  life  than  of  books  ;  he  is  only 
too  much  in  earnest,  and  sometimes  his  fervour  gets  the 
better  of  his  discretion.  It  was  Dale's  own  impression 
that  he  also,  about  the  same  time,  published  some  articles 
in  the  Student.  If  so,  the  contributions  were  unsigned, 
and  all  trace  of  them  has  been  lost.  But  he  cannot 
have  written  much;  for  in  the  summer  of  1845  the  Student 
and  the  Young  Men's  Magazine  were  amalgamated,  and 
till  then  his  leisure  time  must  have  been  fully  occupied 
with  the  series  of  articles  already  described.  It  is  possible, 
however, that  a  review  of  Channing's  essay  on  "Self-Culture," 
which  appeared  in  the  April  number  of  the  Student,  may 
have  been  his  work  ;  it  is  certain  that  he  reviewed  the 
book  in  the  Evangelical  Magazine  two  months  later.1 

1  Evangelical  Magazine,  June  1845,  PP-  29^,  297. 


20  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

So  far,  this  review  was  his  most  ambitious  achievement ; 
for  in  those  days  the  Evangelical  Magazine  held  an  im- 
portant place  in  religious  life  and  thought,  and  its  con- 
tributors for  the  most  part  were  men  of  reputation  and 
position.  The  article  filled  two  closely  printed  columns. 
Its  deficiencies  are  obvious :  it  is  rough  in  style,  and 
awkward  in  expression.  But  it  has  a  distinct  unity  of 
aim  and  thought :  it  is  all  of  one  piece.  The  writer 
gets  on  to  the  target  at  once — and  keeps  there.  The 
criticism  throughout  is  directed,  not  to  details,  but  to 
principles  ;  it  is  outspoken  and  at  the  same  time  respect- 
ful. Channing  had  contended  that  Self-Culture  was  the 
duty  of  a  rational  being,  for  the  realisation  of  his  own 
perfection  ;  his  critic  insists  that  God — not  self — is  the 
end  of  man's  existence,  and  that  the  full  development  of 
the  faculties  with  which  man  has  been  endowed  is  due  to 
the  Creator  who  made  him  what  he  is.  Mind — in  his 
view — is  truly  honourable  only  as  it  answers  the  great 
purpose  for  which  it  was  given  :  without  God  and  the 
knowledge  of  God  it  never  reaches  its  highest  dignity 
and  worth.  He  also  criticises  Channing's  general  con- 
ception of  human  nature,  which — so  he  asserts — disregards 
the  enmity  that  exists  between  the  natural  and  the  spiritual 
man,  and  therefore  anticipates  moral  and  spiritual  results 
from  the  culture  of  self  that  can  be  attained  only  by  union 
with  and  knowledge  of  God.  The  article  is  not  a  long 
one,  but  it  goes  to  the  root  of  the  matter. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  months — at  the  end  of  June — 
he  left  Andover,  and  returned  home,  probably  with  the 
idea  of  preparing  himself  for  the  duties  of  the  ministry. 
No  one  was  less  likely  to  make  light  of  the  necessity  of 
systematic  training  to  fit  him  for  that  high  vocation.  He 
knew  enough  to  know  how  much  he  had  still  to  learn. 
It  is  clear  that  both  he  and  his  parents  reckoned  upon 
Dr.  Campbell's  help,  and  assumed  that  he  would  open  the 
way  into  one  of  the  colleges  established  to  prepare  students 
for  the  Congregational  ministry.  It  was  natural  that 
they  should  indulge  such  hopes.  The  parents  had  been 
associated  with  the  Tabernacle  Church  for  many  years. 


FROM  ANDOVER  TO  SPRING  HILL  21 

Poor  as  they  were,  they  stood  high  in  the  respect  of  their 
fellow  -  members.  Their  son's  character  was  blameless  ; 
his  abilities  were  recognised  as  of  no  common  order.  But 
to  their  surprise  and  mortification,  Dr.  Campbell,  when 
approached,  either  declined  to  do  what  was  necessary,  or 
showed  such  indifference  as  amounted  to  a  refusal.  The 
Dales  were  indignant,  and  their  friends — including  some 
of  the  elders  of  the  church — sympathised  with  their  feeling. 
But  Dr.  Campbell  was  both  oracle  and  autocrat  among 
his  people.  He  would  have  his  own  way,  and  was  not 
lightly  to  be  turned  from  it  by  argument  or  appeal. 

There  is  no  reason  to  blame  him  for  his  conduct.  He 
was  a  busy  man,  with  many  absorbing  interests,  overbur- 
dened with  work  and  responsibility ;  and  it  is  possible 
that  he  may  not  have  given  much  attention  to  the  facts 
of  the  case.  And  to  a  superficial  observer  the  project 
might  well  seem  unreasonable  or  premature.  The  lad 
was  still  several  months  under  sixteen  ;  his  intentions  and 
desires  might  change  as  he  approached  manhood.  As 
yet,  his  qualification  for  the  work  of  the  ministry  had 
hardly  been  tested  ;  it  was  only  right  that  he  should  show 
what  he  had  in  him  ;  that  his  tenacity  of  purpose  should 
be  proved,  before  any  effort  was  made  to  remove  the 
obstacles  in  his  path ;  and  that  the  call  to  the  ministry 
should  come  from  the  church,  in  response  to  ability  and 
devotion  displayed  in  some  form  of  Christian  work,  and 
not  merely  from  his  own  impulse  and  the  encouragement 
of  admiring  relations.  Such  considerations  as  these 
would  occur  to  any  pastor  of  experience  ;  and  prudence 
would  suggest  caution  and  delay.  But  the  advice  might 
have  been  graciously  given.  A  word  of  sympathy  would 
have  softened  the  disappointment,  and  have  left  some 
hope  for  the  future.  But  this  was  not  Dr.  Campbell's 
way  ;  the  rebuff  was  unqualified,  and  conveyed  the  impres- 
sion that  his  disapproval  was  final. 

It  must  have  been  a  sad  summer  in  Earl  Street. 
Everything  combined  to  embitter  the  trial.  The  pros- 
pect had  appeared  so  bright,  sympathy  and  help  seemed 
so  secure,  the  promise   of  usefulness   and  power  was   so 


22  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

distinct,  that  the  blow,  when  it  came,  was  overwhelming — to 
the  mother  who  saw  her  long  cherished  hopes  so  suddenly 
destroyed,  and  to  the  son  who  found  himself  compelled 
to  return  to  a  calling  from  which  he  thought  he  had 
escaped.  But  no  other  course  was  open  ;  and  he  had  to 
take  up  school  work  again  with  what  heart  he  could.  So 
in  August  1845  he  engaged  himself  as  an  assistant  to 
Mr.  Jardine,  who  then  conducted  a  school  at  Brixton  Hill. 
The  arrangement — as  might  have  been  anticipated — did 
not  prove  very  successful.  Mr.  Jardine  no  doubt  soon 
discovered  that  his  assistant  had  no  intention,  if  he  could 
help  it,  of  spending  his  life  as  a  schoolmaster,  and  that 
his  mind  was  busy  with  other  things.  A  relation  of 
Mr.  Jardine  tells  us  nothing  more  than  the  truth  when 
she  says  :  "  At  that  time  Mr.  Dale's  thoughts  were  so  con- 
stantly fixed  on  his  entrance  to  the  ministry  that  he  did 
not  apply  himself  so  much  to  teaching  the  pupils  as  he 
would  otherwise  have  done."  The  statement  does  not 
necessarily  imply  disloyalty  to  the  principal,  or  disregard 
of  duty.  Common  experience  proves  that  no  man  can 
succeed  as  a  teacher  who  comes  to  his  work  with  a  divided 
mind.  And  Mr.  Jardine  was  evidently  too  considerate 
to  require  —  as  he  might  fairly  and  reasonably  have 
required — that  all  other  plans  should,  for  the  time  at 
least,  be  abandoned,  He  did  not  even  put  a  stop  to 
pulpit  work,  and  his  assistant  preached,  certainly  once  at 
Brixton  Hill,  and  probably  in  other  places  also.  His  mind 
was  at  the  same  time  absorbed  in  many  other  interests. 

To  pass  over  other  matters,  he  was  then  undergoing 
that  first  attack  of  metaphysics  which  few  young  men  of 
active  intelligence  wholly  escape.  In  his  case  it  seems  to 
have  taken  an  acute  form,  and  a  correspondence  which 
has  been  preserved  shows  that  it  inspired  him  with  unusual 
temerity. 

While  he  was  in  this  state  of  intellectual  ferment,  a 
book  written  by  Mr.  William  Gillespie,  a  Scotch  meta- 
physician, fell  into  his  hands,  and  he  read  it  with  the 
keenest  interest.  The  volume  contained  several  treatises, 
all  directed  to  the  same  end — to  establish  the  necessary 


FROM  ANDOVER  TO  SPRING  HILL  23 

existence  of  God  by  the  a  priori  method  of  reasoning,  and 
was  intended  primarily  to  deal  with  positive  atheism. 
With  arguments  derived  from  experience — inferences  from 
the  evidence  of  design  in  creation,  and  the  methods  of 
experimental  philosophy  in  general — Mr.  Gillespie  was 
dissatisfied.  He  quotes  Hume  against  the  a  posteriori 
school  ;  the  cause,  he  urges,  ought  only  to  be  propor- 
tioned to  the  effect ;  we  are  not  justified,  therefore,  in 
attributing  to  the  cause  qualities  which  do  not  belong 
to  the  effect.  The  effect,  so  far  as  it  falls  under  our  cog- 
nisance, is  not  infinite  ;  indeed,  to  reason  in  this  way  is 
to  "  renounce  all  claim  to  infinity  in  the  attributes  of  the 
Deity " ;  or,  as  Dr.  Martineau  has  said,  "  We  can  only 
speak  of  the  Divine  perfection  as  indefinitely  great." 1 
Starting,  therefore,  from  the  opposite  standpoint — from 
man,  and  not  from  the  universe,  from  the  intuitive  ideas 
of  the  mind,  and  not  from  the  evidence  of  the  senses — Mr. 
Gillespie  elaborated  "  the  argument,  a  priori,  for  the  Being 
and  attributes  of  a  Great  First  Cause."  He  proceeds 
with  mathematical  precision,  building  up  his  argument  in 
a  series  of  propositions,  with  dependent  corollaries  and 
scholia.  Setting  out  from  the  ideas  of  Infinite  Extension 
and  Infinite  Duration,  as  necessarily  existing — "  for  every- 
thing the  existence  of  which  we  cannot  but  believe  is 
necessarily  existing " — he  advances,  step  by  step,  till  he 
concludes  that  there  necessarily  exists  a  Being  Infinite  in 
Expansion  and  Duration,  of  absolute  unity  and  simplicity, 
intelligent  and  omniscient,  all-powerful,  entirely  free,  com- 
pletely happy,  and  perfectly  good.  The  treatise  is  a  signal 
illustration  of  the  principle  that  metaphysics  and  theology 
are  inseparable,  and  that  the  moment  we  go  beyond  pheno- 
mena and  apply  ourselves  to  causes,  we  find  ourselves  in  a 
transcendental  region.2  The  young  metaphysician  read 
the  book  ;  and  not  only  read  it  but  tried  his  strength 
upon  it.  He  worked  out  a  clearer  proof,  as  it  seemed  to 
him,  of  the  first  proposition — that  infinity  of  extension  is 
necessarily  existing ;    and   also  raised   an  objection   to   a 

1  A  Study  of  Religion,  vol.  i.  p.  415. 
2  Ibid,,  Preface,  pp.  i.  ii. 


24  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

proposition  in  the  second  part  of  the  treatise  ;  the  objection 
affected  not  method  merely  but  validity,  and  in  an  argu- 
ment so  constructed  —  in  which  the  conclusion  of  one 
stage  becomes  the  premiss  of  the  next — a  single  weak 
point  breaks  the  continuity,  and  leaves  the  fabric  to 
collapse. 

Without  entering  fully  into  the  question  at  issue,  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  the  objection,  if  sound,  would  have 
admitted  the  possibility  of  the  material  universe  being 
the  substratum  of  Infinity  of  Duration  ;  and  for  the  pur- 
poses of  the  argument  it  was  necessary  to  prove  that  the 
material  universe  could  not  be  the  substratum  either  of 
Infinity  of  Extension  or  of  Infinity  of  Duration. 

Mr.  Gillespie  took  the  criticism  sedately  —  in  fact, 
seriously  ;  and  he  encouraged  his  correspondent  to  state 
his  difficulties.  He  received  five  letters  in  answer  to  his 
appeal,  and  wrote  three.  They  are  too  long  to  reproduce, 
and  are  too  much  concerned  with  details  and  too  full  of 
technicalities  to  be  generally  interesting,  or  indeed  in- 
telligible apart  from  the  book,  but  their  nature  and 
character  may  be  briefly  indicated.  There  is  extreme 
earnestness  on  both  sides.  Mr.  Gillespie,  it  is  evident, 
regarded  himself  as  the  apostle  of  a  faith,  and  his  corre- 
spondent— who  at  this  time  was  not  quite  sixteen — was 
able  to  meet  him  in  the  same  spirit.  Mr.  Gillespie  spares 
no  pains  in  dealing  with  difficulties.  His  tone  and 
temper  are  admirable — free  from  any  affectation  of  in- 
fallibility ;  only  once  is  there  any  trace  of  warmth — when 
he  finds  that  his  correspondent  is  inclined  to  regard  time 
as  a  purely  mental  idea, — as  a  mode  of  consciousness 
alone,  and  not  as  externally  real, — so  "  agreeing  with 
Kant  and  other  German  metaphysicians."  He  adds,  and 
not  without  justice,  that  any  one  holding  such  convictions 
is  bound  to  challenge  his  argument  as  a  whole,  and  to 
demur  to  its  reasoning  at  the  very  outset.  But  he  writes 
throughout  with  cordiality  and  something  more  —  an 
unfeigned  desire  to  establish  religious  faith  on  a  solid 
basis,  and  to  bring  heart  and  mind  into  harmonious 
unity.      Dale's     letters    are    remarkable    in    many    ways. 


FROM  ANDOVER  TO  SPRING  HILL  25 

His  style  was  still  unformed,  but  his  resources  of  ex- 
pression were  considerable,  and  although  he  writes,  not 
only  modestly  but  diffidently  of  his  knowledge  and 
abilities,  it  is  clear  that  he  is  already  accustomed  to  look 
at  things  with  his  own  eyes,  to  examine  evidence  for 
himself,  to  accept  no  reasoning  simply  on  the  score  of 
reputation  and  authority.  As  to  his  metaphysical 
aptitude,  all  that  need  be  said  is  that  metaphysical 
interest  is  so  rare  in  a  lad  of  his  age  as  to  be  almost 
startling.  His  system  of  thought  has  not  yet  rejected 
incongruous  elements  ;  in  Carlyle's  phrase  he  is  "  a  young 
unhewn  philosopher."  Like  all  beginners  in  metaphysics, 
he  is  not  very  firm  on  his  feet ;  and,  as  with  a  young 
skater,  they  are  apt  to  shoot  out  in  opposite  directions  at 
the  same  time.  But  in  the  discussion  he  gives  proof  of 
force  and  courage,  and  though  at  the  close  he  admits 
himself  to  be  convinced,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
discussion  must  have  been  of  far  greater  value  to  him 
than  any  positive  conclusion  to  which  he  may  have  been 
led.  The  experience  taught  him  to  rely  more  confidently 
on  his  own  powers  ;  and  the  first  step  towards  success  is 
the  conviction  that  success  is  possible.  After  his  recent 
disappointment,  the  discovery  that  a  man  of  reputation 
and  learning  was  willing  to  deal  with  him  seriously  must 
have  braced  him  like  a  tonic,  and  have  filled  him  with 
new  hope  and  courage. 

This  was  not  the  only  adventure  of  the  autumn.  Not 
content  with  tackling  a  philosopher,  he  also  entered  into 
contioversy  with  a  Roman  Catholic  bishop.  The  incident 
is  described  at  length  in  one  of  his  letters. 

To  Mr.  Offord 

Leamington,  January  30,  1846. 

In  November  last  my  colleague  and  I  read  a  pastoral  letter 
of  the  Bishop  Hoogdinke,  Apostolic  Vicar  of  some  diocese  with 
a  queer  denomination  in  Holland.  This  letter  breathed  all  the 
fiendish  spirit  of  Catholicism  against  the  efforts  of  the  Bible 
Society,  and  though  I  could  not  but  abhor  the  principles  which 


26  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

formed  the  staple  of  the  document,  there  was  much  that  appeared 
amiable,  fatherly,  Christian.  Accordingly  Mr.  Stroud  and  I  sat 
down  and  wrote  a  long  letter  to  his  Holiness  the  Bishop,  expos- 
ing in  as  kind  a  spirit  as  possible  his  errors,  requesting  a  reply, 
and  beseeching  him  to  pray  that  not  only  he  but  ourselves  might 
know  the  truth.  A  few  days  ago,  a  letter  arrived  at  Brixton 
directed  to  Messrs.  Stroud  and  Dale,  which  was  really  a  com- 
munication from  the  Catholic  Bishop.  He  endeavours  to  prove 
the  right  of  dominion  asserted  by  the  ecclesiastical  members  of 
the  Popish  Church,  rightly  observing  that  this  is  the  fundamental 
principle,  which  is  the  sine  qua  non  to  all  their  doctrines.  Its 
spirit  is  exceedingly  affectionate  ;  and,  at  the  conclusion,  he  tells 
us  that,  faith  being  the  gift  of  God,  he  will  ever  offer  his  humble 
though  earnest  prayers  that,  as  we  have  received  grace  to  seek 
truth,  we  may  be  guided  in  the  way  of  truth,  and  that  he  has 
directed  his  most  pious  priests  to  do  the  same.  Well,  the 
answers  to  their  prayers  are  yet  to  come. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  cause  of  the  change,  it 
is  quite  clear  that  even  before  he  left  Brixton,  the  pang 
of  disappointment  was  beginning  to  pass  away,  and  when, 
early  in  the  New  Year  1846,  he  settled  at  Leamington, 
as  assistant  to  Mr.  Mliller,  a  schoolmaster  in  Warwick 
Street,  he  rapidly  recovered  buoyancy  and  vigour.  His 
first  impressions,  indeed,  of  his  new  surroundings  are  not 
very  cheerful.  It  was  a  plunge  into  a  strange  world. 
He  found  himself  cut  off  from  his  friends,  and  surrounded 
by  strangers.  As  for  real  sympathy — so  far  as  the 
school  was  concerned — -he  sought  it  in  vain.  Mr.  Midler 
agreed  with  him  in  principle,  but  without  conviction  or 
enthusiasm  ;  and  to  ardent  youth  a  downright  foe  is  more 
welcome  than  a  lukewarm  friend.  His  colleague — 
according  to  his  estimate — both  in  intellect  and  character 
was  a  poor  creature,  from  whom  little  intimacy  or  fellow- 
ship could  be  expected  ;  and  he  missed  the  companion- 
ship of  John  Stroud, — "my  chum,"  as  he  calls  him, — with 
whom  he  had  been  closely  associated  at  Brixton.  Of  the 
school  itself  he  speaks  favourably.  When  he  went  there 
it  numbered  "  about  twenty  boarders  and  thirty  day 
boys,"  "  varying  in  age  from  eight  to  eighteen,"  for  the 
most  part  amiable,  "  with  considerable  intelligence," 
though  "  lamentably  ignorant  of  religious  truth  " — a  failing 


FROM  ANDOVER  TO  SPRING  HILL  27 

which,  he  hopes,  "  will  not  long  continue,  if  my  endeavours 
to  inform  their  minds  and  to  affect  their  hearts  are  made 
successful."  How  far  he  succeeded  in  his  purpose — 
whether  he  left  any  deep  impression  upon  his  pupils' 
minds,  no  record  remains.  But  to  the  place  itself  and  to 
the  people  he  took  kindly,  and  soon  became  prominent  in 
the  little  society  to  which  he  belonged.  He  united  him- 
self with  the  Congregational  church  in  Spencer  Street, 
under  the  pastorate  of  the  Rev.  A.  Pope  ;  but  as  several 
of  the  pupils  were  Baptists,  and  attended  Dr.  Winslow's 
ministry  at  Warwick  Street,  he  often  went  with  them  ;  he 
thus  formed  ties  in  both  congregations,  and  became  well 
known  among  the  Nonconformist  families  of  the  place. 
In  a  very  short  time  he  again  threw  himself  into  religious 
work.  He  often  took  part  in  the  prayer  meetings  at 
Spencer  Street,  and  "  created  a  deep  impression  by  his 
spirit  and  freshness  of  expression."  He  also  preached  a 
great  deal  in  the  villages — at  Ashorne,  Bishop's  Itching- 
ton,  Southam,  and  elsewhere,  and  made  quite  a  reputation 
not  only  for  eloquence,  but  by  the  force  and  fervour  of 
his  conviction.  The  little  chapels  soon  became  crowded 
to  hear  him.  He  enjoyed  the  services  intensely,  and  the 
discovery  that  he  could  touch  the  hearts  and  consciences 
of  his  hearers  made  him  more  certain  than  ever  of  his 
true  vocation.  He  also  became  greatly  interested  in 
temperance  work  ;  and  on  more  than  one  occasion 
publicly  advocated  the  duty  of  total  abstinence.  In 
addition  to  this  he  became  a  member  of  a  literary  and 
debating  society  ;  he  spoke  frequently,  and,  having  this 
outlet  for  thought  and  feeling,  he  forsook  the  pen  for  the 
platform. 

Motives  of  another  kind  also  led  him  to  renounce  his 
literary  aspirations.  Soon  after  he  settled  at  Leamington, 
he  made  a  more  ambitious  attempt  at  authorship,  and 
the  ill  success  of  his  venture  was  a  severe  mortification. 
Early  in  the  year  1846,  he  brought  out  a  little  volume 
entitled  The  Talents ;  the  publishers  were  Messrs.  Aylott  Aged  16, 
and  Jones  of  Paternoster  Row,  who  must  have  been  in  the 
way   of  undertaking   work    on   commission.      It    will    be 


28  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

remembered  that  they  also  published  the  Brontes'  verses — 
Poems  by  Ellis,  Currer,  and  Acton  Bell — almost  at  the 
same  time.  Some  references  to  The  Talents  have  appeared 
in  the  newspapers  since  his  death,  but  the  accounts  of  its 
character  and  contents  have  not  been  very  accurate.  It 
was  a  little  book  of  1 40  pages ;  not  a  collection  of 
addresses  and  sermons — as  some  writers  have  stated — 
but  a  treatise,  touching  many  subjects  indeed,  yet  directed 
solely  to  one  specific  end.  It  deals,  in  fact,  with  man's 
responsibility  to  God  for  the  development  and  use  of  the 
powers  entrusted  to  him,  whether  moral,  spiritual,  or  in- 
tellectual. The  principle  which  it  asserts  and  illustrates 
is  that  "  where  means  for  the  accomplishment  of  any  good 
object  are  possessed,  failure  in  securing  that  object 
involves  guilt."  It  is  evident  that  the  germ  of  the  book 
may  be  found  in  Channing's  essay  on  "  Self-Culture,"  read 
and  reviewed  ten  or  twelve  months  before.  The  stand- 
point is  different ;  the  method  is  different ;  the  motive 
to  which  he  appeals  is  not  the  same.  Channing  regarded 
self-culture  as  a  duty  which  man  owes  to  himself — as  a 
duty  which  man  would  be  equally  bound  to  fulfil  if  there 
were  no  God,  or  if  he  had  no  knowledge  of  Him.  In 
The  Talents  the  whole  stress  is  laid  upon  the  religious 
obligation.  To  squander  the  faculties  with  which  we  have 
been  gifted  is  to  "  rob  God  "  ;  to  let  them  rust  unused,  to 
neglect  their  due  development,  is  not  merely  an  outrage 
upon  human  nature  but  a  violation  of  Divine  law.  But 
in  spite  of  all  difference  and  divergence,  as  to  the  impulse 
and  origin  of  the  book  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Channing's 
influence  is  apparent,  even  when  his  principles  are  but 
indirectly  assailed  ;  and  in  several  instances  his  opinions 
and  arguments  are  specifically  mentioned. 

Detailed  analysis  of  the  book  would  be  superfluous  ;  it 
will  be  sufficient  to  indicate  in  outline  its  method  and 
scope.  After  asserting  the  general  responsibility  of  man 
to  God  for  the  proper  use  of  his  endowments,  it  proceeds 
to  deal  with  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  powers  which  he 
possesses  :  the  function  of  the  mind  is  to  obtain  know- 
ledge of  Truth  ;  our  spiritual   faculties  have  as  their  end 


FROM  ANDOVER  TO  SPRING  HILL  29 

assimilation  to  the  Divine  nature.  Then  "  influence  "  is 
discussed  at  length — the  influence  of  friends,  of  books,  of 
society  ;  the  power  which  human  beings  exert  upon  one 
another,  in  the  family,  the  state,  the  church  ;  the  influence 
which  affects  others  unconsciously,  and  that  which  works 
by  deliberate  and  systematic  activity — a  discussion  which 
involves  the  relation  of  the  Christian  to  the  world,  the  part 
he  should  take  in  politics,  in  ameliorating  the  social  system, 
and  his  personal  responsibility  for  the  salvation  of  the 
human  race.  In  the  last  section  the  use  of  "  Time"  is  con- 
sidered, with  the  ways  in  which  it  is  wasted  or  misapplied, 
through  indolence,  frivolity,  caprice,  or  for  want  of  steady 
purpose  and  fixed  principle.  A  concluding  chapter  sums 
up  the  argument,  and  enforces  the  duty  of  whole-hearted 
devotion  to  the  God  who  made  us. 

The  book,  of  course,  is  full  of  faults,  but  it  is  a  remark- 
able production  for  a  boy  just  turned  sixteen,  and  parts 
of  it  must  have  been  written  even  before  that  age.  The 
style  is  too  florid  ;  the  words  are  often  too  strong  for  the 
thought.  The  temper  is  intolerant — even  if  it  is  the 
intolerance  of  youth  ;  condemnation  is  too  sweeping,  too 
indiscriminate  ;  and  the  opinions  expressed  are  in  many 
cases  as  crude  as  they  are  dogmatic.  In  short,  judged 
both  by  literary  and  moral  standards,  the  pitch  is  too  high. 
But  notwithstanding  immaturity  and  inexperience,  even 
here  may  be  traced  some  of  the  qualities  which  ripened 
in  after  years.  In  the  first  place,  the  book  shows  a 
certain  intellectual  tenacity.  To  some  men  —  more 
especially  in  their  youth — a  truth  is  but  a  stepping-stone, 
on  which  they  alight  but  do  not  linger ;  they  touch  it 
only  in  passing,  and  at  once  press  on  to  whatever  lies 
beyond.  With  Dale  it  was  not  so.  Throughout  his  life 
a  truth,  when  apprehended,  mastered  him,  dominated  him, 
took  possession  of  his  thought  and  imagination.  One 
might  almost  say  that  he  lived  under  the  benignant  sway 
of  a  succession  of  great  truths,  following  one  another  like 
the  constellations  of  the  heavens.  Even  here  the  tendency 
is  apparent.  The  idea  which  is  the  pith  and  core  of  his 
article  on  Channing's  essay  has  been  working  in  his  mind; 


3o  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

it  is  followed  out  in  its  bearings;  it  receives  wide  and 
ample  application.  In  fact,  it  would  hardly  be  too  much 
to  say  that  human  nature,  as  a  whole,  is  contemplated  in 
the  light  of  this  thought ;  the  principle  is  applied,  not  as 
an  isolated  truth,  but  in  such  a  way  as  to  establish  unity 
in  life  and  duty.  Here  also,  as  in  later  works,  the  thought 
advances  not  in  line  but  in  column  ;  there  is  a  certain 
massiveness  in  the  movement,  which  even  tawdry  rhetoric 
cannot  wholly  conceal.  In  the  style  itself — with  all  its 
blemishes — there  is  the  promise  of  excellence.  In  many 
ways  it  presents  a  palpable  contrast  to  the  productions  of 
ordinary  lads  of  the  same  age.  The  relation  between  the 
sentences  is  distinct ;  they  are  not  thrown  together  at 
random.  The  author  has  conceived  in  his  own  mind  the 
effect  which  he  wishes  to  produce  ;  and  he  makes  his 
way,  not  indeed  without  slipping  and  stumbling,  towards  his 
end.  The  sense  of  rhythm  also  is  distinct  ;  the  emphasis 
is  the  same  in  writing  and  in  speech  ;  he  had  already 
begun  to  write  "  with  the  ring  in  his  ears."  One  coinci- 
dence has  a  special  interest.  In  a  fiery  denunciation  of 
priestcraft,  and  all  the  evils  which  were  its  outcome,  he 
quotes  Macaulay's  famous  panegyric  of  the  Puritans.1 
The  same  passage  is  quoted  again  in  the  discourses  on  the 
Epistle  of  James — a  book  left  unfinished  at  his  death — 
with  a  characteristic  qualification  due  to  the  mellowing 
forces  of  age  and  to  the  discipline  of  suffering  and  sorrow  :2 
it  is  a  link  between  his  first  book  and  his  last. 

The  Talents  must  have  found  some  sale — probably 
among  friends  and  the  members  of  the  Tabernacle  Church  ; 
for  when  the  account  was  made  up,  the  balance  due  to  the 
publishers  was  only  a  penny  over  seven  guineas.  But  the 
reviews  were  hostile ;  private  remonstrances,  one  may 
believe,  were  even  more  severe.  The  violence  of  the 
writer  must  have  been  distasteful  to  quiet,  easy-going 
people.  A  touch  of  republicanism,  and  a  hardly  veiled 
antipathy  to  the  State  Church  and  an  hereditary  legislature 
dismayed  the  timid.     His  vehement  indictment  of  Christian 

1    The  Talents,  pp.  83,  84. 
2   The  Epistle  of  James  and  other  Discourses,  pp.  19,  20. 


FROM  ANDOVER  TO  SPRING  HILL  31 

churches  for  their  frigid  formalism  could  not  fail  to  pro- 
voke the  resentment  of  conventional  orthodoxy ;  and 
little  or  no  allowance  was  made  for  the  generous  unwisdom 
of  youth.  Dr.  Campbell,  in  particular,  expressed  his  in- 
dignation without  reserve  ;  and  no  doubt  congratulated 
himself  on  his  discretion  in  refusing  to  send  such  a  fire- 
brand into  the  ministry.  As  for  the  luckless  author,  he  soon 
came  to  regret  that  he  had  ever  ventured  into  print,  and 
several  years  passed  before  he  repeated  the  experiment. 

In  spite  of  these  engrossing  interests  life  at  Leamington 
began  to  open  on  another  side.  There  were  other  things 
in  it,  he  found,  besides  books,  and  platforms,  and  pulpits, 
— things  of  no  slight  importance  too  for  success  in  the 
effective  work  of  the  ministry.  Leamington  was  a  small 
town  ;  the  lines  of  social  cleavage  were  clearly  defined, 
and  for  that  very  reason  those  who  were  associated  in 
church  fellowship  were  drawn  all  the  more  closely  together. 
He  soon  made  friends,  both  among  the  Independents  at 
Spencer  Street  and  the  Baptists  at  Warwick  Street ;  and 
in  some  cases  the  friendship  became  intimate.  His  life 
grew  less  solitary  ;  "  the  kindly  human  voice "  began  to 
make  itself  heard.  He  soon  found  himself  at  home  in 
many  houses,  and  made  companions  among  young  people 
of  his  own  age.  In  many  ways — in  spite  of  uncongenial 
duties  and  unsatisfied  aspirations — it  was  a  happy  time ; 
and  in  the  years  that  followed  he  often  recalled  "  the 
sermons  and  the  suppers  in  the  house  on  the  Lower  Parade," 
and  the  evenings  spent  with  his  friend  George  Ebbs 
and  his  two  sisters,  who  often  took  the  visitor  to  task  for 
the  whims  and  extravagances  of  youth.  And  not  far 
away  at  Wasperton — screened  by  a  genuine  Warwickshire 
orchard,  isled  in  an  undulating  sea  of  pasture,  and  with 
outlying  fields  that  fringe  the  still,  deep  pools  of  Avon — 
was  a  farmhouse  in  which  he  was  always  welcome  ;  a  true 
abode  of  peace,  rich  in  the  affections  and  virtues  that  are 
the  beauty  and  the  strength  and  the  security  of  life  ;  for 
Mrs.  Garner  had  the  intelligence,  the  sympathy,  the  grace 
of  manner  and  spirit,  which  exert  a  more  universal  and  a 
more   enduring  charm   than    brilliancy   or   beauty.      And 


32  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

there  were  others — many  others,  whose  names  it  is  needless 
to  recall — that  did  their  part  in  planing  down  the  rough 
excrescences  of  character,  steadily  and  imperceptibly  as 
the  boulders  are  shaped  and  smoothed  in  the  bed  of  a 
mountain  stream.  It  was  in  the  main  the  brightest  and 
happiest  period  of  his  youth  ;  and  while  yielding  to  the 
delights  of  social  intercourse,  he  was  not  swept  off  his  feet 
by  these  new  forces.  He  lost  none  of  his  earnestness. 
"  He  was  then," — says  Miss  Cash, — "  though  so  young,  an 
influence  that  all  who  came  in  contact  with  him  felt ;  we 
looked  up  to  him  as  a  kind  of  seer  ;  many  of  us  owe  to 
him  our  strong  Nonconformist  principles  ;  but  over  and 
above  all,  I  remember  his  great  devoutness,  and  how  the 
early  prayer  meeting  on  Sunday  morning  used  to  be 
crowded  when  it  was  known  that  he  would  be  there." 
Another  friend — Mr.  H.  A.  Glass — helps  to  complete  the 
impression,  and  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  him  as  he  ap- 
peared in  a  less  serious  mood. 

I  have  never  forgotten  the  go  and  the  fun  and  the  brilliance 
with  which  he  conducted  the  old  domestic  fireside  game  of  the 
"  Family  Coach  "  at  a  large  party.  Knowing  nearly  every  one  and 
their  idiosyncrasies,  he  would  prepare  a  sketch  of  the  disasters 
that  befell  the  coach  and  its  passengers  which  resulted  in  un- 
bounded merriment,  as  one  after  another  had  to  rise  and  turn 
round  at  the  succession  of  keen  humorous  personal  hits,  as 
delightful  to  the  recipients  of  the  allusions  as  to  the  laughing 
assembly.  But  he  had  not  the  personal  appearance  of  fun. 
Tall,  slim,  long  black  hair,  with  a  moustache  and  beard  already 
darkening  on  his  face — such  was  he  to  the  eye  before  he  was 
out  of  his  teens. 

A  few  extracts  from  his  letters  will  show  what  other 
interests  relieved  the  monotony  of  school  work. 

To  Mr.  Hugh  Maltby 

Royal  Leamington  Spa, 
May  8,  1846. 

1  have  been  reading  lately,  or  rather  devouring,  the  mis- 
cellaneous works  of  Robert  Hall.  What  a  splendid  fellow !  I 
can't  make  him   out.      His  writings  have  a  charm,  a  power,  a 


FROM  ANDOVER  TO  SPRING  HILL  33 

spirit  decidedly  peculiar.  As  a  thinker  he  was  the  most  pro- 
found, as  a  logician  the  most  correct,  as  a  writer  the  most  chaste, 
elegant,  energetic,  that  I  have  yet  become  acquainted  with. 
Binney  is  very  fine,  magnificent  at  times,  but  there  is  no  de- 
pendence to  be  placed  upon  him.  Hall  was  always  eloquent. 
I  am  looking  with  exceeding  interest  to  Bubier  of  Brixton  Hill. 
If  he  does  not  become  the  first  preacher  of  his  day  I  shall  be 
disappointed.  I  know  of  no  man  except  Binney  whose  sermons 
at  all  approach  to  his  in  the  peculiar  talent  Bubier  manifests. 

I  really  do  envy  your  proximity  to  Exeter  Hall.  I  have  often 
calculated  on  attending  the  May  meetings  but,  as  you  know, 
have  hitherto  been  disappointed.  Well,  I  suppose  our  hopes 
are  fulfilled  sometimes  in  the  course  of  one's  life  as  well  as 
disappointed,  so  that  I  may  yet  hope  to  be  present  between  this 
and  death. 

Royal  Leamington  Spa, 
May  1846. 

You  are  still  an  advocate  of  the  "Alliance."1  I  wish  I  were  ; 
and  to  tell  the  truth,  about  a  week  since,  my  mind  was  half 
persuaded — nay  more  than  half,  I'm  sure — that  it  is  a  good  thing, 
but  some  of  your  Wesleyan  brethren  completely  knocked  it  out 
of  me.  I  was  present  at  one  of  their  tea  meetings  on  Monday 
evening,  and  in  the  course  of  the  proceedings  a  local  preacher 
gave  an  account  of  the  Sunday  Schools  in  the  Circuit,  which  on 
the  whole  are  prosperous.  He  said,  however,  "  we  labour 
under  considerable  disadvantage  at  Cubbington.  The  clergy- 
man refuses  to  permit  the  children  to  enjoy  the  advantage  of 
day  school  instruction,  except  they  likewise  go  to  the  Church 
Sunday  School.  I  trust  the  time  will  come  when  the  Wesleyans 
will  likewise  have  a  school  with  an  efficient  master  and  mistress 
in  that  village."  Now,  as  near  as  possible,  I  have  given  you  the 
words  of  the  speaker.  Is  there  anything  un-Christian,  unlovely 
here? 

When  he  had  finished,  the  chairman  rose  and  began  :  "  I  must 
be  permitted  to  say  one  word.  I  do  not  think  we  have  any  right 
to  make  reference  to  the  conduct  of  clergymen  at  such  a  meeting 
as  this."  The  previous  speaker  rose  with  just  indignation,  and 
said :  "  I  feel  called  upon  to  defend  myself.  I  do  not  think  it 
right  that  we  should  leave  our  labour  to  attack  others,  but  when 
Wesleyan  Methodists  are  interfered  with  in  their  work  by  others, 
I  trust  they  will  ever  defend  that  part  of  the  vineyard  which  the 
Lord  hath  committed  to  their  hands."  The  meeting  gave  a 
burst  of  applause  in  true  Wesleyan  style,  in  which  I  joined  most 

1  The  Evangelical  Alliance. 
D 


Aged  17. 


34  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

heartily  and  enthusiastically.  Several  speakers  followed,  and 
the  two  or  three  that  made  reference  to  the  subject  were  of 
one  mind  with  the  chairman.  I  have  also  read  again  a  very 
powerful  article  in  the  Eclectic  against  the  Alliance.  All  here 
are  in  favour  of  it,  and  although  I  fear  it  will  retard  some  of  the 
most  important  movements  among  us,  I  think  that  having  stood 
for  a  month  or  two,  all  will  come  to  the  ground. 

Royal  Leamington  Spa, 
i,th  August  1846. 

What  am  I  doing  ?  You  would  like  me  to  answer  the 
question,  I  dare  say.  Well,  in  the  first  place,  I  am  trying  to  get 
up  a  "Leamington  Royal  Literary  and  Scientific  Institution."1 
I  have  written  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  our  local  paper  on  the 
subject,  and  intend  to  bring  the  matter  before  the  book  society 
to  which  I  belong  at  its  meeting  to-morrow  evening.  Mr.  Miiller 
has  been  trying  to  get  one  up,  but  he  has  endeavoured  to  do  it 
by  means  of  great  men's  influence.  Not  having  been  able  to  do 
this  to  the  extent  he  wished,  he  has  not  put  his  thoughts  into 
practice.  It  is  my  intention  to  appeal  to  "  the  people  "  if  I  can 
secure  the  columns  of  the  Courier.  This,  indeed,  is  the  most 
powerful  means  which  I  can  employ.  I  have,  of  course,  but  a 
small  influence  in  either  my  own  or  the  Baptist  church,  from 
the  recency  of  the  time  at  which  I  came  to  the  town.  Mr. 
Pope  is  about  leaving,  so  that  I  cannot  look  much  to  him.  Mr. 
Winslow  is  so  much  engaged  that  I  cannot  hope  to  make  him 
more  than  an  occasional  auxiliary.  And  with  regard  to  the 
other  influential  men  in  the  town,  I  am  not  on  terms  of  sufficient 
intimacy  to  justify  confident  application  to  them.  But  while 
my  personal  influence  may  be  little,  I  flatter  myself  that  my 
letters  in  the  Courier  would  be  at  least  as  powerful  as  the 
"leaders,"  which  are  of  a  very  poor  character  generally.  If 
then  I  can  write  in  such  a  fashion  that  my  letters  will  not  suffer 
by  comparison  with  the  general  matter  of  the  paper,  there  is 
some  hope  of  success.  All  the  difficulty  is  with  regard  to  the 
courtesy  of  the  editor.  However,  I  must  hope.  It  would  be  a 
pleasant  thing  to  originate  a  good  Institution  of  this  kind  in  such 
a  town  as  "the  Spa."  None  can  estimate  the  amount  of  good 
it  would  most  probably  effect. 

So  passed  his  first  twelve  months  at  Leamington.  He 
had  settled  down  in  the  place,  and  had  taken  root  there, 
when  a  sudden  change  occurred  which  seriously  affected 
his  prospects.      At  the  end  of  1  846,  or  early  in  the  new 

1  The  plan  was  successful,  and  the  Institution  lasted  for  some  years. 


FROM  ANDOVER  TO  SPRING  HILL  35 

year,  Mr.  Muller,  who  for  some  time  had  been  involved 
in  financial  difficulties,  failed,  and  left  Leamington.  If 
any  arrangement  was  made  with  the  creditors,  the  "  good- 
will "  of  the  school,  it  would  seem,  was  not  reckoned 
among  the  assets  ;  for  the  young  assistant — who  certainly 
had  no  means  to  purchase  it — at  once  took  charge,  and 
carried  on  the  classes  for  a  few  months.  But  it  did  not 
need  any  long  experience  to  convince  him  that  success  was 
out  of  the  question.  Everything  was  against  him  :  his 
youth  in  itself  would  be  regarded  as  a  disqualification  by 
most  parents  ;  the  misfortunes  of  his  predecessor  could  not 
fail  to  weaken  his  position  ;  clerical  influence,  too,  was 
exerted  to  draw  away  some  possible  pupils.  His  own  in- 
clinations, also,  were  impelling  him  in  another  direction. 
Mr.  Pope,  his  pastor  at  Spencer  Street,  encouraged  him  to 
enter  the  ministry  ;  and  at  his  suggestion  Dale  wrote  to  the 
Rev.  T.  R.  Barker,  the  resident  tutor  of  Spring  Hill  College, 
Birmingham,  applying  for  admission.  At  first  it  seemed 
as  if  the  plan  would  come  to  nothing.  Money  difficulties 
stood  in  the  way.  The  college  had  no  funds  to  help  a 
student  to  defray  his  personal  expenses  ;  the  candidate 
in  this  case  had  no  money  of  his  own,  and  could  not  look 
to  his  family  for  any  substantial  assistance.  Matters 
were  at  a  deadlock,  and  must  have  remained  there, 
but  for  the  intervention  of  Mrs.  Cash  and  other  friends 
at  Leamington,  who  joined  together  to  guarantee  the 
amount  that  was  needed — about  ^20  a  year — until  such 
time  as  he  could  provide  for  himself  by  fees  for  occasional 
help  in  the  pulpit.  And  it  is  shown  by  more  than  one 
testimony  that  Dale  regarded  her  as  the  person  who, 
humanly  speaking,  had  opened  for  him  the  way  into 
the  ministry,  and  had  put  it  in  his  power  to  qualify  him- 
self for  his  life  work.  They  were  already  on  terms  of 
intimacy  before  he  left  Leamington.  He  was  a  frequent 
visitor  at  her  house  ;  he  was  the  friend  of  her  children. 
During  his  college  course  he  often  spent  a  part  of  his 
vacation  as  her  guest,  and  his  letters  show  that  he  was 
accustomed  to  turn  to  her  for  sympathy  and  advice. 
Her    influence    must    have    been    of   the    greatest    value 


36  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

during  the  period  of  growth  and  development.  Her 
intellectual  force  was  sufficient  to  ensure  respect  ;  and  in 
experience,  both  moral  and  spiritual,  a  young  man  could 
have  had  no  surer  guide.  She  did  not  hesitate  to  speak 
her  mind  freely,  or  to  reprove  where  reproof  seemed 
called  for ;  but  she  was  patient,  and  in  her  personal 
relations  neither  exacting  nor  ready  to  take  offence. 
How  much  the  churches  owe  to  women  of  her  type  will 
never  be  fully  known  :  they  make  men — and  they  help 
to  make  movements. 

Set  free  from  this  difficulty,  Dale  renewed  his  applica- 
tion for  admission  to  the  college  ;  and  after  examination 
was  accepted  as  a  student  on  probation  for  the  autumn 
session  of  1847.  It  was  not  without  trepidation  that  he 
made  his  appearance  before  the  Board  of  Education. 
His  classical  knowledge,  he  knew,  was  weak,  and  he  was 
afraid  that  he  might  not  succeed  in  reaching  the  required 
standard.  However,  he  acquitted  himself  successfully  in 
the  classical  papers,  and  also  satisfied  the  Committee  in 
the  cross-examination  that  followed:1  he  describes  his 
experiences  to  Mr.  Offord  in  a  letter  written  a  few  days 
later. 

To  Mr.  Offord 

2yd  September  1847. 

Their  cross-examination  related  to  all  sorts  of  odd  things, 
such  as  smoking  and  election,  courtship  and  justification  by 
faith,  obedience  to  college  rules  and  sanctification,  promises  of 
early  rising  and  the  perseverance  of  the  saints.  After  the  close 
of  this  ordeal,  John  Angeil  James,  with  the  full  round  tone  and 
wave-like  diction  which  you  can  doubtless  fancy,  informed  me 
that  I  had  been  successful — that  I  had  been  "  received  cordially 
and  unanimously  "  ;  he  wished,  he  said,  "  to  lay  special  stress  on 
the  adverb  cordially."  I  am  now  therefore  on  my  three  months' 
probation,  and  have  every  prospect  of  a  pleasant  six  years' 
sojourn  in  the  walls  of  Spring  Hill.  You  will,  perhaps,  be  curi- 
ous to  know  something  of  my  position  and  circumstances. 

Upon  coming  to  the  college  I  was,  as  all  juniors  are,  put 
into  one  room,  which  was  to  serve  as  my  study  and  bedroom  ; 

1  The  "  plan  "  of  his  "  trial  "  sermon  is  given  in  the  appendix  at  the  close 
of  this  chapter. 


FROM  ANDOVER  TO  SPRING  HILL  37 

the  said  room  being  without  carpet,  without  table,  having  in  it  a 
high  deal  desk  and  stool  to  match,  a  reed-bottomed  chair,  a  deal 
chest  of  drawers  and  a  small  press  bedstead.  By  a  singular  good 
chance,  however,  I  was  enabled  to  exchange  with  one  of  my 
seniors,  and  am  now  in  possession  of  two  rooms ;  the  bedroom 
being  nicely  furnished,  and  the  study  under  the  process  of  im- 
provement. The  rooms  which  I  now  occupy  have  been  generally 
reserved  for  a  senior  student,  who  has  occupied  them  as  a  privi- 
lege during  the  last  year  or  two  of  his  college  term. 

We  are  rung  up  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  all  the  year 
round,  and  generally  have  one  class  to  attend  before  breakfast 
two  or  three  times  a  week.  The  interval  between  breakfast  and 
dinner  at  2.30  is  occupied  by  sundry  lectures  and  classes; 
between  2.30  and  5.30  by  various  classes  and  private  study. 
After  tea,  till  prayers  at  nine,  of  course  we  have  to  work 
privately,  and  though  the  rule  is  a  dead  letter  we  are  required 
to  extinguish  fire  and  candle  at  10.30. 

One  incident  he  does  not  mention.  When  he  ap- 
peared before  the  Board,  Mr.  James,  who  presided,  asked 
him  as  his  first  question  whether  he  could  define  the 
difference  between  justification  and  sanctification.  At 
the  time  he  was  very  indignant :  such  a  question  seemed 
to  him  positively  childish.  "  I  was  ready " — he  said  to 
a  friend,  when  he  had  grown  older  and  could  laugh  at  his 
want  of  sense — "  to  be  asked  anything  concerning  free- 
will and  predestination,  or  some  deep  thing,  and  thought 
it  positively  insulting  to  my  understanding."  But  what- 
ever he  felt,  he  had  wisdom  enough  to  keep  his  anger  to 
himself. 


APPENDIX 

PLAN    OF    A    SERMON    SUBMITTED    TO    THE    COMMITTEE 
OF    SPRING    HILL    COLLEGE 

The  cross  of  Christ,   by  which  the  world  is  crucified  to  me  and   I  to  the 
world. — Galatians  vi.  14. 

Subject :   Crucifixion  to  the  World — what  is  it,  and  how 
effected  ? 

Consider — 

I.  What  it  is  to  be  crucified  to  the  world — as  illustrated  by 

the  life  of  Paul  the  Apostle  and  the  life  of  Paul  the 
Persecutor. 

II.  How  the  Cross  effects  this : 

(a)  By  calling  up  a  system  of  affections  towards  Christ 
which  necessarily  weaken  the  influence  of  old  world- 
ward  affections — just  as  any  ruling  passion  weakens 
all  other  affections. 

(b)  By  connecting  the  soul  by  the  strongest  possible  ties 
with  Him  whose  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world. 

(c)  More  directly,  by  creating  positive  hostility  to 
principles  and  habits  which  made  Christ's  sufferings 
necessary. 

(d)  By  laying  the  soul  under  obligations  of  the  most 
weighty  and  affecting  kind  to  pursue  a  course  in 
direct  hostility  to  whatever  belongs  to  "the  world." 

(e)  By  laying  a  foundation  for  the  direct  work  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  upon  the  heart. 

Practical  Conclusions.1 

1.  No  wonder  that   the  Apostle    "gloried   in   the    cross    of 

Christ." 

2.  The  highest  spiritual  attainments  are  arrived  at  by  contact 

with  and  obedience  to  the  grand  elementary  facts  of  the 
gospel :  Christ — not  philosophising  about  Christ — is  the 
"Bread  of  life." 

3.  If  crucifixion  to   the  world   is   the  natural  and   intended 

result  of  a  true  relation  to  Christ  crucified,  there  should 
be  solemn  questioning  on  the  part  of  some  "whether 
they  be  in  the  faith." 

1  In  the  second  of  the  "  Practical  Conclusions"  we  may  recognise  in  germ 
one  of  the  most  characteristic  thoughts  of  his  preaching  in  later  life. 


CHAPTER    III 

COLLEGE    DAYS 

Spring  Hill  College  and  its  staff:  Mr.  Barker,  Mr.  Watts,  Mr.  Henry  Roger?, 
— Fellow-students — Political  life  of  Birmingham — Uphill  work — Christ- 
mas at  College — The  excitements  of  '48 — Binney  and  young  men — George 
Dawson,  his  charm  and  influence — Sense  of  helplessness — Academic 
honours — Mr.  James  in  the  pulpit — Edward  Glanville — Dr.  Baton's 
reminiscences — Summer  vacation — Preaches  at  Carr's  Lane- — Mr.  James, 
growing  intimacy  and  affection — Enters  the  Theological  Class — Helps  to 
found  a  Theological  Society — Spiritual  depression — A  critical  decision — 
Bright,  Cobden,  Miall — The  religious  needs  of  London — Doubt  and  its 
nature — "Gospel  Sermons";  self-defence — Invited  to  a  pastorate  at 
Hanley. 

In  the  autumn  of  1847,  when  Dale  entered  Spring  Hill, 
the  college  had  been  in  existence  for  nine  years.  The 
deed  of  foundation  goes  back  to  an  earlier  date,  but  a 
considerable  period  intervened  before  the  plans  of  the 
founders- — Mr.  George  Storer  Mansfield  and  his  two 
sisters — could  be  carried  out.  Even  after  that  interval 
the  scheme  was  far  from  complete,  and  additional  funds 
were  needed  to  establish  the  college  on  the  scale  that  had 
been  contemplated.  The  original  buildings  on  the  Dudley- 
Road  were  still  in  occupation  ;  for  although  the  site  on 
Moseley  Common — to  which  the  college  was  removed  in 
the  year  1856 — had  already  been  purchased,  the  money 
required  for  the  cost  of  the  new  buildings  had  yet  to  be 
raised.  Meanwhile  the  staff  and  the  students  had  to  be 
content  with  temporary  accommodation.  The  position 
and  the  arrangements  of  the  place  were  by  no  means 
satisfactory.  The  college  was  divided  by  the  road  into 
two  distinct    portions.       On  one  side  stood  the  resident 


40  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

tutor's  house,  the  lecture-rooms,  the  dining-hall,  and  six 
sets  of  students'  rooms  ;  on  the  other  side,  six  cottages 
were  occupied  by  twenty-four  students.  The  natural 
result  was  that  the  men  found  themselves  divided  into  two 
sets  :  those  on  the  "  house  -  side,"  as  it  was  called,  had 
comparatively  little  intercourse  with  their  fellow-students 
over  the  way  ;  two  communities,  one  smaller  and  the 
other  larger,  lived  side  by  side.  Nor  was  this  the  only 
drawback.  Birmingham  had  already  begun  to  expand  : 
long  lines  of  streets  were  pushing  out  from  the  centre  in 
all  directions,  and  the  spaces  between  were  steadily  filling 
up.  The  college  had  not  yet  been  submerged  by  the 
advancing  tide,  but  its  respite  was  short ;  and  though  a 
few  fields  still  lay  round  about  it,  the  grass  and  the  trees 
were  begrimed  with  the  smoke  and  dust  of  the  town. 
Nothing  indeed  could  have  been  less  attractive  in  itself 
than  a  building  so  situated,  and  already  under  the  shadow 
of  impending  removal  ;  and  it  was  but  natural  that  the 
feeling  of  the  students  should  be  personal  rather  than 
corporate,  and  that  they  should  think  very  much  more  of 
the  men  who  taught  them  than  of  the  institution  to  which 
they  belonged.  The  influence  of  the  college,  therefore, 
depended  largely,  if  not  solely,  on  the  character  and  the 
ability  of  its  professors.  During  the  years  with  which  we 
are  concerned  it  was  singularly  fortunate  in  the  three  men 
who  filled  its  chairs. 

Two  of  them — Mr.  Barker  and  Mr.  Watts — though 
well  qualified  for  their  work,  were  not  in  any  sense  men 
of  pre-eminent  ability.  Mr.  Barker — the  resident  tutor, 
on  whom  the  burden  of  administration  mainly  rested — was 
an  excellent  classical  scholar,  and  for  Hebrew  and  Syriac 
he  had  a  genuine  passion.  His  character  was  as  high  as 
his  attainments.  But  a  certain  shyness  and  restraint  made 
it  difficult  for  the  students,  until  they  had  learned  to  know 
him,  adequately  to  appreciate  the  tenderness  and  simplicity 
of  his  nature.  He  was  scrupulously  fair,  inflexibly  just ; 
but  he  always  said  less  than  he  felt,  and  promised  less 
than  he  performed.  Outwardly,  he  was  formal,  punctilious, 
almost  frig-id  ;  but  in  time,  when  his  students  saw  through 


COLLEGE  DAYS  41 

the  manner  and  found  the  man,  they  loved  and  trusted 
him  with  their  whole  heart. 

Mr.  Watts,  the  theological  tutor,  was  of  an  altogether 
different  type.  His  accomplishments  were  varied.  He 
cared  for  art,  was  an  excellent  German  scholar,  and  a 
"  serious  student  of  Dante."  His  theological  training  had 
been  wider  than  was  then  common  ;  for  after  leaving 
Homerton  he  had  studied  under  Tholuck  at  the  University 
of  Halle.  In  some  respects  he  was  an  excellent  teacher. 
If  he  had  no  genius  for  dogma,  in  exegesis  he  was 
thoroughly  at  home,  although  he  was  apt  to  heap  up 
authorities  until  the  passage  which  he  was  interpreting 
was  buried  beneath  the  mass  of  material.  But  he  had 
one  supreme  merit  as  a  teacher — an  absolute  and  un- 
compromising intellectual  integrity. 

He  made  it  a  matter  of  conscience  to  discover  and  to  main- 
tain the  real  thought  of  the  writer.  No  doctrinal  considerations 
could  ever  tempt  him  to  tamper  with  the  text.  He  had  formed 
that  habit  of  "  detachment  "  which  characterises  the  best  German 
exegetical  scholars ;  it  was  his  business  to  learn  what  his  author 
meant,  not  to  put  a  meaning  upon  him  in  the  interest  of  any 
theological  doctrine.  The  doctrine  might  be  infinitely  sacred 
and  dear  to  his  own  heart ;  if  so,  it  was  too  sacred  and  too  dear 
to  require  or  to  suffer  false  service ;  in  any  case,  it  was  his  duty 
to  find  his  author's  meaning.1 

In  other  branches  of  his  work  he  was  less  efficient ;  for 
the  college,  like  all  such  colleges,  was  undermanned,  and 
he  had  too  many  subjects  to  deal  with  ;  some  he  left  un- 
touched ;  others  he  attempted,  but  without  any  mastery  or 
grip.  Moreover,  it  was  always  possible  to  turn  him  aside 
from  the  course  of  his  lecture  into  conversation.  He  was 
eager  to  answer  questions  or  to  remove  difficulties,  and  so 
absorbed  in  his  subject  that  it  never  seemed  to  occur  to 
him  that  questions  might  not  be  altogether  ingenuous, 
and  that  problems  were  propounded  to  conceal  ignorance 
rather  than  to  increase  knowledge. 

Henry    Rogers,  the  other  tutor,   stood  on  a  different 

1  R.  W.  Dale,  Mansfield  College,  Oxford:  its  Origin  and  Opening. 
London  :  James  Clarke  and  Co.,  1890,  p.  14. 


42  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

level  ;  and  with  Dale  his  influence  was  paramount.  He 
was  already  known  as  a  contributor  to  the  Edinburgh 
Reviezv  in  its  most  brilliant  days.  His  articles  were  read 
with  delight  by  such  critics  as  Macaulay,  Stephen,  and 
Whately.  On  two  occasions  he  was  invited,  and  indeed 
urged,  to  undertake  the  editorship  of  the  great  Whig 
review.  Some  of  his  most  effective  work  was  produced 
while  he  was  at  Spring  Hill,  and  from  young  men  his 
reputation  in  the  outside  world  could  not  fail  to  win 
exceptional  respect.  Even  had  his  character  been  less 
noble,  his  influence  would  have  been  great ;  but  the 
simplicity  of  his  nature,  the  freshness  of  his  mind,  and  his 
broad  human  sympathy  enlarged  and  extended  his  power. 
The  subjects  allotted  to  him — with  the  exception  of 
mathematics,  which  at  Spring  Hill  were  studied  only  in 
the  more  elementary  branches — were  precisely  those  that 
showed  him  at  his  best.  Logic,  literature,  history — which 
were  assigned  to  the  first  two  years  of  the  college  course 
— admitted,  and  indeed  provoked,  discussion  ;  and  it  was 
in  this  informal  method  of  instruction  that  he  was  most 
effective.  In  addition  to  the  regular  work  of  the  class,  it 
was  his  custom  for  many  years  to  invite  the  senior  students 
to  meet  him  in  his  private  room  on  two  afternoons  in  the 
week,  to  read  with  him  a  succession  of  philosophical 
authors.  The  class  was  small — as  a  rule  not  more  than 
six  or  seven  in  number.  Attendance  was  not  compulsory  ; 
but  those  who  attended  at  all,  attended  regularly :  men 
went  because  they  wished,  not  because  they  were  compelled 
to  go.  The  Ethics  of  Aristotle ;  the  Apologia,  the 
Theaetetus,  and  the  Republic  of  Plato  ;  Descartes'  Method ; 
Bacon's  Novum  Organum  ;  and  in  some  years  Pascal,  and 
Leibnitz,  and  Spinoza,  were  the  books  that  were  thus 
studied.  These  lectures  are  described  in  Dale's  memoir 
of  his  friend  and  master. 

Mr.  Rogers's  delight  in  vigorous  discussion,  his  quick  wit, 
graceful  fancy,  and  alert  memory,  made  these  very  informal 
classes  as  agreeable  as  they  were  profitable.  He  allowed,  and 
even  encouraged,  considerable  discursiveness.  When  reading 
Plato,  the  conversation  often  drifted  suddenly  from  the  ancient 


COLLEGE  DAYS  43 

antagonists  of  Socrates  to  the  modern  antagonists  of  the  Christian 
faith ;  whatever  difficulties  any  of  the  men  felt  about  miracles, 
or  about  the  scientific  objections  to  the  early  parts  of  the  Old 
Testament,  were  frankly  argued,  and  were  the  subjects  of  keen 
debate.  When  his  Eclipse  of  Faith  appeared,  those  of  his 
students  who  had  been  at  his  afternoon  readings  for  the  previous 
two  years,  discovered  that  the  imaginary  conversations  in  that 
book  bore  distinct  traces  of  the  very  real  and  ardent  debates  in 
which  they  had  tried  their  strength  against  their  tutor. 

His  knowledge  of  literature  and  his  delicate  appreciation  of 
beauty  of  literary  form  added  a  great  charm  to  his  lectures.  He 
was  always  very  resolute  in  making  sure  that  his  men  had  done 
the  work  he  had  given  out — woe  to  the  idler  who  was  not  ready 
with  his  tale  of  bricks  !  but  except  in  his  mathematical  classes  it 
was  never  very  difficult  to  turn  him  aside  from  the  direct  track 
of  his  teaching  to  a  dissertation  on  the  style  of  Pascal  or  Plato, 
of  Locke  or  South,  of  Addison,  Swift,  or  Goldsmith,  of  Burke  or 
Paley  \  a  question  innocently  interjected  which  looked  in  the 
direction  of  any  of  these  great  writers  was  fatal ;  he  rose  to  it  as 
a  hungry  trout,  in  the  dusk  of  evening,  rises  to  a  favourite  fly.1 

Close  contact  with  an  intellect  of  such  originality  and 
force  is  one  of  the  most  enduring  benefits  that  the  student 
can  enjoy.  To  live  with  a  man  who  lives  with  the 
immortals,  who  has  advanced  from  youth  to  manhood  in 
such  converse  with  their  spirits  that  intimacy  and  affec- 
tion deepening  year  by  year  have  turned  the  dead  volumes 
into  living  friends  ;  to  catch  from  him  the  same  ardour  of 
admiration  and  passion  of  delight  is  a  rare  felicity,  a  life- 
long blessing.  It  would  not  be  difficult,  perhaps,  to  trace 
back  some  of  Dale's  convictions  to  the  personal  influence 
under  which  his  college  days  were  spent  ;  though  to  speak 
with  assurance  about  the  growth  of  opinion  is  always 
perilous.  Even  when,  like  Newman,  a  man  unlocks  his 
own  heart,  and  attempts  to  read  its  history,  he  is  prone 
to  mislead  himself;  and  for  others  the  problem  is  even 
more  intricate.  But  about  the  influence  of  Mr.  Rogers  in 
shaping  his  pupils'  literary  sympathies  there  can  be  little 
doubt.  In  the  matter  of  style  he  had  much  to  unlearn. 
"  Your  style,  Mr.  Dale,  is  too  Asiatic,"  said   Mr.  Watts,  in 

1  "Memoir  of  H.  Rogers,"  pp.  xxiv,  xxv,  in  The  Superhuman  Origin  of 
the  Bibte,  new  edition,  1893. 


44  LIFE  OF   DR.  DALE 

criticising  one  of  his  early  sermons.  Mr.  Rogers  taught 
him  what  models  he  should  study  ;  and  the  author  of  The 
Eclipse  of  Faith  and  Greyson's  Letters  was  a  model  him- 
self. From  him  Dale  caught  that  delight  in  literary 
excellence  which  he  carried  with  him  through  life — the 
strenuous  resolve  to  aim  at  perfection  exhibited  in  his  own 
work,  the  dignity  and  simplicity  of  his  own  style,  to  attain 
which  he  spared  himself  no  pains.  It  was  through  Mr. 
Rogers  also  that  he  first  came  to  admire  the  genius  of 
Burke  ;  the  greatness  of  Butler — whom  Mr.  Rogers  en- 
throned above  all — he  had  already  discovered  for  himself. 
This  admiration  for  Burke,  which  began  at  college,  lasted 
on  into  his  latest  years.  He  was  rarely  a  good  sleeper  ; 
at  night  he  often  lay  awake  for  hours  together,  and  on  the 
shelves  above  the  bed,  or  upon  the  chair  at  its  side,  stood 
a  pile  of  books — poets,  historians — Wordsworth,  Arnold, 
Froude  ;  some  of  the  great  French  masters  of  style — 
Pascal  or  Sainte-Beuve  ;  but  invariably,  year  after  year,  a 
volume  or  two  of  Burke  in  the  familiar  red  covers  might 
be  found  there.  The  others  came  and  went ;  theirs  was 
a  transitory  reign  ;  but  Burke  remained,  a  familiar  friend, 
whom  no  vicissitude  of  time  or  circumstance  could  dis- 
possess. 

In  most  cases  what  a  man  learns  in  the  lecture-room  is 
but  a  part — and  the  smaller  part — of  his  college  education. 
His  teachers,  in  the  truest  and  widest  sense,  are  the  men  of 
his  own  age,  whose  thought  and  life  he  shares.  To  a 
certain  extent  this  would  hold  good  at  Spring  Hill,  though 
the  society  there  was  too  limited  to  give  such  influences 
their  full  force.  During  the  years  1847-52,  the  number 
of  students  in  residence  never  rose  above  twenty-one,  and 
at  one  period  fell  as  low  as  fifteen.  Dr.  Eustace  Conder, 
till  then  the  most  distinguished  alumnus  of  the  foundation, 
had  already  completed  his  course  ;  but  among  Dale's  con- 
temporaries were  several  men  who  subsequently  rose  to 
eminence  in  the  Congregational  ministry — Dr.  Paton  of 
Nottingham  ;  the  Rev.  R.  A.  Redford  ;  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Green,  and  others  :  the  Rev.  P.  C.  Barker — now  Vicar  of 
Priddy — a  son   of  the   resident  tutor,  was  admitted  with 


COLLEGE  DAYS  45 

him  on  the  same  day.  His  closest  friend,  however,  was 
the  Rev.  Edward  Glanville,  who  died  after  a  few  years' 
service  in  the  ministry.  The  arrangement  of  the  college 
buildings,  as  already  described,  divided  the  men  into  two 
sets,  and  Dale  lived  with  four  or  five  others  on  the  "  house- 
side  "  of  the  college.  With  none  of  these  except  Glanville 
had  he  much  intercourse  ;  and  after  his  second  year, 
when  his  intimacy  with  Glanville  had  become  settled,  he 
rarely  crossed  the  road.  And  so  it  happened  that  he 
himself  did  not  exert  the  influence  at  college  which  his 
character  and  ability  might  naturally  have  commanded, 
and  that  he  in  his  turn  was  influenced  by  his  companions 
to  a  comparatively  slight  extent.  Other  causes  helped 
to  increase  the  isolation.  He  was  always  subject  to  fits 
of  depression  ;  and  during  his  college  days,  the  pressure 
of  work  and  the  moral  strain  under  which  he  lived  con- 
firmed this  habit  of  mind.  More  than  once  he  speaks  of 
"  the  strange,  morbid  gloominess "  with  which  he  had  to 
contend.  He  fought  against  it  with  dogged  pertinacity, 
but  when  the  cloud  descended,  he  had  to  fight  alone  and 
in  the  dark  :  friends  could  do  little  to  help  him,  though 
he  was  always  grateful  for  such  aid  as  they  could  give. 
At  the  beginning  of  his  course,  moreover,  he  seems  to 
have  affected  an  outward  coldness  and  reserve  in  the 
general  society  of  the  place  which  got  him  the  name  of 
"  the  Jesuit "  among  those  who  did  not  understand  his 
real  character  and  disposition.  But  if  there  was  little 
intimacy  between  himself  and  others,  there  was  no  lack  of 
respect,  and  certainly  no  hostility.  Mr.  Shalders,  a  fellow- 
student,  says  he  was  "  a  favourite,  generally  speaking,  of 
all.  He  had  an  ear  for  every  one  of  them  ;  never  snubbed 
the  slowest,  nor  the  fastest,  but  had  a  kind  tongue."  Mr. 
Barker's  testimony  is  to  the  same  effect :  "Not  a  single 
fellow-student  during  those  six  years  bore  him  malice  or 
had  any  grudge  against  him." 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  life  of  the  students 
at  Spring  Hill  in  those  days  was  by  no  means  confined 
to  the  college  and  its  interests.  They  were  in  the  town 
and  of  the  town:   in  its  excitements  and   activities  they 


46  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

had  their  part.  And  as  a  preparation  for  becoming 
leaders  of  men,  such  contact  with  the  life  of  a  great 
community  brought  some  compensation  for  the  lack  of 
seclusion,  beauty,  and  repose.  Those  were  stirring  years 
in  Birmingham.  The  tumultuous  excitement  that  had 
centred  there  during  the  struggle  for  the  Reform  Bill  of 
1832  had  abated;  but  political  ardour  was  still  intense, 
and  the  energy  that  had  brought  the  town  to  the  front  in 
that  great  constitutional  struggle  still  animated  its  citizens. 
The  Town  Hall — which  every  true  son  of  Birmingham 
regards  as  one,  if  not  the  noblest,  of  its  schools — stood 
at  no  great  distance  from  the  college.  As  yet  its  walls 
had  not  become  indissolubly  associated  with  the  eloquence 
of  John  Bright,  matching  in  simplicity  and  strength  its 
own  Corinthian  columns  ;  but  there  were  local  orators  of 
no  mean  ability  ;  and  from  time  to  time  came  visitors  of 
wide  repute — Emerson,  Kossuth,  Gavazzi,  J.  B.  Gough 
and  Elihu  Burritt,  Feargus  O'Connor,  and  Henry  Vincent. 
Great  town's-meetings,  too,  were  often  held,  at  which  the 
questions  then  agitating  the  nation  were  discussed  by 
leaders  of  both  parties.  Chartism — the  Revolution  ol 
1848,  with  all  the  fears  and  hopes  to  which  it  gave  birth 
— the  Tractarian  Movement  in  all  its  phases  ■ —  Papal 
aggression — and  many  other  matters,  serious  enough  then, 
but  long  since  forgotten,  were  stirring  men's  minds  during 
those  eventful  years.  And  the  Spring  Hill  students,  even 
had  they  wished  it,  could  hardly  have  held  aloof  from  the 
current  of  vigorous  and  turbulent  life  by  which  they  were 
encompassed. 

For  most  young  men  entrance  at  college  marks  a 
transition  from  a  lesser  to  a  larger  freedom  ;  but  with  Dale 
it  was  not  so.  For  some  time  previously  he  had  been 
very  much  his  own  master.  School  duties  had  left  him 
with  a  considerable  amount  of  leisure,  and  at  liberty  to 
preach  or  to  speak  whenever  opportunity  offered.  Now, 
during  the  first  two  years  of  his  course,  vacations  ex- 
cepted, speech  in  public  was  absolutely  forbidden  :  out  of 
the  session  he  might  spend  his  energies  as  he  chose,  but 
during  term-time  he  was  bound  to  obey  the  rule  of  silence. 


COLLEGE  DAYS  47 

At  Leamington,  moreover,  he  had  found  himself  a  person 
of  consideration  in  the  little  circle  of  friends  in  which  he 
moved.  The  younger  people  regarded  him  as  a  coming 
prophet  ;  those  who  were  older  and  cooler,  already  treated 
him  with  unusual  deference.  But  within  the  college 
walls  he  had  to  make  a  new  start — to  begin  the  world 
again  in  a  very  real  sense,  and  to  work  his  way  upwards 
from  below. 

Nor  was  this  all.  He  had  serious  difficulties  to 
contend  with — foes  that  were  not  merely  "of  his  own 
household,"  but  actually  within  himself,  whose  presence 
and  power  he  now  realised  for  the  first  time.  A  lad  who, 
like  Dale,  leaves  school  at  thirteen  has  only  just  begun  to 
learn.  He  has  to  become  his  own  teacher,  and  he  is 
practically  self-educated.  But  no  effort,  no  industry,  can 
make  up  for  the  lack  of  discipline  and  method.  Dale 
felt  the  loss,  and  never  ceased  to  regret  it.  Indeed,  his 
anxiety  in  later  years  to  make  the  endowed  Grammar 
Schools  of  the  country  more  accessible  and  more  efficient 
was  largely  due  to  his  sense  of  the  lasting  injury  which  he 
himself  had  sustained.  Hitherto,  intellectually,  he  had 
been  leading  a  nomadic  life,  revelling  in  its  freshness  and 
freedom.  He  had  read  what  he  liked,  and  how  he  liked. 
When  the  mood  came  upon  him,  he  was  at  liberty  to  push 
onwards  with  the  guide  of  the  hour  through  unexplored 
regions  of  thought,  till  the  impulse  that  spurred  him  lost 
its  force  ;  but  now  he  had  to  put  his  mind  in  harness, 
to  constrain  it  to  tedious  drudgery:  he  had  to  master 
subtleties  of  syntax  and  details  of  accidence — to  plod 
along  "  the  common  road,  the  Appian  way  of  Knowledge," 
as  Sir  Thomas  Browne  calls  it.  In  his  case  such  disci- 
pline was  indispensable.  When  he  entered  college,  he 
had  read  widely  indeed  but  without  much  method.  He 
had  little  Latin  and  less  Greek  ;  his  mathematical  attain- 
ments were  limited  also.  It  was  necessary  to  turn 
schoolboy  again — to  work  under  unwonted  restraints, 
with  fixed  hours  and  appointed  tasks,  subject  to  the 
bondage  of  system  and  of  law.  The  change  was  irksome 
and  irritating  ;  and  he  chafed  at  the  collar.      During  the 


4S  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

first  few  months  some  anxiety  was  felt  as  to  his  ability  to 
bear  a  test  that  must  have  taxed  all  the  resources  of  his 
self-control.  But  he  passed  through  the  trial  victoriously, 
though  not  without  a  struggle.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  it  was  personal  experience  that  led  him  in  after 
years  to  dwell  with  such  persistence  and  vigour  upon 
the  supreme  importance  of  securing  "  a  despotic  control 
over  all  the  intellectual  faculties."  Whether  addressing 
theological  students  at  Yale,  or  schoolboys  at  Mill  Hill, 
he  gives  the  same  advice — to  pay  special  attention  to 
those  subjects  which  they  find  most  repulsive.  With 
half-humorous,  half-serious  exaggeration,  he  went  so  far 
as  to  suggest  that  if  a  teacher  found  among  his  pupils 
one  who  took  an  equal  delight  in  all  the  ordinary  subjects 
of  instruction,  it  would  be  his  duty  to  discover  for  that 
pupil's  special  benefit  a  subject  that  he  would  feel 
offensive  or  intolerable  ;  for  the  object  of  all  teaching, 
in  the  school  and  at  the  university,  is  to  enable  a  man 
to  read,  not  what  he  likes,  but  'what  he  dislikes,  and 
to  develop  all  the  intellectual  energies  in  harmonious 
proportion.  That  he  set  himself  to  act  upon  the 
advice  which  he  gave  to  others  is  a  fact  not  open  to 
question.1 

The  first  year  of  college  life  was  uneventful.  The 
young  student  was  getting  his  foothold  upon  strange 
ground.  When  Christmas  came,  as  "  the  vacation  and 
his  purse  were  both  short,"  he  determined  to  spend  the 
interval  at  Spring  Hill,  in  "  the  dingy,  draughty,  dreary 
college."  The  presence  of  two  or  three  fellow-students 
relieved  the  solitude  ;  and  a  few  weeks  of  "  legal  laziness," 
when  grammar  and  lexicon  might  be  laid  aside  with  an 
easy  conscience,  were  by  no  means  unwelcome.  The 
vacation,  he  tells  a  friend,  "  passed  pleasantly  on  the 
whole "  ;  but  at  the  best  it  cannot  have  been  the  most 
cheerful  of  seasons.  Memories  of  other  days  revived  in 
all  their  strength  ;  and  in  the  absence  of  intimate  and 
familiar  companions  he  set  himself  to  recall  in  imagina- 
tion  the  friends  from   whom   he  was    separated.      So    to 

1    Lectures  on  Preaching,  p.  7.      Address  at  Mill  Hill,  pp.  3,  4. 


COLLEGE  DAYS  49 

dissolve  the  barriers  of  space  and  time,  and  in  solitary 
hours  to  gather  round  him  those  whom  he  loved  from 
distant  lands,  and  from  the  grave  itself,  became  his  habit 
in  later  life  ;  this  is  the  earliest  instance  recorded  of  it. 

The  routine  of  the  following  term  was  broken  by  the 
troubles  in  France.  Early  in  the  year,  Louis  Philippe 
was  driven  from  the  Tuileries,  and  the  French  Republic 
proclaimed.  In  England  the  revolution  was  watched 
with  intense  excitement,  and  at  Birmingham,  as  else- 
where, a  great  meeting  was  held  by  the  Radical  party  to 
express  sympathy  with  the  movement  on  the  Continent. 
Arthur  O'Neil  and  other  Chartists  were  among  the 
speakers  ;  an  address  of  congratulation  was  passed  with 
unbounded  enthusiasm,  and  a  petition  was  endorsed  in 
support  of  "  the  People's  Charter."  This  was  Dale's  first 
experience  of  a  great  political  assembly,  and  his  delight, 
as  may  be  imagined,  was  keen.  Another  incident  of  the 
same  period  is  described  in  one  of  his  letters.  Thomas 
Binney — who,  perhaps,  helped  more  than  any  other  man 
to  modify  the  traditional  method  and  style  of  preaching 
among  Nonconformists — at  the  meeting  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Union  in  May  delivered  an  address,  or  "  oration," 
as  it  was  then  called,  upon  the  mission  of  Congrega- 
tionalists  to  their  times.  It  was  a  new  conception  then, 
and  the  speaker  was  worthy  of  his  theme.  The  subjects 
which  he  discussed,  and  the  frank,  bold  spirit  in  which  he 
dealt  with  them,  were  exactly  such  as  would  appeal  to 
the  sympathy  of  young  men  looking  forward  with  high 
hopes  and  ideals  to  the  ministry  as  their  future  calling. 
When  the  newspaper  containing  the  report  of  the  address 
arrived,  some  half  dozen  of  the  students  took  it  out 
into  the  field  close  by,  and  sat  through  the  summer 
afternoon  beneath  the  trees  listening  to  it  as  it  was 
read  aloud.  "  At  the  close,"  Dale  says,  "  up  sprang 
one  of  the  audience,  and  cried  with  enthusiasm,  Three 
cheers  for  Binney  and  the  young  men  !  I  haven't 
given  such  hearty  cheers,"  he  adds,  "  I  know  not  how 
long." 

The  admiration  here  expressed  for  Binney  indicates 
E 


5o  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

that  Dale  was  already  beginning  to  modify  his  theological 
opinions  ;  for  Binney  was  not  only  a  great  personality  ; 
he  represented  a  movement — a  departure  from  the  limits 
of  conventional  orthodoxy ;  not  a  revolt  against  Evan- 
gelical doctrine  so  much  as  a  repudiation  of  the  formulas 
and  phrases  in  which  Evangelical  doctrines  were  generally 
stated.  This  impression  is  confirmed  by  the  character  of 
the  preaching  by  which  at  that  time  Dale  was  most 
strongly  attracted.  For  many  men  who  were  then  at 
Spring  Hill,  the  Rev.  R.  A.  Vaughan,  the  minister  of 
Steelhouse  Lane,  had  an  irresistible  charm.  Those  who 
have  read  his  Hours  with  the  Mystics — in  which  the  very 
soul  of  the  man  is  mirrored — can  imagine  with  what 
grace  and  tenderness  and  solemn  urgency  he  delivered 
his  message  to  his  people.  But  Dale  was  not  one  of 
those  who  came  under  the  spell  :  he  never  failed,  either 
then  or  afterwards,  to  admire  Mr.  Vaughan's  pre-eminent 
gifts,  and  the  spiritual  power,  that  even  in  a  man  of 
mature  experience  would  have  been  remarkable ;  but 
from  some  cause  or  other,  Mr.  Vaughan's  preaching  never 
"  found  him."  The  sermons  at  Carr's  Lane  were  still 
less  to  his  liking  :  by  them  he  was  actually  repelled.  Mr. 
James,  as  he  soon  discovered,  was  not  a  man  of  exact 
thought.  His  theological  system  was  neither  precise  nor 
profound.  He  was  not  original  ;  and  originality — to  quote 
Dale's  own  words — "  was  the  pearl  of  great  price  :  we  were 
willing  to  sell  all  that  we  had  to  buy  it."  1  Besides  this, 
at  Carr's  Lane,  both  in  the  life  of  the  church  and  in  the 
tone  and  character  of  the  service,  there  was  much  that 
would  be  distasteful  to  the  impetuous  temper  of  youth. 
Some  amount  of  attendance  there  was  exacted  by  college 
custom,  if  not  by  rule  ;  but  Dale,  so  far  as  he  was  free 
to  follow  his  own  inclination,  went  elsewhere.  George 
Dawson  was  the  preacher  of  his  choice.  During  his  first 
two  years  at  Spring  Hill,  he  heard  Dawson  nearly  every 
Sunday  evening,  and  occasionally  on  Sunday  morning 
also.  Even  after  he  began  to  preach  as  a  student,  in  the 
autumn  of  I  849,  he  still  heard  him  occasionally,  and  he 

1  Lectures  on  Preaching,  p.  296. 


COLLEGE  DAYS  51 

continued  to  attend  his  ministry,  with  more  or  less  regu- 
larity, until  he  left  college  in  June  1853.1 

George  Dawson  was  then  just  beginning  his  remark- 
able career.  He  had  already  broken  with  the  Baptists, 
and  was  carrying  on  his  ministry  in  the  Church  of  the 
Saviour,  built  for  him  by  his  supporters.  There  he 
gathered  round  him  men  of  all  types — some  who  were 
dissatisfied  with  dogma,  though  they  clung  to  truth  ; 
others,  who,  finding  their  spiritual  energy  impoverished 
by  the  decay  of  faith,  sought  still  to  keep  alive  religious 
emotion,  and  to  retain  the  shadow  when  they  had  lost 
the  substance.  Dawson  himself,  though  unconventional 
to  the  verge  of  audacity,  was  less  unorthodox  than  most 
people  imagined.  He  was  no  theologian,  and  never  con- 
structed for  himself  any  definite  system  of  belief.  If  he 
was  inconsistent,  it  was  only  in  the  sense  that  he  had  no 
fixed  standpoint,  and  because  it  was  his  habit  to  consider 
truths  and  principles  from  many  sides.  But  from  one 
position  he  never  shifted  :  his  hostility  to  the  Evangelical 
faith,  as  it  was  then  held  by  most  churches,  was  not 
only  bitter,  but  had  in  it  a  touch  of  contempt ;  he  assailed 
it  with  every  weapon  at  his  command,  and  kept  up  the 
onslaught  year  after  year.  He  was  not  a  Unitarian  ; 
it  would  be  incorrect  so  to  describe  him  ;  but  in  sympathy 
and  association  he  stood  nearer  to  the  Unitarians  than  to 
any  other  church,  and  it  was  not  unnatural  that  he  should 
be  identified  with  them.  It  says  much  for  the  tact  and 
the  tolerance  of  the  college  authorities  that  a  student 
should  have  been  suffered  to  attend  a  ministry  of  this 
kind  during  a  considerable  portion  of  his  course  without 
remonstrance,  if  not  without  remark. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  accounting  for  the  fascination 
which  Dawson's  preaching  exerted  over  the  young  man. 
It  was  "  original "  in  the  truest  sense  of  the  word  ;  and 
originality,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  regarded  as  the 
supreme  gift.  His  sermons  were  not  merely  unconven- 
tional in  thought  and  expression  ;  they  were  full  of  the 
unexpected.      He  was  not  indeed  much  given  to  specula- 

1  "  George  Dawson,"  by  R.  W.  Dale:  the  Nineteenth  Century,  August  1S77. 


52  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

tion  :  the  truths  that  he  set  forth  were  neither  strange 
nor  startling  ;  but  he  led  those  who  listened  to  him  "  by 
a  way  which  they  knew  not,"  and  the  familiar  had  all 
the  freshness  and  charm  of  a  new  discovery.  He  had 
read  widely — in  literature  and  history  more  especially  ; 
but  he  was  not  a  bookish  preacher,  and  he  spoke  the 
language  not  of  print  but  of  life.  Whatever  he  learned 
from  others,  he  transformed  into  something  new  by  the 
force  of  his  own  personality. 

To  what  extent  Dale's  preaching  was  affected  by 
Dawson's  influence  it  would  be  difficult  to  determine ; 
but  in  one  or  two  directions  the  results  are  conspicuous. 
The  stress  that  he  laid  upon  ethics  must  in  a  measure  be 
attributed  to  this  cause.  It  was  Dawson's  habit  to  insist 
on  the  everyday  duties  of  life  ;  and  to  state  those  duties 
in  words  that  every  one  could  understand ;  to  call  the 
commonest  things  by  their  common  names  ;  to  escape  as 
soon  as  possible  from  generalities  to  particulars  ;  to  take 
his  examples  and  illustrations  from  the  daily  experience 
of  those  to  whom  he  spoke.  His  teaching  was  largely 
ethical,  but  it  was  social  also.  He  dwelt  upon  the  duty 
and  the  dignity  of  municipal  work ;  he  insisted  that  a 
man  in  becoming  a  Christian  did  not  cease  to  be  a  citizen, 
and  that  his  Christianity,  if  it  was  real,  must  reveal  itself 
in  a  higher  and  nobler  ideal  of  citizenship.  These  truths 
were  not  foreign  to  Dale's  own  thought ;  but  Dawson's 
preaching  demonstrated  how  they  might  be  applied  in 
practice  ;  and  such  an  example  must  have  told  upon  him 
with  no  inconsiderable  force.1 

The  fascination  was  strong,  but  it  was  not  supreme  : 
Dale  was  not  mastered  by  it.  Even  when  he  records 
that  "  Dawson  preaches  away  better  than  ever,"  and  con- 
fesses that  the  contemplation  of  such  wonderful  gifts 
almost  tempts  him  "  to  shrink  away  from  the  ministry," 

1  The  evidence  on  which  this  estimate  of  Dawson's  influence  is  based 
cannot  be  stated  concisely.  But  (i)  the  article  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 
(August  1S77,  pp.  49,  50)  shows  how  vivid  the  impression  left  by  Dawson's 
ethical  sermons — and  especially  by  their  method  and  manner — still  remained 
after  thirty  years  ;  and  (2)  almost  every  letter  that  has  come  down  from  the 
years  1S47-49  contains  some  reference  to  Dawson's  teaching. 


COLLEGE  DAYS  53 

he  expresses  a  regret  that  Dawson  "  has  not  more  of  the 
old  Evangelical  doctrine  "  ;  for  the  lack  of  this,  he  feels, 
no  genius,  however  fresh,  however  genuine,  can  ever  com- 
pensate. As  he  turns  his  thoughts  inwards,  the  sense  of 
human  impotence  comes  over  him,  and  he  entreats  the 
friend  who  had  already  helped  him  so  greatly  to  help  him 
still  more. 

To  Mrs.  Cash 

Spring  Hill  College  [1848.] 
Let  me  entreat  of  you  a  still  further  favour.  The  teaching 
of  man  will  avail  me  little  if  I  am  without  that  wisdom  which 
God  alone  can  supply ;  in  those  moments  in  which  you  are 
nearest  to  God,  ask  Him  to  guide  me  into  all  truth,  to  dispose 
my  heart  as  well  as  my  understanding  to  receive  and  hold  fast 
the  doctrines  of  His  most  holy  Word.  How  mighty  a  conflict 
is  that  in  which  we  are  engaged  !  How  full  of  darkness  is  this 
little  world  within  us !  The  heart  is  indeed  the  world  in 
miniature,  having  a  little  that  is  from  above,  much  that  is  from 
beneath.  Blessed  be  God  !  that  the  Christian  can  look  forward 
with  certainty  to  the  time  when  in  his  own  soul  Christ's  king- 
dom shall  come,  and  His  will  be  done  there  "  as  it  is  in  heaven." 
The  heart  hath  its  promised  Millennium. 

At  present,  however,  he  was  a  scholar,  not  a  teacher : 
it  was  his  part  to  listen,  not  to  speak.  Work  went  on  in 
its  usual  course  :  the  "  steady,  monotonous  grind,"  which 
some  of  his  fellow -students  found  almost  intolerable, 
continued  without  any  real  break.  When  the  end  of  the 
college  year  came  and  brought  his  first  examination — the 
London  University  Matriculation — his  place  in  the  first 
class,  won  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  showed  that  he  had 
learned  the  lesson  of  resolute  and  unremitting  industry. 
This  first  success  did  not  lead  to  any  relaxation  of  effort. 
During  the  months  that  followed,  it  is  clear  that  he  worked 
with  an  excess  of  energy,  and  suffered  for  it.  During 
part  of  his  second  year  he  rose,  sometimes  at  four  in  the 
morning,  and  regularly  before  five — a  strain  that  brought  on 
a  severe  attack  of  nervousness.  He  soon  recovered,  how- 
ever ;  in  the  B.A.  examination  he  was  placed  in  the  first 


54  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

division  ;  and — to  anticipate  slightly — he  also  gained  the 
prize  offered  for  Scripture  Knowledge,  including  Old 
Testament  Hebrew,  New  Testament  Greek,  and  Scripture 
History. 

As  will  be  easily  understood,  he  had  not  much  time 
for  letter-writing  while  the  pressure  of  work  was  so  severe  ; 
and  adventures  do  not  come  in  the  way  of  a  man  who  is 
tied  to  his  study  table.  Here  and  there,  however,  among 
such  parts  of  his  correspondence  as  have  been  preserved, 
it  is  possible  to  trace  what  he  was  thinking  and  feeling. 
His  admiration  for  Mr.  Rogers  was  steadily  growing.  He 
refers  with  enthusiasm  to  the  famous  article  on  "  The 
Glory  and  Vanity  of  Literature,"  one  of  the  most  brilliant, 
if  not  the  most  profound,  of  Mr.  Rogers's  contributions  to 
the  Edinburgh  Review.  He  was  also  beginning  to  recog- 
nise more  adequately  Mr.  James's  power  as  a  preacher, 
though  he  still  cannot  help  contrasting  him  with  Binney. 
Writing  to  his  old  friend,  Mr.  Offord,  he  says  : — 

To  Mr.  Offord 

April  1849. 

I  heard  a  noble  sermon  from  him,  a  few  Sabbaths  ago,  on 
the  causes  of  the  neglect  of  religion  among  young  men — the  third 
of  a  course  which  he  is  delivering  on  the  last  Sabbath  of  every 
month.  Binney  would  have  made  such  a  subject  an  intellectual 
feast  as  well  as  a  thoroughly  practical  address.  James's  thoughts 
were  not  specially  new,  but  he  threw  round  them  a  drapery 
which  made  them  most  imposing  and  impressive.  The  con- 
gregation was  electrified  again  and  again.  For  an  hour  and  a 
quarter  he  poured  forth  a  stream  of  argument  and  eloquence — 
always  clear  and  majestic,  sometimes  swelling  into  a  torrent. 
His  elocution  and  action  are  certainly  perfect.1  The  con- 
gregation was  a  magnificent  one :  the  chapel  was  thoroughly 
crammed ;  aisles,  stairs,  and  lobbies  were  all  packed.  I  opened 
service  for  him,  and  certainly  the  sight  from  the  pulpit  was 
grand.  He  is  to  preach  the  Surrey  Chapel  Sermon  this  year ; 
his  last  great  effort  I  suppose. 

1  The  fourth  sermon  of  the  series,  on  "  The  First  Wrong  Step,"  was  even 
more  effective.  "  He  had  an  allusion  to  Rush  (the  famous  murderer)  which 
made  one's  very  blood  freeze.  Though  far  inferior  as  a  thinker  to  Binney 
and  Morris,  James  is  certainly  the  finest  pulpit  orator  I  ever  heard."  (To 
Mr.  Hugh  Maltby.) 


COLLEGE  DAYS  55 

It  was  during  this  year — his  second  year  at  college — 
that  his  intimacy  with  his  fellow -student,  Edward 
Glanville,  became  a  dominant  element  in  his  life.  The 
two  friends  had  entered  Spring  Hill  on  the  same  day  ; 
from  the  first  they  had  been  drawn  closely  together  ; 
difference  of  character  and  temperament  only  strengthened 
the  ties  between  them  ;  each  supplied  what  was  lacking 
in  the  other.  Glanville's  character  was  one  of  rare  beauty. 
The  influences  of  his  home  had  been  singularly  happy. 
From  childhood  he  had  grown  up  in  an  atmosphere  of 
untroubled  peace.  "  He  had  been  kept,  not  by  a  wall  of 
fire,  but  by  the  soft  yet  powerful  influences  of  parental 
piety,  from  early  sins."  The  temptations,  and  the 
struggles,  and  the  doubts  that  come  to  most,  to  him  were 
alien  and  unknown.  His  life  was  not  merely  of  one 
piece  ;  it  was  seamless  ;  childhood  and  youth  and  man- 
hood were  linked  each  to  each  in  a  unity  that  was  natural, 
harmonious,  unbroken.  In  his  character  strength  and 
tenderness  met  together :  though  gentle  in  spirit  and  in 
manner,  he  was  absolutely  fearless.  His  sympathy  in 
sickness  or  in  sorrow  was  matched  by  his  pertinacity  and 
resolution  in  the  rebuke  of  wrong-doing. 

There  was  another  union  in  him  of  apparently  opposite 
excellences  not  less  remarkable.  I  never  met  with  a  nature 
more  transparent :  he  was  crystal  all  through ;  equivocation, 
deception,  simulation,  were  things  impossible  to  him.  There 
was  no  mist  surrounding  his  inward  nature ;  his  thoughts  and 
feelings  shone  out  through  his  words,  and  deeds,  and  gestures, 
like  stars  shining  out  on  a  very  clear  night ;  and  yet,  combined 
in  an  inexplicable  manner  with  this  frankness,  there  was  an 
inviolable  reserve.  I  question  whether  those  who  knew  him 
most  intimately,  ever  felt  that  every  chamber  of  his  soul  had 
been  thrown  open  to  them.  He  permitted  you  to  see  most 
perfectly  everything  that  he  permitted  you  to  see  at  all ;  no 
mistake  was  possible ;  none  of  the  furniture  of  his  spiritual 
being  was  veneered.  And  he  gave  you  no  false  impression  of 
what  was  concealed ;  but  simply  made  you  feel  that  there  was 
something  beyond  what  you  saw,  about  which  nothing  might  be 
said  or  even  imagined.1 

1  Hope  in  Death ;  a  Sermon  preached  on  the  Occasion  of  the  Death  of 
the  Rev.  E.  G.  Glanville,  of  Warwick,  by  the  Rev.  R.  W.  Dale,  1S58. 


56  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

As  the  months  went  by,  the  two  friends  saw  more  and 
more  of  one  another,  and  to  a  very  large  extent  drew 
apart  from  the  rest  of  their  fellow-students.  The  Rev. 
E.  W.  Shalders  says — 

They  almost  lived  in  each  other's  rooms ;  discussed  every 
question  in  theology,  philosophy,  and  general  literature,  which 
their  reading  suggested ;  and  shared  each  other's  confidence 
in  matters  belonging  to  their  inner  life.  There  was  much 
playfulness  in  their  intercourse,  and  this  was  all  the  freer  for  its 
ground  being  so  serious. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  this  intimacy 
turned  Dale  into  a  recluse,  or  that  it  withdrew  him  wholly 
from  the  common  life  and  activity  of  the  college.  It 
turned  his  affection  and  his  confidence  into  one  channel  ; 
it  did  not  induce  him  wholly  to  disregard  the  demands  of 
social  intercourse  and  of  corporate  life.  In  the  debating 
club  of  the  college  he  took  a  prominent  part. 

"  He  entered  college,"  says  Dr.  Paton, 

having  already  a  marvellous  command  of  language.  I  have 
known  other  young  men  who  have,  in  early  life,  displayed  extra- 
ordinary gifts  of  extemporaneous  speech,  but  I  have  never  yet 
met  one  to  compare  with  Dr.  Dale  in  his  youth  for  readiness 
and  vigour  and  richness  of  extemporaneous  utterance.  It  is 
true  that,  at  first,  there  was  a  wasteful  opulence  and  luxuriance 
in  his  style,  but  he  quickly  and  severely  pruned  this  over-growth 
of  language ;  the  florid  colours  of  this  spring  blossoming  were 
soon  shed.  I  can  remember,  however,  that  even  then,  along 
with  this  wealth  of  speech,  there  was  a  strenuous  vigour  —  a 
momentum  in  the  march  of  his  thought,  which  gave  a  great 
cogency  and  impressiveness  to  his  speeches  in  debate  and  to  his 
sermons ;  and  we  all  felt  then,  what  many  have  felt  since,  that 
it  needed  a  certain  courage  to  meet  the  onset  of  his  charge  in  our 
college  debates.  There  was  thus  foreshadowed,  even  in  these 
early  years,  that  which  I  deem  the  supreme  characteristic  of  his 
pulpit  oratory,  namely,  a  measured  insistent  vehemence  which 
you  felt  as  his  periods  rose  and  fell  with  a  certain  thunderous 
force,  and  urged  and  carried  his  audience  with  them  on  their 
long  majestic  sweep,  as  of  Atlantic  billows.1 

1  The  Reasonableness  of  the  Evangelic  Faith :  a  Memorial  Discourse 
preached  at  Park  Hill  Church,  Nottingham,  by  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Paton,  M.A., 
D.D.,  1895. 


COLLEGE  DAYS  57 

The  summer  vacation  of  1 849  marked  an  important 
stage  in  his  development.  The  months  were  full  of  varied 
experience.  Five  weeks  were  spent  in  London  ;  four  at 
Andover,  or  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood.  He  saw 
Salisbury  and  Stonehenge  and  Winchester.  He  mixed 
with  people,  and  in  contact  with  the  world  began  to  lose 
some  of  the  shyness  that  oppressed  him  in  the  society  of 
strangers.  He  preached  a  good  deal — "  often  enough,"  he 
says,  "  to  pay  all  my  expenses  and  to  stock  my  purse 
pretty  well  for  the  session."  One  of  the  sermons  was 
delivered  in  London,  and  his  mother  was  present  in  the 
congregation  ;  it  had  always  been  her  dream  and  her 
prayer  that  her  son  should  enter  the  ministry,  and  she 
now  saw  her  desire  in  the  way  of  accomplishment.  To 
him  the  occasion  was  somewhat  of  an  ordeal.  "  I  did  not 
feel  quite  so  much  at  preaching  before  her  as  I  feared, 
but  it  was  rather  an  effort " — such  was  the  account  which 
he  gave  to  a  friend  ;  what  his  mother  felt  is  not  re- 
corded. 

Before  the  vacation  ended — in  the  early  part  of 
September — he  was  greatly  startled  by  a  sudden  summons 
to  occupy  the  pulpit  at  Carr's  Lane.  Mr.  James  was  out 
of  health,  and,  needing  help,  sent  for  him  to  take  the 
sermon  on  the  Sunday  morning.  Such  an  invitation  was 
an  unusual  distinction  for  a  student  who  had  not  yet 
reached  the  Theological  Class,  but  it  was  not  without  its 
terrors.  However,  Mr.  James's  genial  and  affectionate 
hospitality  put  his  guest  at  ease.  The  old  man  was 
"  brimful  of  kindness  "  ;  and  although  many  subjects  were 
discussed  upon  which  the  two  were  not  of  one  mind, 
nothing  disturbed  the  harmony  of  the  visit.  The  talk  on 
the  Sunday  evening  must  have  left  a  lasting  impression  on 
Dale's  mind,  for  the  purport  of  it  was  still  distinct  in  his 
memory  ten  or  eleven  years  later. 

After  supper  on  Sunday  evening  we  sat  talking  for  a  couple 
of  hours  about  preaching ;  one  of  us  with  the  ardent  hopefulness 
with  which  the  greatest  of  all  human  callings  is  not  unfrequently 
anticipated ;  the  other  with  the  solemnity  produced  by  the 
memory  of  many  years  of  ministerial  responsibility,  but  brightening 


58  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

often  into  a  most  genial  sympathy  with  the  sanguine  enthusiasm 
of  youth. 

He  explained,  with  characteristic  simplicity  and  frankness, 
the  principles  by  which  he  had  been  guided  in  the  structure  of 
his  sermons,  and  threw  out  many  suggestions  on  the  art  of 
preaching,  which  seemed  to  me  at  the  time  very  valuable  for 
their  good  sense  and  practical  wisdom.  The  details  of  the  con- 
versation have  faded  from  my  memory ;  two  things  only  can  I 
remember  with  any  distinctness — the  warmth  and  animation 
with  which,  in  responding  to  some  vehement  expression  of  my 
sense  of  the  nobleness  and  glory  of  the  preacher's  vocation,  he 
said  that  a  passion  for  preaching  was  a  sure  pledge  of  success ; 
and  the  earnestness  with  which  he  spoke  of  "usefulness"  as  the 
one  great  end  which  a  minister  should  propose  to  himself  in  all 
his  labours.  x 

His  own  account  of  this,  his  first  Sunday  at  Carr's 
Lane,  is  contained  in  a  letter  to  his  parents  written  two 
days  later. 

To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  R.  Dale 

Leamington,  September  1849. 
Lest  you  should  think  that  my  duties  last  Sabbath  quite 
frightened  me  to  death,  I  take  this,  the  earliest  opportunity,  of 
informing  you  that  I  am  excellently  well.  Mr.  James  received 
me  very  kindly,  and  we  had  a  good  long  chat  together  on 
Saturday  evening.  I  determined  to  "  take  no  thought  for  the 
morrow,"  lest  it  should  alarm  me.  And  though,  when  I  got  to 
bed,  the  pulpit  at  Carr's  Lane  would  keep  thrusting  itself  before 
my  eyes,  by  thinking  on  the  most  interesting  subject  that 
occurred  to  me  I  kept  it  pretty  well  out  of  my  head,  nor  did  I 
give  any  thought  to  the  thing  till  between  nine  and  ten  o'clock. 
I  then  looked  through  my  sermon,  and,  as  it  was  a  fine  bright 
morning,  preferred  walking  down.  At  the  church  meeting  on 
Friday  Mr.  James  announced  that  I  should  preach,  but  as  it  was 
Ordinance  Sunday  this  made  no  difference  in  the  congregation. 
There  were  about  2300  or  2400  people  there.  I  took  the 
matter  very  quietly,  and  determined  not  to  be  nervous,  although 
I  could  not  throw  my  arms  about  quite  so  freely  as  at  Andover. 
Mr.  James  expressed  himself  greatly  pleased,  and  several  of  the 
influential  members  came  in  and  thanked  me  for  the  sermon. 
At  the  Ordinance  John  Angell  was  pleased  to  speak  of  "the 
inimitable  simplicity,  beauty,   and  Scriptural  propriety "  of  the 

1  Lift  of  J.  A.James,  by  R.  W.  Dale,  p.  459. 


COLLEGE  DAYS  59 

discourse  they  had  just  heard.  I  opened  service  for  him  at 
night :  there  was  a  splendid  gathering.  After  supper  we  had 
another  long  talk.  He  assured  me  that  great  success  was  within 
my  grasp,  that  I  should  find  no  trouble  in  preaching,  and  said 
many  other  things  of  the  same  sort,  exhorting  me  to  keep  head 
and  heart  in  true  condition. 

Such  success  might  well  turn  a  young  man's  head  ; 
and  Mrs.  Glover — one  of  the  founders  of  the  college — an 
old  lady  of  great  sagacity  and  kindness,  took  it  upon 
herself  to  counteract  the  effect  of  Mr.  James's  generous 
praise. 

I  had  a  message  from  her  on  the  Monday  morning  that 
she  wanted  to  speak  to  me.  I  called,  and  for  half  an  hour 
she  said  nothing  of  exceptional  importance,  but  as  I  rose 
to  go  she  said,  "  Oh,  my  dear,  I  hear  that  Mr.  James  said  some 
kindly  things  about  your  sermon  in  his  address  at  the  Lord's 
Supper.     Well,  you  must  not  mind;  it  is  only  his  way." 

It  must  have  been  a  mortification  to  vanity,  but  the 
hint  was  neither  resented  nor  forgotten. 

A  visit  to  Leamington,  involving  sundry  sermons  and 
speeches,  brought  the  vacation  to  a  close. 

With  the  opening  of  the  new  session  in  the  autumn,  Aged 
Dale  entered  upon  a  new  stage  in  his  college  career.  His 
relations  with  Mr.  James  became  more  intimate.  He  was 
a  frequent  guest  at  the  Saturday  dinners  at  which  it  was 
Mr.  James's  habit  to  entertain  the  students.  In  one  of 
his  letters  he  refers  to  a  conversation  between  his  host  and 
Mr.  Rogers  "  on  half  a  dozen  of  the  most  interesting 
subjects  under  the  sun  "  ;  he  and  his  two  companions,  he 
adds,  "  had  the  discretion  to  be  quiet,"  while  their  elders 
talked,  and  they  were  rewarded  for  their  silence.  This,  the 
third  year  of  his  course,  brought  him  into  the  Theological 
Class.  He  attended  lectures  on  preaching,  and  also  took 
his  place  in  the  list  of  students  who  were  ready  to  "  supply  " 
at  such  churches  as  might  require  their  services. 

It  is  clear  that  he  was  deeply  interested  in  his  new 
studies.  Not  content  with  the  instruction  and  discussion 
of  the  lecture-room,  he  took  the  lead  in  establishing  a 
theological  society  for  the  interchange  of  thought  among 


6o  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

its  members  on  subjects  especially  interesting  to  students 
for  the  Christian  ministry.  The  meetings  were  held 
monthly,  the  members  presiding  in  turn.  He  acted  as 
secretary,  and  read  the  first  paper,  taking  for  his  subject 
"  The  Historical  Element  in  Christianity."  At  first  no 
one  could  be  elected  to  membership  except  by  a 
unanimous  vote — a  rule  securing  that  unity,  not  of  opinion 
but  of  aim,  which  is  indispensable  to  the  success  of  such  a 
gathering.  After  eighteen  months  the  rule  was  relaxed, 
and  before  long  the  record  of  the  proceedings  suddenly 
breaks  off.  Among  the  other  subjects  introduced  for 
discussion  were  the  Atonement,  Prayer,  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  Inspiration.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  overestimate 
the  value  of  meetings  of  this  kind  in  encouraging  young 
men  to  deal  with  great  subjects,  and  to  express  their 
thoughts  and  feelings  upon  the  gravest  problems  of  life 
without  affectation  or  restraint.  To  many  such  inter- 
course has  proved  far  more  helpful  and  stimulating  than 
lectures,  however  learned  and  profound  ;  and  even  in  a 
great  university  there  are  not  a  few  who  look  back  upon 
hours  so  spent  in  free  and  unfettered  talk  with  companions 
of  their  own  age  as  the  truest  seed-time  of  life's  later 
harvest. 

Dale's  own  enthusiasm  for  his  future  calling  was  in 
steady  growth.  Keen  as  were  his  interests  in  philosophical 
and  theological  speculation,  he  kept  before  his  mind  the 
conditions  of  success  in  the  practical  work  of  the  ministry, 
recognising  how  large  a  part  the  human  heart  and  human 
experience  must  ever  have  in  the  making  of  a  true  teacher. 
In  this  mood,  writing  to  his  friend  Glanville — who  was 
kept  away  from  college  for  a  time  by  illness — by  way  of 
consolation  for  enforced  absence,  he  says  : — 

To  Mr    E.  G.  Glanville 

October  1S49. 
So  you  see,  my  dear  fellow,  there  is  nothing  tor  you  to  fret 
about.     College  work  you  will  easily  get  up ;  and  you  are  prob- 
ably learning — consciously  or  not — lessons  in  the  chamber  which 
could  not  be  taught  in  the  study.    Every  day  adds  to  the  strength 


COLLEGE  DAYS  61 

of  my  conviction  that  what  we  really  want  in  the  ministry  is 
neither  more  learning  nor  more  eloquence  but  more  of  burning 
ardour  and  unconquerable  zeal.  In  the  pulpit  we  need  a  logic 
of  the  heart  which  Aristotle  cannot  teach.  A  living  faith  in 
things  unseen  is  worth  all  the  systematic  theology  that  shelves 
ever  groaned  under.  Remember  this,  if  you  are  at  all  depressed 
by  being  kept  from  work.  Depend  upon  it  that  God  never 
subjects  a  man  to  a  discipline  unsuited  to  develop  and  perfect 
his  nature.  What  you  have  been  suffering  for  the  last  few 
months  is  certainly  the  best  possible  thing  for  you.  Remember 
Who  it  was  that  was  "  made  perfect  through  suffering."  Ay  ! 
ay !  the  day  will  come  when  this  dark  time  will  shine  out  with 
bright  meaning. 

But  even  still,  in  looking  forward  to  the  future,  he  had 
his  seasons  of  difficulty  and  depression,  and  in  another 
letter,  written  almost  at  the  same  time,  his  sense  of  infir- 
mity and  helplessness  finds  expression. 

To  Mrs.  Cash 

October  1849. 
Your  Christian  sympathy  and  kind  prayers  I  deeply  value. 
Still  entreat  the  Father  of  Lights  to  grant  me  guidance  into  all 
truth.  Esteeming  it  a  duty  to  look  a  doubt  fairly  in  the  face,  I 
am  not  a  stranger  to  seasons  of  strenuous  mental  conflict,  and  at 
such  times  I  feel  how  inexpressible  is  the  worth  of  that  heavenly 
direction  which  our  common  Father  grants  in  answer  to  believing 
prayer.  But  though  these  seasons  of  conflict  are  dark  and  sad, 
I  would  not  be  without  them.  I  do  not  envy  those  who  walk 
through  life  with  no  questionings,  no  mental  struggles.  The 
man  who  never  doubted  his  own  creed  can  hardly  be  able  to 
meet  the  ten  thousand  objections  that  a  keen  thinker  can  raise 
against  every  doctrine  that  was  ever  believed  by  man.  How- 
ever, I  think  that  my  heart  is  in  greater  danger  than  my  head. 
If  I  can  but  keep  my  affections  set  on  things  above,  my  faith  in 
Christ  Jesus  strong,  my  love  to  Him  deep  and  fervent,  all  will  be 
well.  But  if,  on  the  contrary,  zeal  flags,  devotion  cools,  hope 
dies,  faith  weakens, — then  though  the  creed  is  as  orthodox  as 
that  of  Paul  himself,  everything  goes  wrong.  God  save  me  from 
spiritual  slumber. 

His  power  as  a  preacher  was  now  becoming  known, 
and  his  services  were  widely  sought  for.  He  was  often  the 
first  choice  of  those  who  applied  to  the  college  for  help. 


62  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

On  one  occasion  his  popularity  betrayed  him  into  what 
might  have  been  very  serious  trouble.  His  fellow-student, 
the  Rev.  P.  C.  Barker,1  gives  the  following  account  of  the 
incident : — 

Besides  the  inflexible  rule  for  a  six-year  course  student,  that 
no  preaching  was  allowed  in  term  time  during  the  initiatory  two 
years,  there  was  another  rule  applying  to  the  whole  six  years, 
which  contributed  very  largely  to  the  successful  university  studies 
and  remarkable  achievements  of  the  Spring  Hill  College  men  of 
that  period — that  no  week-evening  public  engagements,  whether 
of  preaching  or  of  speaking,  were  permitted.  The  enormous 
public  meetings  of  such  a  town  as  Birmingham  might  be  attended 
without  any  restriction  whatsoever,  and  it  was  held  that  an  ample 
quid  pro  quo  was  received  in  the  opportunity  that  young  speakers 
thus  had  of  observing  notable  orators  and  their  varieties  of  elocu- 
tion, and  of  unconsciously  learning  modes  of  public  speech  that 
might  stand  them  in  good  stead  in  years  to  come;  while  the 
immense  sacrifice  of  time  that  would  have  been  consumed  in 
preparation,  and  the  physical  exhaustion  inevitably  consequent, 
were  avoided.  The  grounds  of  the  restriction  were  both  reason- 
able and  obvious,  nor  had  there  been  any  serious  challenge  of 
the  restriction  on  the  part  of  Dale  and  others.  By  a  few  out- 
siders, who  knew  Dale's  oratorical  powers,  the  net  was  spread, 
in  comparative  ignorance,  rather  than  with  any  malevolence 
either  to  Dale  or  the  college  authorities ;  and  that  it  was  not 
spread  in  vain  in  the  sight  of  such  a  one  as  Dale  was  undeniably 
matter  of  great  amazement  to  those  who  knew  him  best.  The 
meeting  was  to  be  held  in  the  Town  Hall ;  and  Dale  went  so 
far  as  to  allow  his  name  to  appear  on  the  bills.  The  concern  of 
the  college  authorities,  and  of  Mr.  James,  was  very  great.  It 
needs  not  to  be  said  that  the  eyes  of  all  his  fellow-students  were 
or.  him,  some  with  ill-concealed  sympathy,  some  with  uncon- 
cealed disapproval.  He  and  they  knew  the  certain  result  if  he 
refused  to  retrace  his  steps — a  great  deal  hung  on  the  way 
in  which  this  was  finally  conveyed  to  him.  It  was  a  critical 
moment,  and  the  sound  of  his  foot-fall,  as  he  crossed  the  hall 
one  afternoon,  echoes  still  in  one  living  ear.  After  a  conflict, 
that  none  but  himself  could  measure,  he  had  yielded  and 
surrendered. 

The  mortification  was  severe  ;  of  that  there  can  be  no 
doubt ;  but  after  its  bitterness  had  abated,  he  was  still  to 

1  Now  Vicar  of  Prickly,  Wells,  Somerset. 


COLLEGE  DAYS  63 

be  found  in  the  Hall  on  any  occasion  of  interest.  He 
was  very  catholic  in  his  sympathies  :  religion  and  politics 
drew  him  with  equal  force.  The  Wesleyans  held  a  great 
meeting  ;  he  was  there. 

"  Some  say  I  led  the  cheering,"  he  writes,  "  and  as  I 
was  standing  on  the  corner  of  the  platform,  and  cheered 
just  when  it  came  into  my  head,  without  caring  for  any- 
body else,  that  is  possible.  And,  moreover,  we  had 
Scholefield,  Lushington,  Cobden,  Bright,  and  Thompson 
here  on  Tuesday  evening — didn't  I  cheer  ? " 

The  last  phrase  is  characteristic.  If  he  was  a  good 
speaker,  he  was  equally  good  as  a  listener.  Many  a  time 
he  has  made  a  speaker's  fortune  with  that  quick  response 
which  often  seemed  to  put  a  match  to  a  meeting,  or  with 
the  laugh  that  was  the  first  to  break  the  chilling  silence, 
and  still  rang  out  clear  above  the  roar  when  the  crowd 
had  cast  off  its  apathy  and  had  found  a  voice. 

A  little  later  he  heard  Edward  Miall,  for  whose 
character  and  ability  he  had  already  conceived  a  hearty 
admiration.  He  was  one  of  those  who  in  the  early  years 
of  the  Nonconformist  followed  its  utterances  week  by  week 
with  growing  enthusiasm,  turning  with  infinite  relief  from 
the  platitudes  and  conventionalities  of  the  larger  portion 
of  the  denominational  press  to  listen  to  a  man  who  in 
enlightenment,  conviction,  and  breadth  of  view,  stood 
without  peer  or  rival  among  the  Nonconformist  journalists 
of  his  day.  His  spirit  was  stirred  by  the  vigour  and 
courage  of  the  Nonconformist  during  the  commotion  of 
1848,  while  so  many  editors — Dr.  Campbell  among  them 
— were  singing  the  praises  of  Louis  Philippe,  "  the  wily 
grey  beard,"  and  were  denouncing  the  French  Republic 
and  its  leaders.  And  with  generous  vehemence  he  re- 
sented the  suspicion  and  the  hostility  which  Miall 
encountered  among  those  who  should  have  been  his 
natural  friends  and  allies.  To  him,  as  to  many  others, 
Miall  was  much  more  than  a  leader :  they  regarded  him 
as  a  master  ;  they  were  trained  in  his  school ;  they  per- 
petuated his  thought ;  and  they  carried  on  the  great 
controversy  with  the  Established  Church  in  his  spirit. 


64  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Two  more  years  passed  without  any  incident  of  note, 
nor  is  there  any  record  of  his  doings  when  away  from 
Aged  2i£.  college.  The  summer  of  1851  was  a  time  of  greater 
activity,  and  in  his  letters  there  are  many  references  to 
the  experiences  which  it  brought.  For  four  Sundays  he 
preached  at  Belper,  in  Derbyshire.  It  was  a  little  country 
church,  where  he  was  brought  into  close  contact  with  the 
members  of  the  congregation.  Nothing  could  have  been 
better  for  him  than  this  sustained  responsibility  and  the 
more  familiar  intercourse  with  those  to  whom  he  ministered. 
For,  according  to  his  own  account,  he  still  suffered  from 
"  an  inordinate  horror  of  strangers,"  and  caught  at  any 
way  of  escape.  The  remaining  weeks  were  spent,  partly 
in  Hampshire,  partly  in  London.  The  intellectual  and 
religious  state  of  the  city  stirred  him  profoundly  ;  and  as 
the  close  of  his  college  course  came  in  view,  he  began  to 
look  forward  with  growing  anxiety  to  the  special  form  of 
service  that  the  necessities  of  the  time  demanded.  He 
unburdens  his  mind  in  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Cash. 

To  Mrs.  Cash 

London,  September  1S51. 
London  is  indeed  in  a  state  of  activity.  Everything  is  mov- 
ing. Never  before  had  I  been  so  impressed  with  the  peculiar 
influences  at  work  in  a  great  metropolis  as  during  my  late  visit. 
It  happened  that  I  had  opportunities  of  looking  a  little  under 
the  surface  at  the  intellectual  and  moral  ferment  in  which 
especially  the  young  and  thoughtful  minds  of  London  are  living. 
They  seem  to  find  rest  nowhere.  All  faith  in  religion  and  philo- 
sophy seems  to  have  been  lost,  and  there  is  a  loud  and  earnest 
cry  for  some  teacher  to  arise  and  lead  them  into  a  better  and 
nobler  way.  Very  sad  it  is  to  see  so  much  thought  and  energy 
wasted  like  water  thrown  on  a  rock.  We  Christians  are  greatly 
wanting  in  concern  for  the  welfare  and  right  guidance  of  these 
young  men.  We  know  little  about  them  and  seem  to  care  less. 
The  result  must  be  an  alienation  from  Christianity  of  a  great 
mass  of  thoughtful  but  ill-disciplined  men  who,  under  better 
teaching  and  the  charm  of  honest,  affectionate  sympathy,  might 
have  been  the  strength  and  joy  of  our  churches.  What  to  do 
now,  it  is  difficult  to  say ;  but  unless  something  is  done,  and 
well  done,  shortly,  their  state  will  become  almost  incurable.     I 


COLLEGE  DAYS  65 

suppose  the  great  thing  is  for  us  to  cling  more  closely  to  Christ, 
to  catch  more  of  His  spirit,  and  to  invigorate  our  faith  in  His 
gospel  as  the  one  great  remedy  for  all  human  evil.  This  would 
tell  at  once.  But  while  our  own  piety  is  so  weak  and  worthless 
that  we  are  always  in  trouble  about  our  own  salvation,  of  course 
little  can  be  done.  How  Paul  would  have  been  fettered  if  he  had 
been  compassed  by  all  the  fears  and  perplexities  which  many 
modern  Christians  experience  all  their  life  long.  Free,  hearty, 
and  earnest  work  for  Christ  is  simply  impossible  while  this  state 
of  things  continues.  Napoleon  would  never  have  swept  the 
kings  of  Europe  from  their  thrones  if  he  had  been  the  general 
of  an  army  of  invalids  ;  and  the  great  battle  of  Truth  and  Holi- 
ness will  never  be  won  till  there  is  a  manliness,  a  courage,  and  a 
freedom  about  us,  that  at  present  we  have  little  enough  of.  This 
then  must  be  the  object  of  intense  effort  and  earnest  prayer — the 
purity  and  power  of  the  Church.  You  see  I  have  got  into  a 
sermon  again ;  but  I  do  feel  very  much  about  this  matter.  I 
have  been  almost  appalled  at  the  scepticism  and  mad  hatred  of 
Christianity  and  Christians  I  have  witnessed  lately. 

For  him  it  was  evidently  a  season  of  strain  and  con- 
flict. In  a  letter  to  Glanville,  who  also  had  been  suffering, 
though  in  other  ways,  he  says  : — 

To  Mr.  E.  G.  Glanville 

September  1851. 

This  has  been  a  very  strange  vacation  to  me,  and  from  your 
note  I  suppose  that  you  too  have  had  clouds  and  tempest.  It 
is  the  old  doctrine — "  through  much  tribulation  " ;  let  us  be 
thankful  that  the  same  Book  tells  us  "  as  thy  day,  thy  strength 
shall  be."  Though  I  can  say  nothing  that  can  contribute  to  your 
peace  and  strength,  I  could  not  help  writing  something.  May 
God  bless  you,  my  dear,  dear  friend,  and  bring  "  peaceable  fruits 
of  righteousness  "  out  of  your  late  sorrows.  What  I  should  have 
done  of  late  without  the  assurance  that  the  highest  Wisdom  and 
tenderest  Love  regulate  all  things,  I  know  not.  I  can  now  testify 
more  firmly  than  ever  that  there  is  something  in  being  a 
Christian. 

It  is  natural  to  ask  what  was  the  exact  nature  of  the 
inwaid  trials  to  which  his  letters  so  often  refer.  The 
language  in  which  he  describes  them  implies  something 
more  than  spiritual  darkness  and  depression  ;  it  points  to 

F 


66  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

a  period  of  doubt  during  which  his  hold  on  the  central 
truths  of  the  Christian  faith  was  altogether  relaxed.  But 
even  when  he  wrote  with  least  reserve,  his  words  conceal 
as  much  as  they  disclose,  and  do  not  enable  us  to  answer 
the  question  with  certainty.  There  is,  however,  one 
passage  in  which  he  unmistakably  alludes  to  his  experi- 
ence at  this  time,  and  on  the  strength  of  it  we  shall  not 
be  wrong  in  assuming  that  the  fabric  of  his  earlier  faith 
fell  away  from  him,  leaving  Christ  as  the  one  certainty  in 
a  world  of  mist  and  cloud.  Whatever  else  be  lost  or  sub- 
merged— creeds,  Scripture,  the  Gospel  narratives  them- 
selves— 

The  battle  is  virtually  won  if  you  come  to  believe  that  in 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh,  and  that  it  is 
your  first  and  highest  duty  to  bow  before  Him  with  penitence 
for  your  sin  and  trust  in  His  mercy.  And  I  can  promise  you, 
on  the  strength  of  the  experience  of  one  who,  like  yourselves, 
once  saw  his  early  faith  covered  with  a  boundless  sea  of  darkness, 
that  if  you  once  reach  a  firm  belief  in  this  fundamental  fact,  the 
waters  shall  some  day  begin  to  ebb — shall  drain  down  to  the 
depths  whence  they  came ;  and,  as  the  flood  retires,  that  solitary 
truth — the  manifestation  of  God  in  the  person  of  Christ — shall 
gradually  be  surrounded  by  province  after  province  of  divine 
revelation,  beautiful  with  fresh  verdure  and  pleasant  streams,  and 
rich  with  yellow  harvests ;  and,  hidden  deep  beneath  the  soil, 
there  shall  be  a  secret  treasure  of  wisdom  and  of  joy :  the  gold 
and  the  crystal  cannot  equal  it,  and  the  exchange  of  it  shall  not 
be  for  jewels  of  fine  gold.1 

It  is  a  familiar  experience,  especially  to  students  of 
theology  who  learn  for  themselves  how  true  are  the  words 
of  the  Jewish  sage  concerning  wisdom  : — 

At  the  first  she  will  walk  with  him  in  crooked  ways, 

And  will  bring  fear  and  dread  upon  him, 

And  torment  him  with  her  discipline, 

Until  she  may  trust  his  soul,  and  try  him  by  her  judgments  : 

Then  will  she  return  again  the  straight  way  unto  him, 

And  will  gladden  him,  and  reveal  to  him  her  secrets.2 

After  the  college  session   opened,  his  preaching  work 

1   "  From  Doubt  to  Faith."     Exeter  Hall  Lectures,  1864,  pp.  12,  13. 
2  Ecclesiaslicus,  iv.  17,  18. 


COLLEGE  DAYS  67 

steadily  increased,  not  only  in  Birmingham  but  in  the 
Midland  counties  generally ;  and  during  the  following 
summer  he  visited  a  wide  range  of  country,  preaching  at 
Cheltenham,  Bristol,  Kidderminster,  and  Stafford.  He  also 
spent  a  fortnight  or  more  in  the  Isle  of  Man,  taking  the 
services  at  Douglas.  His  stay  there  was  most  enjoyable : 
he  met  many  old  friends — for  it  was  a  popular  resort  of 
Birmingham  people — and  made  new  ones  ;  among  them 
Mr.  Stallybrass,  the  minister  of  the  church,  and  his  wife, 
to  whom  he  was  greatly  drawn.  He  also  preached  at 
Leamington  once,  if  not  twice.  Before  his  visit,  in  a 
letter  to  Mrs.  Cash  he  says  :  "  I  must  try  to  give  you 
some  real  gospel  truth  when  I  come  to  Leamington,  must 
I  not  ? "  showing  that  he  still  remembered,  not  with- 
out a  touch  of  resentment,  some  previous  objection 
taken  to  his  preaching,  with  which  he  had  been  made 
acquainted.  He  defended  himself  with  vigour  ;  and  the 
way  in  which  he  met  the  accusation  of  not  preaching  the 
gospel  is  eminently  characteristic. 

To  Mrs.  Cash 

[1851?] 

I  am  much  obliged  by  your  frank  and  friendly  remarks  about 
my  sermons  last  Sabbath.  If  everybody  were  as  frank  with 
everybody,  the  wheels  of  the  world  would  run  more  easily. 
Conscious,  however,  of  a  full-hearted  faith  in  Christ,  and  that 
my  endeavour  is  to  derive  the  whole  substance  and  form  of  my 
religious  life  and  thought  from  Him,  I  felt  a  little  surprised  that 
anybody  should  think  my  preaching  deficient  in  gospel  truth, 
whatever  else  I  may  lack ;  and  none  can  speak  more  sincerely 
than  I  do  about  the  deficiencies  of  my  preaching.  But  what- 
ever darkness  and  weakness  there  may  be  in  my  public  addresses, 
this  I  know  to  be  the  central  purpose  and  ruling  passion  of  my 
heart — to  make  all  who  are  about  me  know  more  of  Christ,  love 
Him  more,  trust  Him  more,  serve  Him  more.  I  should  very 
much  like  to  see  the  good  lady  who  talked  about  the  German 
theologian,  whose  name  I  think  she  could  not  have  given  you 
correctly,  that  I  might  ask  her  reasons  for  suspecting  me  of  the 
very  faintest  tendency  to  desert  the  heart  and  life  of  our 
Evangelical  faith.  I  am  perfectly  amazed  that  any  member 
of  Mr.  Pope's  congregation  should  entertain  such  a  thought  for 


6S  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

an  instant.  Did  she  hear  the  last  three  sermons  I  delivered  in 
Spencer  Street  before  my  late  visit,  on  the  texts  "  For  me  to  live 
is  Christ,"  "I  am  the  bread  of  life,"  "I  am  dead,  nevertheless 
I  live ;  and  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me "  ?  Whether  I 
succeeded  or  not,  the  aim  of  the  first  sermon  was  to  show  that 
religion  consists  in  the  consecration  of  the  whole  soul  and 
character  to  Christ ;  of  the  second  to  show  that  Christ  is  the 
only  life  and  strength  of  the  soul ;  and  of  the  third  to  illustrate 
and  enforce  the  duty  of  accepting  Christ  so  fully  and  unreservedly 
as  the  ruler  of  the  soul,  that  we  may  "die  unto  sin."  "Christ," 
I  said,  "  should  work  by  our  hands,  think  in  our  thoughts,  and 
live  again  on  the  earth  in  our  work  and  endurance." 

The  sermon  I  preached  last  Sunday  evening  was  an  attempt 
to  point  out  as  clearly  and  as  earnestly  as  I  could  a  fatal  delusion 
about  the  gospel  that  destroys  many ;  a  delusion  leading  them 
to  suppose  that  faith  in  Christ  and  a  seeking  of  His  mercy  are 
consistent  with  a  clinging  to  sin.  In  short  the  whole  sum  of 
the  sermon  was  this — "  Repent,  and  believe  the  gospel."  Perhaps 
the  good  lady  you  refer  to  would  wish  me  to  leave  out  "  Repent," 
and  only  command  men  in  God's  name  to  "  believe,"  whether 
they  repent  or  not. 

And  now  as  to  the  morning's  sermon. 

i.  Is  it  a  duty  to  "  worship  God  "  ? 

2.  Do  all  men  discharge  the  duty  ? 

3.  Do  even  Christians  properly  understand  the  duty  ? 

4.  Are  we  never  to  insist  on  any  other  command  except  this 
one — "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  "  ? 

5.  Does  Mr.  Pope  leave  the  congregation  in  Spencer  Street 
in  such  lamentable  ignorance  of  the  elementary  principles  of  the 
gospel,  that  every  "  supply  "  should  make  it  his  great  and  only 
duty  to  teach  you  what  are  the  first  principles  of  the  gospel  of 
God? 

I  dare  say  your  friend  would  say,  that  the  true  cause  of  com- 
plaint lies  in  not  introducing  into  the  sermon  some  reference  to 
the  plan  of  Salvation  (but  I  did  make  such  reference,  I  am  sure), 
or  rather  a  full  statement  of  the  privileges  of  the  gospel.  Now, 
according  to  my  notion,  our  duty  in  preaching  is  just  to  take 
the  command  or  doctrine  that  the  Spirit  of  God  has  written  in 
the  book  and  preach  about  that.  And  since  God's  Spirit  has 
thought  it  necessary  to  write  about  other  things  beside  the 
Atonement,  I  suppose  it  is  necessary  to  preach  about  other 
things  too.  How  I  should  like  to  face  your  friend  who  talks 
about  the  German  theologian,  and  ask  whether  she  does  not 
think  it  a  great  waste  of  room  in  the  Bible  to  have  so  much 
about  Jewish  kings,  and  Jonah's  whale,  and  the  marrying  of  the 


COLLEGE  DAYS  69 

patriarchs,  and  the  moral  discourses  of  Christ,  instead  of  having 
the  gospel  in  Genesis,  in  Judges,  in  Kings,  and  all  through. 
The  gospel  is  everywhere  in  the  Bible,  in  one  sense ;  but  if 
your  friend  had  had  the  writing  of  the  Bible,  I  think  she  would 
have  had  it  everywhere  in  a  somewhat  different  sense. 

The  fact  is,  that,  filled  with  an  unfounded  alarm,  people  are 
getting  into  the  habit  of  listening  with  nervous  anxiety  to  every 
student  they  happen  to  hear,  and  every  time  they  hear  him, 
to  discover  whether  he  has  any  leaning  to  Germanism.  This  is 
not  fair  to  the  students,  nor  are  those  who  do  it  fair  to  them- 
selves. And  I  think,  too,  that  at  Spencer  Street  we  Spring  Hill 
men  ought  to  be  able  to  preach  without  the  misery  of  being 
conscious  all  the  time  that  the  hearers  are  watching  and  waiting 
for  some  trace  of  heresy. 

Your  own  motives  and  spirit  in  speaking  to  me  I  feel  to  be 
only  and  altogether  kind,  and  I  should  not  have  referred  to  the 
matter  at  such  length  had  it  not  been  for  the  good  lady  and  her 
German  scarecrow. 

He  felt  strongly  about  the  matter,  and  wrote  as  he 
felt.  Some  of  the  warmth  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he 
had  met  with  criticism  of  the  same  kind  elsewhere.  At 
his  first  visit  to  Hanley,  in  the  Staffordshire  Potteries, 
some  of  the  congregation  had  taken  alarm  at  his  preaching, 
and  had  gone  so  far  as  to  request  the  college  authorities 
that  Mr.  Dale  should  not  be  sent  to  Hanley  again.  Among 
his  personal  friends  who  knew  his  heart,  there  was  much 
indignation  and  some  amusement.  But  whatever  suspicion 
existed  in  the  minds  of  any  of  the  people,  it  must  soon 
have  died  out,  for  before  the  summer  vacation  of  the  year 
1852  he  was  surprised  by  receiving  an  urgent  invitation 
to  accept  the  pastorate  of  the  Tabernacle  Church  in  that 
town.  The  vote  of  the  church  in  his  favour  was  unanimous, 
and  private  letters  which  came  with  the  formal  invitation 
laid  stress  upon  the  fact  that  he  was  the  one  man  on 
whom  they  could  all  unite  ;  who  could  hold  discordant 
elements  together  ;  and  who  would  be  sure  to  win  the 
attention  of  the  town  at  large — "  the  very  man,"  they  said, 
"  to  strengthen,  settle,  and  establish  us." 

At  the  time  only  one  reply  was  possible.  His  college 
course  still  had  fifteen  months  to  run,  and  there  were 
serious  objections  to  pledging  himself  so  long  in  advance. 


70  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

He  had  also  committed  himself — as  will  be  presently 
explained — to  an  engagement  with  Mr.  James  for  the 
following  year ;  and  though  the  arrangement  was  of  a 
temporary  nature,  it  had  been  entered  into  with  a  view 
to  a  more  permanent  settlement.  It  would,  therefore, 
he  felt,  "  have  been  a  singular  breach  of  good  faith,  after 
consenting  to  try  the  introductory  experiment,"  if  he  were 
"  at  once  to  turn  aside  from  the  ultimate  object  to  which 
that  experiment  was  intended  to  lead "  ;  and  though 
Hanley,  and  the  prospect  of  independent  and  vigorous 
enterprise  that  it  afforded,  had  very  strong  attractions  for 
him,  he  had  no  choice  but  to  decline.  Eight  months 
later  the  invitation  was  renewed,  and  with  even  greater 
cordiality ;  but  the  relations  into  which  he  had  then 
entered  with  Mr.  James  and  the  church  at  Carr's  Lane 
had  already  become  too  close  to  be  broken. 


CHAPTER    IV 

SETTLEMENT    AT    CARR'S    LANE 

Early  history  of  Carr's  Lane  Church — Mr.  James  :  his  work  and  character  ; 
the  secret  of  his  success — Solicitude  for  Dale  as  a  future  colleague — First 
overtures — Dale's  diffidence  and  inclination — The  experiment  begins — 
Spiritual  conflict — Hopes  for  the  old  church  and  a  new  people — Uni- 
versity medallist — Appointed  assistant  :  letter  to  Mr.  James  accepting  the 
offer  —  Difficulties  of  the  situation  —  A  misunderstanding  dispelled  — 
Nearer  prospect  of  the  co-pastorate — Appointed  co-pastor — Difficulties 
with  the  trust-deed — The  church-meeling  for  election — Mr.  James's  joy  : 
Dale's  reply  —  Death  of  his  mother  —  Ordination  in  Congregational 
churches — The  ordination  services — Marriage  and  married  life. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  record  with  any  fulness  of  detail  the 
incidents  that  led  to  Dale's  settlement  at  Carr's  Lane  ; 
but  the  appointment  so  deeply  affected  the  whole  of  his 
after  life  and  the  history  of  the  church  with  which  he  thus 
became  associated,  that  some  outline  of  the  history  is 
indispensable. 

In  the  summer  of  1852  Mr.  James  entered  on  his 
sixty-eighth  year.  He  had  then  been  the  pastor  of  Carr's 
Lane  Church  for  forty-seven  years,  having  entered  upon 
his  ministry  in  1805,  when  he  was  only  just  twenty.  The 
earlier  history  of  the  congregation  over  which  he  was 
called  to  preside  is  not  without  interest.  The  church  was 
an  embodied  protest  against  Arianism.  It  had  been 
founded  in  1747  by  a  few  devout  men  who  seceded  from 
the  Old  Meeting,  where  up  to  that  time  the  principles  of 
Calvinism  had  been  held  and  taught.  But  now  Unitarian 
opinions  prevailed  among  its  members,  and  a  preacher  in 
sympathy  with  their  views  was  chosen  by  a  majority. 
After  an  ineffectual  protest,  the  orthodox  minority  with- 


72  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

drew,  leaving  the  place  in  the  possession  of  their  opponents 
who  became  the  centre  of  Unitarianism  in  Birmingham, 
while  they  settled  in  a  new  meeting-house  of  their  own. 
Four  ministers  followed  one  another  during  the  next  half- 
century,  the  last  of  them — the  Rev.  Jehoiada  Brewer — 
resigning  in  1802.  For  some  time  no  appointment  was 
made,  but  in  September  1804,  John  Angell  James,  after 
preaching  for  several  Sundays  during  his  summer  vacation 
— for  he  was  still  a  student — was  asked  to  fill  the  vacant 
pastorate.  He  accepted  the  call  ;  but  still  having  a  year 
of  his  college  course  to  complete,  he  did  not  enter  upon 
his  work  till  the  following  summer.  He  found  the  fortunes 
of  the  church  at  a  low  ebb :  its  prosperity  had  been 
seriously  affected,  at  first  by  internal  dissensions — Mr. 
Brewer  having  carried  off  half  of  the  members  with  him — 
and  then  by  the  want  of  a  settled  minister.  At  the  time 
of  Mr.  James's  appointment,  the  congregation  did  not 
number  more  than  150;  and  for  the  next  six  or  seven 
years  its  increase  was  slow.  Then  followed  a  period  of 
rapid  development  and  growing  prosperity.  A  new  chapel 
on  the  same  site  was  opened  in  1820,  to  hold  the  crowds 
which  Mr.  James's  ministry  had  attracted.  The  members 
on  the  church  roll,  as  distinct  from  the  congregation, 
were  counted  by  the  hundred  ;  and  their  number  eventually 
reached  a  thousand.  Carr's  Lane  became  a  great  centre 
of  spiritual  force,  and  its  pastor  exerted  an  influence 
extending  far  beyond  the  town  and  its  neighbourhood. 
He  became  one  of  the  most  famous  preachers  of  his  time. 
His  books  made  their  way  in  all  directions.  One  of  them, 
The  Anxious  Enquirer — of  which  we  have  heard  already 
— a  series  of  addresses  intended  for  persons  who  were 
earnestly  desiring  to  begin  to  live  a  religious  life,  had  an 
extraordinary  success  :  within  five  years  of  publication, 
200,000  copies  had  been  put  in  circulation  ;  before  Mr. 
James's  death  the  sale  had  reached  half  a  million,  and  the 
book  had  been  translated  into  a  dozen  languages.  In 
addition  to  his  work  as  author  and  preacher,  Mr.  James 
also  gave  much  time  and  strength  to  organised  effort  in 
association  with  others.      He  was  enthusiastic  in  his  support 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR  S  LANE  73 

of  foreign  missions,  especially  as  represented  by  the  London 
Missionary  Society.  He  took  a  leading  part  in  the 
foundation  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  designed  to  unite 
Protestant  Christendom  in  defence  of  the  truths  which  its 
Churches  held  in  common.  He  was  one  of  those  who 
attempted  to  draw  the  Congregational  churches  of  England 
more  closely  together  by  the  formation  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Union.  By  his  labours  in  behalf  of  Spring  Hill 
College  he  had  rendered  important  service  to  the  cause  of 
ministerial  education.  His  reputation  and  his  influence 
were  recognised  not  only  in  the  churches  of  his  own  order, 
but  far  beyond  denominational  limits.  Such  a  position 
is  not  attained  or  kept  without  genuine  force  of  character 
and  exceptional  endowments.  There  is  a  wide  distinction 
between  popularity  and  power.  Popularity  may  be,  and 
often  is,  the  result,  not  of  a  man's  strength  but  of  his 
weakness  :  it  may  be  won  by  inflated  rhetoric,  by  eccen- 
tricity, by  the  avoidance — whether  unconscious  or  deliberate 
— of  unpalatable  truth,  by  stimulating  and  satisfying  the 
craving  for  sensational  excitement.  But  power — the 
power  that  builds  up  a  church  ;  that  sustains  its  energies 
and  vigour  through  many  years  ;  that  brings  comfort  in 
sorrow,  strength  in  weakness,  succour  in  temptation  ;  that 
transforms  abstract  truth  into  a  living  fact  and  a  con- 
trolling law  ; — power  of  this  kind  is  no  common  gift : 
where  it  is  found,  it  cannot  exist  apart  from  some  high 
and  noble  qualities  ;  though  the  qualities  vary  in  different 
men.  What  were  the  elements  to  which  Mr.  James  was 
indebted  for  his  success  ? 

He  himself  has  answered  the  question  in  a  fragment  of 
autobiography,  as  modest  as  it  is  acute  in  the  recognition 
of  his  own  limitations.  He  frankly  avows  that  he  lacked 
learning  and  originality  ;  that  he  was  neither  philosopher 
nor  critic.  His  own  intellect  was  not  adventurous,  and 
he  could  "  start  no  mind  upon  a  new  track  of  investigation 
and  career  of  discovery."  No  glimpses  of  undiscovered 
truths,  he  tells  us,  have  flashed  upon  his  soul.  He 
describes  himself  as  "  a  mere  plodding,  working  husband- 
man,   using    old    implements    with    some    industry,    and 


74  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

following  old  methods  with  a  kind  of  dogged  perseverance 
and  considerable  success."  He  was  keenly  alive  to  the 
glory  and  the  responsibility  of  his  vocation,  and  his  motto 
throughout  his  ministry  had  always  been,  "  They  watch 
for  souls,  as  they  that  shall  give  account"  But  earnestness 
for  the  salvation  of  men,  and  a  resolute  adherence  to  time- 
honoured  methods,  were  by  no  means  his  only  qualifica- 
tions :  he  possessed  other  gifts,  without  which  he  would 
have  been  shorn  of  half  his  strength.  He  had  the  voice, 
the  presence,  the  instinct  of  the  orator  ;  and  after  a  few 
years  of  comparative  indolence  and  indifference,  he  had 
carefully  developed  and  disciplined  the  natural  resources  of 
his  eloquence.  Further,  he  was  distinguished  by  sagacity 
and  shrewdness  in  an  exceptional  degree.  He  understood 
men,  and  knew  how  to  deal  with  them  both  in  the  mass  and 
as  individuals.  His  acquaintance  with  the  human  heart, 
in  its  inmost  recesses,  was  wide  and  intimate.  The  weak- 
nesses of  human  nature,  and  the  remedies  of  weakness, 
were  familiar  to  him.  If  there  was  no  originality  in  his 
methods  of  treatment,  no  enterprise  in  his  science,  he  had 
the  skill  of  an  experienced  spiritual  physician.  And  all 
these  qualities  were  crowned  by  a  simplicity,  absolutely 
devoid  of  affectation  or  pretension,  and  incapable  of  any 
meanness  or  smallness.  Those  to  whom  his  confidence 
was  given  found  him  affectionate,  generous,  and  loyal.  It 
is  impossible,  even  now,  to  read  his  more  private  letters,  in 
which  we  see  him  as  he  was,  without  a  stirring  at  the 
heart  and  a  profound  sense  of  his  goodness  and  greatness. 
After  so  many  years  of  labour,  with  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  his  settlement  close  at  hand,  conscious  of 
increasing  age  and  of  failing  strength,  it  was  but  natural 
that  Mr.  James  should  contemplate  with  grave  anxiety  his 
retirement  from  the  ministry  and  the  changes  that  it 
would  involve.  It  was  not  in  him  to  exert  any  undue 
pressure,  or  to  attempt  to  force  his  own  preference  upon 
his  people ;  but  the  choice  which  they  would  have  to 
make  was  one  of  critical  importance,  and  he  was  anxious 
to  help  them  to  choose  wisely,  and  in  such  a  way  that  he 
might  be  able  to  look  forward  to  the  future  of  the  church 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR'S  LANE  75 

with  assured  confidence.  The  matter  was  continually 
present  to  his  mind,  and  such  was  his  solicitude,  as  he 
stated  in  one  of  his  addresses,  that  he  never  entered  his 
pulpit  on  a  Sunday  morning  without  a  silent  prayer  that 
when  he  should  be  taken  from  it,  the  church  might  be 
united  in  the  choice  of  a  successor. 

Soon  after  Dale  entered  college,  Mr.  James's  thoughts 
seem  to  have  turned  to  him.  He  treated  the  young 
student  with  exceptional  kindness,  and  manifested  an 
active  concern  for  his  spiritual  welfare.  A  notable  in- 
stance of  this  fatherly  solicitude  is  recorded  in  his 
Biography.  Reports  had  reached  him  that  Dale  was  in 
danger  of  drifting  into  heresy  or  scepticism,  and  one 
Saturday  he  sent  a  note  to  the  college  inviting  the 
student  to  dine  with  him  in  the  afternoon  :  as  a  general 
rule,  the  party  consisted  of  three  or  four,  but  on  that  day 
Dale  found  himself  a  solitary  guest. 

I  wondered  what  would  be  the  explanation  of  this.  At 
dinner  there  was  as  much  freedom  and  cordiality  on  his  part  as 
usual,  perhaps  more.  After  dinner,  he  asked  me  to  walk  up- 
stairs with  him  into  his  study.  As  soon  as  we  sat  down,  he 
drew  his  chair  to  the  front  of  the  fire,  and  bringing  his  great 
face  close  to  mine  he  said,  "  Mr.  Dale,  may  I  speak  plainly  to 
you?"  "As  plainly  as  you  like,  sir,"  was  the  reply.  Then 
came  out  what  he  had  heard,  and  what  he  feared.  I  answered 
him  very  frankly,  and,  as  he  might  have  justly  thought,  some- 
what presumptuously ;  but,  instead  of  reminding  me  of  my 
youth,  and  the  crudeness  of  my  intellectual  condition,  he  talked 
with  me  as  familiarly  and  freely  about  the  points  on  which  we 
differed,  as  though  he  had  been  a  lad  of  my  own  age  ;  with  far 
greater  toleration,  indeed,  of  what  he  thought  my  mistakes,  than 
a  lad  of  my  own  age  would  have  manifested. 

He  was  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Education,  and  some  of  his 
practical  recommendations  to  which  I  demurred  he  might  have 
authoritatively  enforced ;  but  with  admirable  patience  and  wis- 
dom he  never  passed  beyond  simple  argument  and  advice. 
Though  his  counsels,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  failed  to  influence  me, 
the  discovery  which  I  made  that  afternoon  of  the  simplicity  and 
generosity  of  his  temper,  and  his  genuine  and  deep  concern  for 
what  he  believed  to  be  my  spiritual  and  intellectual  perils, 
effected  a  complete  revolution  in  my  feelings  towards  him  ;  from 
that  time,  though  it  was  only  gradually  that  I  came  to  feel  his 


76  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

power,  I  venerated  his  goodness,  and  felt  that  in  any  trouble  he 
would  be  a  most  faithful  friend.1 

Eighteen  months  later,  as  we  have  already  seen,  at 
the  close  of  the  summer  vacation  of  i  849,  Dale  was  un- 
expectedly summoned  to  preach  at  Carr's  Lane  in  an 
emergency ;  and  rather  more  than  a  year  after  this,  Mr. 
James  begged  him  to  listen  to  "  no  hint  or  solicitation 
about  settling  with  a  congregation  without  first  consulting  " 
him.  In  November  185 1  he  went  a  step  farther,  and 
expressed  his  desire  that  Dale,  during  his  last  year  at 
college,  should  give  him  occasional  help,  with  the  prospect 
of  becoming  his  assistant  at  the  end  of  another  year. 
The  plan,  however,  was  to  remain  a  profound  secret  until 
the  time  for  action  should  arrive.  With  this  project  in 
his  mind,  Mr.  James  took  every  opportunity  of  bringing 
Dale  under  the  notice  of  the  church  ;  and  in  the  autumn 
of  1852  he  began  by  arrangement  to  preach  regularly  at 
Carr's  Lane  on  the  first  Sunday  morning  in  every  month, 
when  the  Communion  service  which  followed  ensured  a 
large  attendance  of  church  members,  while  it  laid  an 
additional  tax  on  the  pastor's  strength.  He  also  preached 
at  other  times  as  often  as  Mr.  James  required  his  help. 

To  many  men  of  Dale's  age,  such  a  position  and  its 
prospects  would  have  been  supremely  attractive :  they 
had  no  charm  for  him.  At  that  time  he  looked  forward 
to  studying  in  Germany  for  a  few  sessions  after  leaving 
college ;  and  the  engagement  at  Carr's  Lane  would 
compel  him  to  relinquish  this  plan.  He  had  other  and 
weightier  reasons  for  reluctance.  Even  if  he  should 
prove  successful  while  associated  with  Mr.  James  in  the 
work  of  the  ministry,  he  had  no  confidence  that  such 
success  would  continue  if  at  any  time  the  sole  charge 
devolved  upon  himself.  He  had  grave  doubts  as  to  the 
stability  of  the  church  at  Carr's  Lane.  Soon  after  he 
first  came  to  Birmingham  he  had  predicted,  with  an 
excess  of  dogmatism,  that  "  the  church  will  go  to  pieces 
as  soon  as  Mr.  James  goes  to  heaven  "  :  the  congregation 

1  Life  of  John  Angell  James,  p.  45S. 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR'S  LANE 


77 


appeared  to  him  as  a  mere  mass  of  heterogeneous 
elements,  "  without  any  principle  of  cohesion  save  the 
name  —  John  Angell  James."  This,  he  says,  "  binds 
them  like  a  spell."  And  in  perfect  unconsciousness  of  his 
own  destiny  he  adds,  "  God  bless  his  successor  !  " 

It  is  probable  that  longer  experience  and  fuller 
knowledge  may  have  led  him  to  modify  these  earlier 
impressions,  but  the  conditions  of  ministerial  activity  in 
such  a  church  were  not  such  as  appealed  most  strongly 
to  his  sympathy.  Had  he  been  free  to  follow  his  own 
inclination,  he  would  have  sought  for  work  of  a  very 
different  type.  In  Birmingham,  at  Hanley,  and  else- 
where, he  had  already  attempted  to  reach  the  men  and 
women  who  were  not  brought  into  contact  with  the 
ordinary  work  of  the  churches.  The  movement  to 
evangelise  the  irreligious  masses  in  the  great  towns  was 
then  gathering  strength :  it  seemed  to  open  up  new 
possibilities  of  service,  and  Dale  believed  that  this  was 
the  special  work  to  which  he  had  been  called.  The 
scheme  which  he  had  cherished  in  imagination  was  "  to 
find  a  small  congregation  of  poor  people  in  the  heart  of  a 
manufacturing  district,  and  to  make  it  the  pivot  and 
centre  of  an  active  system  of  evangelistic  labours  among 
the  surrounding  myriads  of  working  people."  This 
dream,  too,  had  to  be  abandoned  ;  and  it  was  abandoned 
very  reluctantly. 

The  sacrifice  was  severe.  But  Dale  had  already 
mastered  the  truth  on  which  he  laid  such  stress  in  later 
years — that  the  man  who  disregards  duty  to  follow  ideals 
of  his  own,  however  noble,  who  thinks  first  of  his  own 
preferences,  or  even  of  his  own  powers,  and  chooses  his 
work  instead  of  taking  up  the  work  to  which  he  is  called, 
is  imperilling  much  more  than  mere  success.  And  in  his 
own  case,  after  long  and  anxious  consideration,  there 
seemed  to  be  no  alternative,  no  way  of  escape.  The  post 
was  not  of  his  own  seeking  :  the  work  had  sought  him. 
He  had  won  Mr.  James's  confidence  and  affection.  The 
people  listened  to  him  with  growing  interest.  The  church 
seemed  made  for  him — and  he  for  the  church.      To  refuse 


7S  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  invitation  was  practically  out  of  the  question.  So,  in 
the  autumn  of  1852,  the  experiment  began,  without  any 
enthusiasm  on  his  part,  but  with  a  loyal  resolve  to  do  his 
best  for  Mr.  James  and  for  Carr's  Lane,  and  to  walk 
steadfastly  along  the  path  of  duty  into  which  he  had  been 
led.  However,  before  many  months  had  passed,  there  were 
signs  of  increasing  hopefulness.  Writing  to  a  friend,  in 
December  1852,  he  says  : — 

So  far,  all  things  seem  prosperous.  Mr.  James  seems  well 
pleased,  and  expresses  himself  in  his  usual  emphatic  way  in 
approbation  of  my  proceedings.  The  people  are  more  than 
cordial ;  the  congregations,  as  yet,  all  that  heart  could  wish  ; 
and  some,  I  am  told,  who  were  at  first  rather  opposed  to  my 
coming,  are  now  among  the  number  of  my  friends.  And  I 
myself  begin  to  like  the  place,  and  to  feel  some  warmth  of 
interest  in  the  success  of  the  project. 

Another  letter,  written  a  few  months  later,  enters  into 
fuller  detail,  and  also  gives  some  indication  of  the  course 
of  his  inner  life :  seasons  of  conflict — alternations  of  ebb 
and  flow  in  spiritual  experience — still  recurred  ;  and  at 
times  the  whole  sky  seemed  overcast. 


To  Mrs.  Cash 

[1853-] 

You  will  be  interested  to  know  that  my  connection  with  Mr. 
James  is  going  on  prosperously;  the  people  seem  sufficiently 
well  pleased,  and  he  too  appears  full  of  hope.  Even  I  begin 
to  feel  a  keener  and  deeper  interest  in  the  success  of  the 
experiment.  You  know  that  at  first  I  was  quite  indifferent 
about  the  matter ;  felt  it  my  clear  and  imperative  duty  to  try, 
but  rather  hoped  it  might  turn  out  against  my  continuance  than 
not.  I  have  not  quite  overcome  my  shrinking  from  the  future 
to  which  success  would  bring  me,  but  feel  much  more  warmly 
towards  the  place  than  I  did. 

The  young  men  and  working  people  connected  with  the 
place  and  around  it  have  fairly  laid  hold  of  my  heart,  and  I 
should  certainly  like  to  try  what  may  be  done  for  them  by  a  new 
and  young  hand. 

You  have  probably  heard  how  unwell  Mr.  James  has  been  of 
late.     He  is  now  very  much  better :  indeed  he  is  quite  himself 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR'S  LANE  79 

again.  His  indisposition  laid  a  little  extra  work  upon  me 
necessarily,  but  he  eases  me  as  much  as  possible.  I  like  him 
better  and  better  the  more  I  know  of  him ;  the  inside  is  better 
than  the  outside. 

I  had  a  letter  from  your  old  friend,  Mr.  Guest,  the  other 
day.  He  was  about  to  hold  a  series  of  revival  services,  and 
wrote  a  very  pressing  request  that  I  should  go  and  take  part  in 
them.  His  letter  was  of  the  emphatically  earnest  sort :  his 
heart  is  evidently  full  of  hope  and  enthusiasm  ;  I  was  sorry  to  be 
obliged  to  decline ;  it  might  have  done  me  good  to  get  into  the 
midst  of  a  furnace.  It  is  hard  work  —  at  least  I  find  it  so 
increasingly — to  keep  at  all  within  sight  of  the  law  and  the 
example.  The  whole  process  and  movement  of  the  interior  life 
seems  in  my  eyes  day  by  day  more  mysterious.  Seasons  of 
depression,  heavy,  terrible,  overwhelming,  come  over  me 
apparently  without  any  very  definite  cause ;  stay  in  spite  of 
means  which  seem  most  powerful  to  effect  their  removal ;  and 
then  suddenly  break  off  and  depart  at  the  bidding  of  a  single 
text  of  Scripture  perhaps,  or  a  single  prayer,  or  a  single  word 
from  a  Christian  friend ;  or  a  single  train  of  commonplace 
reflections.  The  misery  and  astonishing  folly  is  that  one  forgets 
so  frequently  what  it  has  cost  days  of  agony  to  learn,  and  only 
begins  to  remember  it  when  immense  mischief  has  already  been 
brought  about  through  forgetting  it.  If  all  the  truths  which 
have  been  realised  and  made  precious  by  the  successive  eras  of 
our  religious  progress,  all  the  facts  which  at  different  times  have 
assumed  to  our  spiritual  consciousness  the  hardness  and  grim- 
ness  of  a  rock,  all  the  wisdom  which  has  come  from  the  lips  of 
others,  or  has  been  painfully  learnt  from  doubt  and  difficulty 
and  sin  and  folly,  could  be  kept  visibly  and  consciously  before 
the  mind,  how  different  our  life  would  be.  Why,  even  that 
blessed  text,  "The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  us  from  all 
sin,"  which  sometimes  comes  down  on  the  heart  like  a  whole 
heaven  of  peace  and  joy  and  glory,  will  at  other  times  be  as 
meaningless  as  the  darkest  sayings  of  the  prophets,  or  as 
powerless  as  the  vainest  utterances  of  human  folly.  And  then 
just  as  one  is  bemoaning  its  darkness,  it  will  suddenly  blaze  out 
in  astonishing  brightness,  and  almost  startle  the  heart  by  its 
revelations  of  safety  and  strength. 

Perhaps  we  are  sometimes  driven  out  into  the  desert,  right 
away  from  all  joy  and  strength,  that  we  may  be  made  more 
meek  and  humble  in  our  reproof  of  others  who,  we  think,  are 
forgetful  of  the  central  Life  and  Light  and  Love.  How  im- 
periously and  vehemently  we  are  tempted  sometimes  to  reprove 
those  who  are  shivering  and  trembling  in  darkness  and  cold,  for 


So  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

not  coming  to  the  Lord  whom  they  know,  but  unaccountably 
forget.  When  such  times  of  forgetfulness  come  upon  ourselves 
we  learn,  not  indeed  to  think  less  lightly  of  the  sin  of  this  forget- 
fulness, but  to  speak  more  lovingly  to  those  who  are  guilty 
of  it. 

But  these  struggles,  as  he  was  well  aware,  came  not 
from  outward  circumstances,  but  from  natural  tempera- 
ment ;  change  of  place,  change  of  work,  would  not  put  an 
end  to  them.  And  so  he  began  to  take  root  where  he 
was.  His  feeling  about  Carr's  Lane  was  also  modified 
by  the  possibilities  of  future  development  which  he  now 
foresaw.  At  the  outset  he  had  been  repelled — mainly,  if 
not  entirely — by  the  conventional  respectability  of  the 
church  and  its  members.  A  long  course  of  prosperity, 
he  thought,  had  made  them  unduly  satisfied  with  things 
as  they  were  ;  they  lacked  enterprise,  were  self-centred, 
and  seemed  incapable  of  any  aggressive  movement  for  the 
social  and  moral  redemption  of  the  vicious  and  the 
degraded.  To  the  ardour  and  the  enthusiasm  of  youth 
all  this  was  intolerable :  his  ideal  was,  not  to  inherit 
history,  but  to  make  it.  But  now  there  was  some 
prospect  of  a  great  and  far-reaching  change.  Edgbaston, 
which  had  been  a  country  parish  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
town,  was  rapidly  being  transformed  into  a  residential 
suburb.  Its  population  was  increasing  every  year  ;  the 
necessity  of  providing  religious  accommodation  for  its 
wants  was  becoming  urgent ;  and  if  Congregationalism 
failed  to  meet  the  call,  it  could  not  hold  its  own.  A  plan 
for  building  a  chapel  in  Edgbaston  was,  therefore,  set  on 
foot — it  was  in  fact  suggested  by  Dale  himself.  Mr. 
James  acquiesced,  though  not  without  reluctance.  He  felt 
that  there  was  hardly  room  for  a  new  church  of  new 
materials,  and  that  whatever  support  the  venture  might 
secure  must  necessarily  be  drawn  from  churches  already 
existing.  Modern  habits,  he  pointed  out,  were  leading 
all  the  more  substantial  people  out  of  the  heart  of  the 
town,  and  a  family  when  once  withdrawn  from  Carr's 
Lane  would  not  return.  But  to  the  younger  man  such  a 
result,    if   it    should    be     brought    about,    was    far    from 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR  S  LANE  81 

unwelcome :  it  gave  promise  of  realising  dreams  and 
aspirations  he  had  long  cherished  ;  and  in  a  letter  to  his 
friend  Glanville,  he  dwells  on  the  prospect  with  delight. 

To  Mr.  E.  G.  Glanville 

[1853.] 

This  (Mr.  James's  objection)  was  rather  a  new  view  of  the 
matter  to  me,  but  has  suggested  a  glorious  picture  if  the  present 
treaty  is  concluded,  and  if  it  leads  ultimately  to  a  more  permanent 
connection.  My  idea  has  always  been  that  Carr's  Lane,  by  its 
position  in  the  town  and  by  its  size,  must  ultimately  become  the 
centre  of  Christian  effort  directed  to  the  lower  part  of  the  middle 
and  working  classes,  and  that  its  present  "  respectability  "  must 
in  a  measure  disappear  if  it  is  to  retain  any  life  and  power ;  but 
I  apprehended  that  this  change  would  be  in  some  measure  a 
violent  and  forced  thing.  Does  not  this  emigration  of  the  higher 
people  to  the  outskirts  indicate  very  clearly  that  the  natural 
tendency  of  Carr's  Lane  must  be  down  to  the  gutters  ?  And  if 
so,  has  not  Carr's  Lane  a  future  ?  May  not  this  dissipate  in 
some  measure  the  terror  that  any  man  must  feel  at  thinking  of 
holding  together  the  present  people,  or  the  present  sort  of 
people  ?  I  look  at  Mr.  James's  proposals  now  with  greatly 
increased  hopefulness.  My  former  feeling  was,  If  I  can  do  any- 
thing to  help  him  now,  and  if  ultimately  I  can  do  anything  to 
prevent  or  soften  a  break-up,  it  is  my  clear  duty  to  listen  to  his 
offer.  But  now  I  seem  to  feel  that  it  will  be  a  place — if  I  should 
really  occupy  it — somewhat  after  my  own  heart.  And  I  think, 
too,  that  it  might  get  a  minister  who  would  be  so  anxious  to 
retain  the  present  honour  and  glory  of  the  place,  that  he  would 
sacrifice  and  check  the  new  life  and  history  which  would 
naturally  arise  if  the  meaning  and  direction  of  its  present  and 
immediately  coming  affairs  are  understood  and  sympathised 
with.  It  would  be  ten  thousand  pities  if  this  happened :  to 
prevent  Carr's  Lane  becoming  what  it  must  become  if  it  is  to 
live  at  all — the  church  of  the  multitude — would  be  to  stop  one 
of  the  finest  and  most  hopeful  movements  conceivable. 

It  was  well  that  he  had  other  work  to  occupy  his 
thoughts  while  the  experiment  was  in  progress.  In  the 
arrangement  made  between  them,  Mr.  James  had  been 
careful  to  provide  that  the  demands  upon  him  for  service 
in  the  pulpit  should  not  be  excessive.  The  London  M.A. 
G 


82  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

examination,  for  which  he  was  a  candidate,  took  place  in 
the  following  summer,  and  it  was  important  that  he  should 
have  abundant  leisure  for  the  work  of  preparation.  Upon 
the  necessity  of  this  Mr.  James  laid  great  stress.  Though 
no  student  himself,  he  set  a  high  value  upon  accurate 
scholarship  and  the  mental  discipline  afforded  by  the 
systematic  study  of  philosophy.  Even  had  his  judgment 
been  less  decided,  interest  and  affection  would  have  made 
him  anxious  that  his  young  friend  should  be  free  to  do  his 
best.  The  result  of  the  examination  surpassed  the  most 
sanguine  hopes.  In  philosophy  Dale  stood  first,  and  won 
the  gold  medal.  To  the  friends  of  Spring  Hill  College 
his  success  was  the  more  welcome  owing  to  the  fact  that 
the  medal  had  been  awarded  the  year  before  to  a  fellow- 
student,  the  Rev.  R.  A.  Redford  ;  it  was  reserved  for  Dr. 
Paton  a  twelvemonth  later  to  repeat  his  friend's  achieve- 
ment— no  slight  evidence  of  the  enthusiasm  with  which 
Mr.  Rogers  had  inspired  his  pupils. 

In  the  summer  of  1853  Dale's  college  course  came  to 
an  end,  and  also  the  temporary  engagement  into  which 
he  had  entered  ;  it  now  became  a  question  of  some  more 
permanent  arrangement,  and  at  a  meeting  held  on  1st 
July  the  church  was  asked  to  sanction  his  appointment  as 
assistant.  Among  Congregationalists — as  he  himself  has 
explained — such  an  assistant  has  no  official  standing,  no 
pastoral  authority  :  he  is  only  a  private  member  of  the 
church,  who  aids  the  pastor  in  certain  kinds  of  ministerial 
duty  ;  he  may  not  have  been  ordained  ;  in  some  churches 
custom  might  preclude  him  from  administering  baptism  or 
presiding  at  the  Lord's  Supper.  In  most  cases,  if  not 
universally,  he  is  not  chosen  or  appointed  by  the  church, 
but  by  the  pastor  whom  he  assists.  But  in  accordance 
with  the  spirit  and  principles  of  Congregationalism  it  is  at 
least  advisable  that  the  church  should  have  an  opportunity 
of  expressing  its  opinion  on  such  an  appointment.1  Such 
was  the  course  adopted  on  this  occasion  :  the  church  was 
taken  into  counsel.  The  pastor  himself  proposed  that 
Dale  should  be  appointed  "  assistant  preacher  " — the  title 

1  Life  of  John  Angell  James,  p.  464. 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR'S  LANE  83 

"  minister  "  is  carefully  avoided  throughout — to  share  with 
him  the  duties  of  the  pulpit  and  to  render  such  other 
ministerial  aid  as  he  might  require.  This  and  other 
resolutions  embodying  the  terms  of  the  engagement  were 
unanimously  approved.  The  invitation  was  conveyed  to 
Dale  in  an  official  letter — he  had  arranged  to  be  away 
from  Birmingham  while  the  matter  was  under  discussion — 
and  Mr.  James  also  wrote  on  his  own  behalf  at  the  same 
time.  His  letter  in  reply  to  Mr.  James  shows  with  how 
deep  a  sense  of  responsibility  he  accepted  the  position 
now  offered  to  him. 

To  Mr.  James 

Wallop,  near  Stockbridge, 
1th  July  1853. 

You  are  not  quite  ignorant  of  how  greatly  I  have  trembled  at 
even  the  distant  and  uncertain  prospect  of  the  responsibilities 
which  you  now  invite  me  to  undertake.  In  no  circumstances 
would  it  be  possible  for  me  to  enter  upon  the  duties  of  the 
ministry  without  terror  and  distress  at  the  possibility  of  my 
proving  altogether  unfit  and  unfaithful ;  and  at  Carr's  Lane  the 
interests  to  be  affected  by  my  failure  or  success  are  so  vast 
that  my  apprehensions  are  necessarily  greatly  heightened  and 
aggravated. 

But  I  feel  much  as  Moses  must  have  felt  when,  with  the 
mountains  on  one  hand  and  the  hosts  of  Egypt  on  the  other,  he 
was  commanded  to  lead  Israel  across  the  Red  Sea.  God  has 
left  me  no  choice  ;  and  I  therefore  yield  to  your  wish  and  that  of 
the  church,  painfully  conscious,  indeed,  of  my  weakness  and 
ignorance,  and  yet  with  a  deeply  rooted  confidence  that,  while 
following  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire,  I  shall  be  sure  of  finding 
the  heavenly  manna  and  the  living  water  which  will  meet  all  my 
wants  and  sustain  and  increase  my  vigour  even  under  the  pressure 
of  all  certain  and  possible  difficulties.  For  the  work  that  God 
sends  us,  I  know  that  He  gives  wisdom  and  strength. 

I  cannot  of  course  be  insensible  of  the  great  encouragement 
afforded  by  your  own  hopefulness  and  confidence  as  to  the  result 
of  this  arrangement,  and  by  the  perfect  unanimity  of  the  church 
in  passing  the  resolutions  in  reference  to  it ;  but  I  find  still 
greater  support  in  remembering  that  the  decision  of  the  church 
was  not  formed  without  long  and  earnest  looking  to  God  both  on 
your  part  and  theirs :  you  have  acknowledged  Him  in  all  your 


84  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

ways ;  He  has  surely  directed  your  paths.  And  now  that  I  am 
so  soon  coming  to  work  with  you,  I  beseech  you  to  remember 
my  youth  and  inexperience,  the  difficulties  which  I  have  to 
encounter  in  my  own  solitary  and  personal  struggle  with  sin,  my 
limited  and  shallow  knowledge  of  that  Book  whose  contents  I 
have  to  expound  and  enforce,  and  of  that  fallen  and  mysterious 
human  nature  which  the  minister  has  to  enlighten,  rebuke,  and 
by  God's  good  help  to  persuade.  Your  prayers  and  sympathy 
and  counsel  and  reproof  are  among  the  more  human  foundations 
of  my  hope.  The  prospect  of  being  associated  with  you  is  a 
delight,  and  the  conviction  that  you  will  be  to  me  in  the  future, 
as  you  have  been  already,  a  wise,  kind,  frank  counsellor  and 
friend  is  the  source  of  much  strength.  I  shall  not  forget  your 
promise  of  sending  me  before  we  meet  some  suggestions  in 
reference  to  my  future  course.  I  shall  receive  them,  and  all  the 
counsels  with  which  you  may  favour  me,  with  the  most  respectful 
deference  and  affectionate  gratitude. 

The  situation  was  not  without  its  difficulties  —  and 
even  its  dangers  ;  this  fact  was  clearly  recognised  on  both 
sides.  Where  two  men  differ  in  character  and  tempera- 
ment, in  habits  of  thought  and  methods  of  expression,  and 
are  also  separated  by  a  wide  interval  of  age,  complete  and 
cordial  co-operation  in  ministerial  work  is  no  easy  matter. 
Personal  preferences  spring  up  among  their  congregation  ; 
and  such  preferences  often  provoke  party  spirit.  Jealousy, 
suspicion,  distrust,  are  too  readily  excited  ;  and  the  strife 
to  which  these  passions  give  rise  is  fatal  to  the  strength 
and  peace  of  a  church.  Personal  affection  on  the  part  of 
those  who  stand  in  such  a  relation  to  one  another  is  in- 
deed indispensable  :  but  affection  in  itself  is  not  enough  ; 
without  frankness,  forbearance,  and  an  absolute  loyalty, 
the  strain  must  become  intolerable.  It  was,  perhaps,  well 
both  for  Mr.  James  and  his  assistant  that  an  opportunity 
of  testing  one  another  arose  before  negotiations  were  actu- 
ally concluded.  Dale  had  reason  to  believe  that  it  was 
proposed  to  make  him  an  assistant,  not  so  much  at  Carr's 
Lane  as  at  Lozells — a  church  in  another  part  of  the 
town,  at  that  time  without  a  pastor,  and  in  straits.  To 
accept  an  appointment  on  these  terms,  he  felt,  would  com- 
promise the  future  irretrievably.      He  was  anxious — more 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR  S  LANE  85 

than  anxious — to  serve  Mr.  James  and  his  people  to  the 
full  extent  of  his  powers.  He  was  willing  to  be  an 
assistant,  and  to  remain  an  assistant,  without  any  pros- 
pect of  promotion,  if  they  so  wished.  But  if  it  was  in 
their  minds  that  in  course  of  time  he  might  come  to  share 
the  pastorate,  he  was  unwilling  to  commit  himself  at  the 
outset  to  an  arrangement  that  could  not  fail  to  disqualify 
him  for  any  such  position.  He  was  wise  enough  to  refer 
the  matter  to  Mr.  James  at  once,  expressing  what  he 
thought  and  felt,  without  reserve,  but  with  modesty  and 
good  temper.      His  letter  was  as  follows  : — 


To  Mr.  James 

2%!h  May  1853. 

For  some  time  past  I  have  had  a  conviction  that  it  would  be 
well  to  have  some  communication  with  you  in  order  to  prevent 
the  possibility  of  my  misunderstanding  the  nature  of  the  position 
or  the  kind  of  work  which  will  attach  to  the  proposed  assistant- 
ship  at  Carr's  Lane.  This  conviction  was  strengthened  by  a 
conversation  I  had  this  morning  with  Mr.  Williams  of  the 
Lozells. 

It  is  now  some  time  since  he  first  mentioned  to  me  that  you 
thought  that  when  I  came  to  be  more  fully  engaged  with  you, 
you  might  with  myself  be  able  to  give  the  church  at  Lozells 
regular  and  continuous  pulpit  help.  He  told  me  this  morning 
that  you  had  spoken  to  him  again  about  this  plan  a  day  or  two 
ago.  My  sympathy  with  that  unfortunate  church  is  so  strong 
that  it  would  be  a  great  delight  to  me  to  give  them  aid  in  any 
shape;  but  there  seem  to  me  to  be  several  objections  against 
this  plan  as  Mr.  Williams  described  it ;  and  one  or  two  of  the 
objections  are  of  such  a  general  nature  that  to  state  them  will,  I 
think,  enable  you  to  judge  how  far  my  idea  of  the  assistantship 
corresponds  with  your  own. 

The  object  of  the  assistantship  I  suppose  to  be,  to  relieve 
you  as  far  as  possible  and  necessary  of  that  part  of  your  pastoral 
work  which  can  be  done  by  deputy — especially  to  conduct  Bible 
classes  and  attend  to  the  schools — and  to  give  you  such  help 
in  the  pulpit  as  you  may  wish  to  have ;  and  thus  to  smooth  the 
way,  while  undergoing  a  probation,  for  a  near  or  distant  co- 
pastorate.  Hence  the  position  and  duties  of  the  assistant  should 
be  such  as  to  make  the  transition  to  the  co-pastor  as  easy  as 


86  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

possible  ;  and  it  would  seem  to  be  of  great  importance  that  there 
should  be  as  little  as  possible  in  his  official  position  while  assistant 
to  increase  in  the  eyes  of  the  people  that  immense  distance, 
morally  and  personally,  which  must  separate  him  from  yourself. 
The  plan  in  reference  to  Lozells  of  which  Mr.  Williams  was 
speaking  this  morning  will  serve,  I  think,  to  illustrate  what 
would  appear  to  me  to  be  a  violation  of  this  principle. 

Of  course,  if  the  plan  were  carried  into  effect,  it  would  be 
only  natural  and  right — and  it  would  be  in  perfect  harmony  with 
my  own  feeling — that  you  should  be  in  the  Lozells  pulpit  far 
less  frequently  than  myself;  and  the  whole  working  of  the 
Lozells  would  fall  more  naturally  into  my  hands  than  yours. 
The  result  would  be  that  to  the  people  both  there  and  at  Carr's 
Lane,  I  should  appear  to  be  your  assistant  at  Lozells  and  your 
occasional  helper  at  Carr's  Lane ;  or  rather,  a  kind  of  superior 
town  missionary  with  a  preaching  station  at  Lozells.  Now 
personally  I  should  not  care  one  whit  about  this ;  but  would  this 
inferiority  of  position  be  likely  to  aid  or  hinder  the  securing  that 
respect  and  confidence  from  the  church  and  people  at  Carr's 
Lane,  which  it  will  and  ought  to  be  the  hardest  thing  for  your 
colleague — whoever  he  may  be — to  gain  ? 

If  it  were  understood  that  your  assistant  is  intended  to  re- 
main an  assistant  only,  I  should  ask  for  no  explanations,  but 
engage  to  do  anything  and  everything,  anywhere  and  everywhere  ; 
for  both  in  your  justice  and  generous  consideration  I  have 
unlimited  confidence.  But  as  it  seems  to  be  your  wish  that  the 
assistant,  if  faithful  and  efficient,  should  ultimately  become  co- 
pastor,  the  future  must  be  considered  as  well  as  the  present ;  and 
you  wish,  I  am  sure,  to  keep  that  future  in  view  in  all  your 
arrangements.  I  have  written  because  I  think  that  there  may 
be  some  things  in  the  aspect  of  the  assistant's  position  from  my 
point  of  view  which  may  be  concealed  from  your  own  eye. 

Any  amount  of  preaching  or  teaching  at  Carr's  Lane,  or 
pastoral  work  of  any  kind  in  connection  with  the  church  there 
which  you  might  wish  me  to  undertake,  I  would  try  to  do 
earnestly  and  faithfully.  I  should  esteem  it  at  once  a  duty  of 
peculiar  sacredness  and  a  great  delight  to  relieve  you  of  any 
work  which  you  may  find  burdensome,  and  to  carry  out  under 
your  direction  plans  which  your  own  endless  engagements  have 
prevented  you  undertaking.  This  would,  I  think,  occupy  my 
time  pretty  well :  it  would  be  no  sinecure  allowing  of  pluralities  ; 
but  I  should  of  course  be  glad  when  at  leisure  to  help  a  church 
so  intimately  connected  with  Carr's  Lane  as  Lozells,  just  as  I 
should  be  ready  to  give  occasional  help  to  Palmer  Street,  or 
Bordesley  Street ;  but  I  should  not  think  it  just  to  that  future 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR'S  LANE  87 

position— the  prospect  of  which  should  regulate  present  arrange- 
ments— to  undertake  as  a  matter  of  duty  to  preach  at  any  of 
the  three. 

I  trust  that  this  letter  expresses  my  meaning  clearly;  and 
that  you  will  believe  that  it  is  written  with  the  utmost  respect, 
affection,  and  confidence,  and  prompted  by  an  earnest  desire  that 
your  plans  for  the  welfare  of  your  church  may  secure  the  high 
ends  to  which  they  are  directed. 

Mr.  James's  letter  in  reply  was  both  full  and  reassuring  : 
it  removed  all  possibility  of  misunderstanding.  Mr. 
James's  intention  was,  and  had  been,  that  he  and  his 
assistant  should  share  the  work  at  Carr's  Lane  and 
Lozells  equally — in  short,  to  avoid  the  very  danger  that 
had  excited  Dale's  apprehension.  Mr.  James  also  took 
occasion  to  state  his  plans  for  the  future  in  more  definite 
terms  than  he  had  hitherto  employed,  having  assumed — 
as  men  are  apt  to  assume — that  what  was  present  to  his 
own  mind  was  known  to  others  also.  As  he  now 
explained,  the  experiment  of  the  first  year  had  been 
intended  to  determine  whether  their  relationship  should 
proceed  further  ;  the  second  year's  probation,  as  assistant, 
was  to  serve  a  like  purpose  ;  should  it  prove  satis- 
factory to  the  church  and  to  himself,  it  was  his  own  wish 
that  at  the  end  of  that  period  Dale  should  become  his 
colleague  in  the  pastorate.  In  order  to  prevent  all 
collision  between  two  co-ordinate  powers,  Mr.  James — 
following  a  plan  adopted  elsewhere — proposed  to  reserve 
to  himself  the  right  of  presiding  at  church-meetings  and 
at  the  Communion  service.  In  all  other  respects  the  two 
pastors  were  to  stand  on  the  same  footing.  This  detailed 
explanation,  giving  form  and  substance  to  a  scheme  that 
had  hitherto  been  indefinite,  took  Dale  by  surprise.  It 
had  not  occurred  to  him  that  his  probation  might  be  so 
brief,  and  that  he  might  so  soon  be  called  to  undertake  the 
larger  responsibilities  of  the  pastorate.  He  was  touched 
to  the  heart  by  this  mark  of  confidence,  and  especially  by 
the  overflowing  affection  expressed  in  the  closing  sentences 
of  Mr.  James's  letter.  When  he  replied,  the  tide  of 
emotion  was  still  strong. 


88  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

To  Mr.  James 

31  si  Af ay  1853. 

Your  letter  has  moved  me  so  deeply  that  I  scarcely  know 
how  or  what  to  reply.  Irrepressible  tears  express  more 
adequately  than  words  the  feelings  with  which  I  have  read  it. 
If  I  had  written  on  Saturday  with  the  slightest  degree  of  mis- 
trust, the  generous  confidence  and  more  than  paternal  affection 
of  your  letter  this  morning  would  have  filled  me  with  pain  and 
distress  :  as  it  is,  I  am  humbled,  deeply  humbled,  with  a  sense  of 
how  unworthy  I  am  to  be  the  object  of  such  regard. 

Everything  is  now  explained — I  will  not  say  to  my  satisfac- 
tion, for  that  would  imply  that  I  expected  all  you  have  proposed ; 
but  although  I  have  always  felt  that  an  assistantship  lasting  for 
more  than  two  or  three  years  would  not  be  so  well  for  the  church 
as  a  co-pastorate — if  it  were  possible — I  did  not  suppose  that  you 
thought  of  terminating  the  assistantship  so  early.  Indeed,  I 
shrink  from  the  idea  of  ever  holding  an  office  or  bearing  a  title 
that  would  suggest  even  for  a  moment  any  relation  between 
yourself  and  me  but  that  of  paternal  superintendence  and  filial 
co-operation.  Dr.  Cox's  arrangement  solves  the  difficulty :  I 
should  not  only  be  "content"  to  hold  a  "second  place";  in  no 
other  should  I  feel  at  perfect  ease.   .   .  . 

With  your  confidence  and  that  of  the  people,  I  should  rejoice 
to  give  heart  and  soul,  body  and  mind,  hand  and  tongue,  to 
God's  work  in  Birmingham.  There  was  a  time  when,  from 
many  things  which  had  been  told  me  about  your  people,  I  had 
small  faith  in  them :  it  is  different  now. 

I  dare  not  trust  myself  to  refer  to  the  closing  paragraph  of 
your  letter :  I  can  only  look  to  God  and  pray  Him  to  forgive  me 
that  I  am  so  unworthy  of  such  solicitude,  and  to  answer  your 
prayers  on  my  behalf.  And  may  God  enrich  your  own  heart 
with  such  grace  and  peace  and  power  as  shall  make  your  earthly 
life  very  near  to  the  blessedness  of  the  life  to  come.  I  shall  not 
forget  your  promise  to  speak  to  me  as  frankly  as  I  have  ventured 
to  speak  to  you. 

After  the  vote  of  the  church  in  July  had  sanctioned  the 
appointment,  it  was  arranged  that  Dale  should  begin  his 
work  on  the  first  Sunday  in  August.  On  the  previous 
Sunday  Mr.  James  took  for  his  text — "  Now,  if  Timotheus 
come,  see  that  he  may  be  with  you  without  fear :  for  he 
worketh  the  work  of  the  Lord,  as  I  also  do.  Let  no  man 
therefore    despise  him  :   but   conduct  him   forth    in   peace, 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR'S  LANE  89 

that  he  may  come  unto  me  :  for  I  look  for  him  with  the 
brethren  "  (1  Cor.  xvi.  10,  11).  Writing  to  Dale  about  the 
sermon  and  other  matters,  he  adds  :  "  There  is  little  ground 
for  the  fear  mentioned  in  the  text,  but  I  have  thought  it 
not  unreasonable  to  require  for  you  a  warm-hearted,  con- 
fidential reception."  And  that  a  divine  blessing  might  not 
be  wanting,  the  sermon  was  followed  by  an  earnest  prayer 
based  on  the  words,  "  I  am  sure  that,  when  I  come  unto 
you,  I  shall  come  in  the  fulness  of  the  blessing  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ"  (Rom.  xv.  29).  Mr.  James's  thoughtful 
consideration  did  not  stop  here.  He  spared  himself  no 
pains  :  he  hunted  for  lodgings  ;  he  busied  himself  with 
arrangements,  omitting  no  detail,  however  trivial,  that 
might  promote  his  friend's  comfort  and  happiness. 

There  is  no  incident  of  importance  to  record  in  the 
history  of  the  next  few  months.  Nothing  occurred  to 
lessen  confidence  or  to  impair  affection  or  harmony  ;  both 
pastor  and  people  had  every  reason  to  rejoice  in  the  result 
of  the  experiment.  When  the  following  summer  came — 
in  June  1854 — at  a  conference  of  Mr.  James  and  the 
deacons,  all  agreed  that  steps  should  at  once  be  taken  to 
invite  Dale  to  the  co-pastorate.  Certain  doctrinal  clauses 
in  the  trust-deed,  as  to  which  Dale  was  not  altogether 
satisfied,  led  to  some  discussion  ;  but  as  the  deed  could 
not  be  altered  without  long  delay — if  at  all — it  was 
ultimately  decided  that  the  election  should  be  conducted 
in  accordance  with  its  provisions,  but,  so  far  as  possible, 
without  assuming  or  establishing  the  clauses  to  which 
objection  had  been  taken.  The  special  church-meeting 
required  for  the  purpose  of  election  was  duly  convened  for 
10th  July. 

The  meeting  itself  profoundly  stirred  the  feeling  of  the 
church.  Fifty  years  had  passed  since  it  had  assembled 
for  such  a  purpose  ;  out  of  more  than  nine  hundred 
members  on  the  church  roll,  only  one  survived  of  those 
who  had  met  for  the  last  election.  And  although  their 
beloved  pastor  was  still  among  them,  full  of  years  and  of 
honours,  the  infirmities  of  age  warned  them  that  the  choice 
they  were  about  to  make  must  vitally  affect,  for  good  or 


9o  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

for  evil,  the  future  of  the  church  in  which  their  devotion 
was  centred.  More  than  one  record  has  survived  of  the 
proceedings  ;  but  the  account  given  by  Mr.  James  in  a  letter 
to  his  new  colleague  is  the  most  vivid  and  complete. 

To  Mr.  Dale 

Wtkjuly  1854. 
The  weather  was  most  unpropitious,  as  it  poured  with  rain. 
But  the  enthusiasm  of  the  church  was  not  to  be  extinguished 
by  torrents ;  it  was  actuated  by  a  love  that  many  waters  could 
not  quench.  As  the  choice  depended  upon  numbers,  it  was 
arranged  that  for  the  more  expeditious  and  facile  method  of 
taking  them,  the  brethren  should  all  sit  together  on  the  right- 
hand  side  of  the  desk,  and  for  the  first  time  perhaps  in  the 
history  of  the  church  the  two  sexes  were  divided,  and  appeared 
in  their  separate  array.  It  was  rather  a  curious  as  well  as  novel, 
and,  on  the  part  of  the  sex,  rather  a  tantalising  concern.  After 
my  prayer  and  address,  the  first  business  was  the  counting,  to 
ascertain  if  the  numbers  came  within  the  prescription  of  the 
deed ;  for  if  it  did  not,  the  business  would  have  been  immediately 
arrested,  and  the  meeting  postponed  to  collect  a  larger  number. 
We  felt,  of  course,  some  little  solicitude  on  this  point,  but  a  few 
minutes  relieved  us  of  this ;  and  when  it  was  announced  that 
more  than  two-thirds  of  the  male  members  were  present,  a  sense 
of  joy  lifted  up  the  whole  church,  and  many  turned  towards  each 
other  with  a  look  and  a  nod  of  silent  but  expressive  congratulation. 
Mr.  Phipson,  as  senior  deacon,  then  read  the  first  and  most 
important  resolution,  to  invite  you  as  co-pastor.  His  speech 
was  tender,  and  not  too  long.  He  was  followed  by  Mr.  Cocks. 
I  then  put  the  resolution.  In  an  instant  up  flew  a  little  forest 
of  hands  and  arms,  for  the  brethren  were  not  content  with  lifting 
up  the  former,  but,  to  give  emphatic  expression  to  their  suffrages, 
held  up  their  arms,  and  seemed  to  me  to  give  their  hands  a 
shake,  as  if  to  say,  "  Let  that  be  taken  for  the  lifting  up  of  our 
hearts,  our  whole  hearts."  Then  came  the  call  for  the  negative, 
if  any.  I  looked  round ;  not  a  hand  was  to  be  seen.  I  could 
not  refrain  the  manifestation  of  deep  emotion  —  "God  be 
thanked — not  a  hand  !  " — and  after  uttering  an  audible  sentence 
of  thanksgiving  to  God,  sat  down  mastered  by  my  feelings. 
That  God  should  have  so  united  the  hearts  of  nearly  a  thousand 
members — for  the  women  voted  with  their  souls,  though  they 
were  not  allowed  to  do  so  with  their  bodies — in  the  choice  of  a 
pastor,  must,  I  think,  be  taken  as  bearing  out  the  "  vox  populi, 
vox  Dei."     Yes,  my  brother,   we   cannot  interpret  it  otherwise 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR  S  LANE  91 

than  that  our  choice  is  God's  choice.  While  thus  absorbed  in 
my  own  feelings,  I  heard  a  burst  of  song  spontaneously  uttered 
by  the  church  in  the  doxology. 

The  other  resolutions  were  all  passed  with  equal  unanimity 
■ — not  a  single  negative  given  to  any  one  of  them  during  the 
whole  evening.  Then  came  the  affixing  the  signatures  to  the 
document,  and  not  a  man  left  the  place  till  he  had  recorded  his 
name  as  well  as  given  his  vote  for  you. 

Never  was  there  such  a  church-meeting  before.  It  was  full 
to  overflowing  with  holy  joy  and  thanksgiving.  After  it  was  over 
many  gathered  round  me  to  express  their  congratulations ;  and 
well  they  might.  Oh,  how  many  prayers  that  meeting  answered  ! 
how  many  anxieties  it  relieved  !  how  many  hopes  it  excited  ! 
And  now,  my  dear  brother,  what  say  you  to  this  ?  Does  it  not 
cause  gratitude  and  love  to  our  adorable  Lord  ?  Does  it  not  fill 
your  heart  with  thanksgiving  and  your  mouth  with  praise  ? 

You  need  not  be  told  that  I  invite  you  to  be  my  co-pastor. 
If  you  do,  I  relieve  your  anxiety  by  saying,  "  Come  and  labour 
with  me  in  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Come  and  be  the  evening  star 
of  my  life.  Come  and  help  me  amidst  that  growing  weakness 
which  I  must  soon  expect."  And  may  our  good  Lord  bring 
you  in  the  fulness  of  the  blessing  of  the  gospel  of  Christ ! 

Although  the  women  members  of  the  Church  were 
debarred  from  taking  part  in  the  vote,  they  were  de- 
termined to  find  some  way  of  giving  expression  to  their 
feelings  ;  and  the  formal  letter  of  invitation  was  followed 
by  a  memorial  signed  by  three  hundred  and  seventy  of 
their  number. 

Dale  replied  to  Mr.  James  in  the  following  letter : — 


To  Mr,  James 

Wallop,  near  Stockbridge, 
Thursday  morning. 

Your  letter,  which  has  just  reached  me,  and  dear  Mr.  Wright's, 
which  found  me  near  Andover  on  Tuesday  evening,  have  filled 
my  heart  with  a  tumult  of  thankfulness.  The  possibility  of  being 
in  any  way  connected  with  the  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  Carr's 
Lane  Church  had  been  hanging  over  me  like  a  storm  -  cloud. 
All  the  confidence  expressed  by  yourself  and  other  friends  had 
failed  to  remove  my  deep  conviction  that  in  such  a  church  very 
many  must  have  been  dissatisfied  with  the  services  of  the  past 
twelvemonth.      Had  there  been  a  prospect  of  anything  like  a 


92  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

general  rejection,  though  that  would  have  been  painful  after  all 
the  kindness  I  have  received  at  Carr's  Lane,  and  the  affection 
that  I  have  come  to  have  for  the  work  there,  yet  there  would 
have  been  compensation  in  the  relief  which  it  would  have  given 
to  the  less  trustful  and  hopeful  side  of  my  nature,  which  often 
shrinks  from  the  magnitude  and  responsibility  of  the  duties  which 
I  had  begun  to  be  acquainted  with.  But  had  there  been  division 
and  strife,  my  distress  and  perplexity  would  have  been,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  beyond  endurance ;  and  it  was  this  I  feared.  God 
be  thanked  for  His  almost  incredible  goodness.  He  has  made 
the  "path  straight  and  plain."  Deafness  itself  cannot  mistake 
His  voice.  And  there  is  one  consideration  which  gives  me 
special  confidence  in  my  conviction  that  this  is  of  God.  At  the 
very  time  you  were  gathered  at  Carr's  Lane  on  Monday  evening, 
I  was  addressing  a  meeting  on  behalf  of  the  Sunday  Schools  at 
Andover,  and  earnestly  insisting  on  the  necessity  of  faithfulness 
and  devoutness  on  the  part  of  the  church  there  during  its 
destitution  of  a  pastor ;  maintaining  that  in  the  most  important 
decision  which  a  church  can  make  there  is  infinite  peril  of 
mistake,  unless  by  prayerfulness  and  earnest  work  there  has 
been  the  maintaining  of  very  close  fellowship  with  God.  The 
only  trustworthy  guarantee,  as  it  seems  to  me,  of  the  soundness  of 
a  church's  decision  in  a  matter  of  this  kind,  is  not  the  wisdom 
of  experience,  general  soundness  of  judgment,  unanimity  of 
sentiment  merely,  but  a  close  walking  with  God.  And  I  do 
trust  that  this  guarantee  sanctions  the  decision  of  last  Monday. 
Evidently  God  has  been  with  the  church  at  Carr's  Lane  of  late : 
there  has  been  prayer  and  earnestness  within ;  there  have  been 
spiritual  conquests  without.  Even  unanimity  in  a  dead  church 
would  have  left  me  doubtful.  As  it  is,  I  feel  that  there  is  simply 
nothing  for  me  to  decide ;  no  room  for  the  weighing  of  con- 
flicting considerations.  I  have  asked  God  often  to  make  my 
way  clear  to  me,  and  now  I  have  only  to  thank  Him  for 
answering  that  prayer. 

The  kindness,  the  generosity  of  your  letter  this  morning,  its 
overflowing  joy  and  large-hearted  confidence,  have  made  my  soul 
too  full  for  utterance.  May  God  make  me  more  worthy  of  the 
affection  and  trust  which  humble  me  as  much  as  they  rejoice 
me. 

It  was  on  6th  August  1854  that  Dale  preached 
for  the  first  time  as  co  -  pastor,  taking  his  text  from 
1  Cor.  i.  31,  "He  that  glorieth,  let  him  glory  in  the 
Lord."  In  the  notes  of  the  sermon,  as  they  have 
survived,  there  is  no  reference  to  the  special  circumstances 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR'S  LANE  93 

of  the  occasion,  though  the  undercurrent  of  thought  is 
unmistakable. 

But  immediately  before  entering  upon  his  new  work, 
he  was  plunged  in  what  he  himself  describes  as  "  a  sea  of 
anxiety  and  sorrow."  His  mother  was  suddenly  taken  ill, 
and  he  was  summoned  from  Hampshire,  arriving  just  in 
time  to  be  with  her  at  the  last.  The  very  night  that  his 
letter  of  acceptance  was  read  at  the  church-meeting  at 
Carr's  Lane,  he  and  his  father  and  brother  were  sitting  by 
the  dead.  The  ties  that  bound  him  to  his  mother,  as 
we  have  seen,  were  exceptionally  strong  :  her  hopes  were 
centred  in  him  ;  and  she  had  lived  long  enough  to  witness 
the  first  fulfilment  of  her  dreams.  It  was  natural  and  in- 
evitable that  he  should  be  deeply  affected  by  her  loss  ;  but 
even  in  the  darkest  hours  the  shadow  was  not  supreme. 
"  My  mother's  deathbed,"  he  wrote  a  few  months  later, 
"was  to  me  a  new  chapter  in  the  'Evidences  of  Christianity ' : 
it  was  the  very  seal  of  heaven  visibly  attached  to  many 
a  glorious  promise  and  thrilling  expression  of  apostolic 
confidence.  So  calm  and  firm  and  full  a  life  right  up  to 
the  end  is  a  blessed  thing  to  look  back  upon." 

He  must  have  been  under  a  severe  strain  when  he 
came  back  to  work  ;  and  it  was  increased  by  Mr.  James's 
serious  illness,  which  threw  upon  him  the  whole  burden  of 
pulpit  and  pastoral  duty.  For  many  weeks  Mr.  James 
was  entirely  prostrate  ;  at  one  time  even  his  recovery 
seemed  uncertain.  When  the  time  for  the  monthly 
church-meeting  came  at  the  end  of  August,  although  Mr. 
James  expressed  a  wish  that  his  young  colleague  should 
take  his  place  and  preside,  Dale  was  anxious  that  the 
meeting  should  be  postponed  :  he  felt  that  it  would  be 
singularly  ungracious  so  suddenly  to  assume  all  authority 
— to  suggest  by  act,  if  not  in  word,  that  the  church  could 
so  easily  dispense  with  the  presence  and  counsel  of  its 
venerable  pastor ;  and  his  opinion  prevailed  with  the 
diaconate.  In  September,  however,  any  further  adjourn- 
ment was  impossible  ;  and  he  presided  for  the  first  time  at 
the  church-meeting  held  on  27th  September. 

Among  Congregationalists,  when  a  minister  first  enters 


94  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

upon  the  work  to  which  he  has  given  himself,  it  is 
customary  to  mark  the  occasion  by  a  service  of 
"ordination."  The  ceremony,  however,  though  usual, 
is  not  held  to  be  essential  either  to  the  validity  of  the 
pastorate  or  to  the  efficacy  of  the  sacraments  which 
the  pastor  administers.  Ministerial  authority — so  they 
believe — is  derived  from  the  calling  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  from  the  invitation  of  the  church  that  thus  chooses 
a  teacher  and  guide.  But  they  hold  no  theory  of 
"  succession  "  :  they  do  not  admit  any  "  transmission  "  of 
spiritual  gifts.  The  service  confers  on  the  minister  no 
authority  that  he  does  not  already  possess  ;  it  endows  him 
with  no  supernatural  powers,  with  no  exceptional  sanctity. 

Though  there  is  no  set  form  for  the  rite  of  ordination, 
the  method  of  observance  varies  but  slightly.  After 
prayer,  the  reading  of  Scripture,  and  the  singing  of  a 
hymn,  an  address  is  delivered  in  which  the  Congregational 
polity  is  set  forth  and  vindicated.  The  church  is  then 
asked  whether  the  minister  seeking  ordination  has  been 
selected  by  its  own  free  choice.  "  The  newly  -  chosen 
minister  is  required  to  answer  in  his  own  words  a  series 
of  questions,  relating  to  his  personal  Christian  life,  his 
reasons  for  supposing  himself  called  of  God  to  the 
ministry,  his  doctrinal  faith,  his  opinions  on  ecclesiastical 
polity,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  hopes  to  fulfil  the 
duties  of  his  office.  If  these  replies  are  deemed  satis- 
factory, he  kneels  down  in  the  presence  of  his  church ; 
his  ministerial  brethren  gather  round  him  ;  one  commends 
him  to  the  Divine  keeping,  and  invokes  upon  him  the 
richest  benediction  of  Heaven — the  baptism  of  fire,  the 
spirit  of  wisdom,  of  power,  of  holiness  and  joy  :  all  lay 
their  hands  upon  his  head,  and  silently  join  in  the  invoca- 
tion." 1  A  "  Charge "  is  then  delivered  to  the  ordained 
minister,  and  either  then,  or  at  a  separate  service,  an 
exhortation  is  addressed  to  the  people  upon  the  duties 
which  they  owe  to  their  minister. 

In  Dale's  case,  through  Mr.  James's  illness,  the 
ordination  service  was  deferred  till  the  end   of  November. 

1  Life  of  John  Angell  James,  p.  85. 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR  S  LANE  95 

Two  facts  gave  exceptional  interest  to  the  ceremony  :  it 
occurred  in  the  Jubilee  year  of  Mr.  James's  pastorate  ;  and 
also  after  an  illness  that  might  have  left  his  young 
colleague  to  occupy  his  pulpit  alone.  More  than  fifty 
ministers  were  present,  some  of  them  coming  from  distant 
parts  of  the  country  ;  and  among  those  who  took  part 
in  the  services  were  the  Rev.  John  Glanville  (Edward 
Glanville's  father),  the  Rev.  Dr.  Redford  of  Worcester, 
and  Professor  Barker.  The  "  Charge "  was  delivered  by 
Mr.  James,  who  took  as  his  text,  "  We  are  labourers 
together  with  God  "  ( 1  Cor.  iii.  9)  ;  and  in  the  evening 
the  Rev.  Samuel  Martin,  of  Westminster  Chapel,  preached 
to  the  Church  from  Philippians  ii.  29,  "  Receive  him 
therefore  in  the  Lord  with  all  gladness  ;  and  hold  such 
in  reputation." 

In  the  proceedings  of  the  day  there  is  much  that  still 
retains  its  interest ;  but  to  dwell  upon  the  services  in 
detail  is  impracticable.  Two  points,  however,  may  fairly 
claim  attention — Dale's  statement  of  the  doctrines  which  he 
intended  to  make  the  substance  of  his  preaching,  and  the 
pathetic  passage  with  which  Mr.  James  ended  his  address 
to  his  new  colleague.  In  replying  to  the  customary 
questions,  Dale  showed  that  he  had  already  surveyed,  in 
thought  if  not  in  experience,  the  field  of  work  that  lay 
before  him  :  his  conception  of  the  message  that  he  had  to 
deliver  was  firm  and  clear.  In  almost  every  sentence  one 
may  trace  principles  and  truths  which  were  prominent  in 
his  teaching;  sometimes  even  the  very  phrases  occur  that 
were  afterwards  to  become  familiar.  He  began  with  a 
confession  of  faith  in  Christ  and  His  atoning  work.  The 
Christian  minister  "  should  proclaim  and  illustrate  the  en- 
thronement of  Christ  as  Prince  and  Saviour,  that  He  may 
give  to  men  repentance  and  remission  of  sins."  And  it 
is  no  narrow  deliverance  that  Christ  is  ready  to  confer  :  it 
extends  through  the  whole  range  of  existence  and  touches 
human  life  at  every  point. 

It  should  be  his  object  to  impress  upon  his  fellow-believers 
the  largeness  of  that  salvation  which,  even  in  this  life,  they  may 
realise — the  need  and  blessedness  of  the  possession   of  God's 


96  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Spirit,  and  the  certainty  of  approaching  glory.  He  should  seek 
to  increase  their  sense  of  entire  dependence  upon  God  in  Christ 
for  spiritual  life  and  strength,  and  to  deepen  their  gratitude  to 
God  for  His  great  mercy,  and  to  sustain  their  faith  in  Him,  by 
keeping  constantly  before  them  the  important  facts  that  it  was 
not  we  who  chose  Him  but  He  who  chose  us — that  we  love 
Him  because  He  first  loved  us :  that  right  affections,  principles, 
and  habits  are  neither  self-originated  nor  self-sustained,  but  that 
all  were  first  produced  by  the  working  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
and  that  all  are  still  sustained  by  Him ;  that  as  our  first  turning 
to  God's  service  was  the  rising  up  within  us  of  a  life  begotten 
there  by  God's  free,  unsought  grace,  according  to  His  eternal 
purpose,  our  continuance  in  that  service  and  ultimate  enjoy- 
ment of  the  reward,  also  depend  upon  Him,  and  are  therefore 
defended  from  the  uncertainty  to  which  they  would  be  exposed 
if  they  were  committed  to  our  own  unsustained  fidelity.  He 
should,  I  think,  avoid  speaking  of  Christian  duties  as  though 
they  were  separate  from  the  ordinary  duties  of  man ;  and  should 
rather  show  that  as,  perhaps,  this  material  world,  and  the 
heavens  which  now  bend  over  us,  glorified  by  the  power  of  God, 
may  become  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth,  wherein 
righteousness  shall  dwell, — the  common  affections,  relationships, 
and  duties  of  life  may  be  so  transfigured  as  to  shine  with  a  divine 
radiance,  and  so  sanctified  as  to  constitute  a  divine  service.  He 
should  show,  that  while  the  union  of  God  and  man  in  the  person 
of  Christ  is  unique  and  peculiar,  as  being  a  personal  union,  and 
not  merely  a  spiritual  likeness  and  fellowship,  it  is  also  a  proof 
for  all  ages  that  a  reconciliation  between  heaven  and  earth  is 
possible ;  it  is  the  beginning  of  that  reconciliation,  and  the 
prophecy  that  some  day  it  will  be  perfected.  He  is  called 
Emmanuel,  God  with  us,  and  that  not  in  a  transient  manifestation 
— in  forms  which  prove  His  presence  to  be  an  exceptional  and 
miraculous  thing— but  by  a  permanent  and  inseparable  union. 
In  Christ,  God  has  not  merely  come  near  to  man  to  reveal  His 
glory  or  express  His  will ;  this  He  did  at  Sinai,  over  the  mercy- 
seat  in  the  Holy  of  Holies,  and  in  wonderful  dreams  to  Jewish 
prophets  in  the  days  of  old.  In  Christ  our  whole  nature  has 
been  penetrated  with  the  divine  life,  drawn  up  into  the  divine 
glory ;  an  impressive  declaration  that  there  is  no  form  of  human 
action  or  endurance  which  is  to  be  exempted  from  God's  support 
and  control. 

The  entire  life  and  nature  of  man,  as  well  as  the  entire 
revelation  of  God,  are  to  be  the  subjects  of  the  Christian 
minister's  preaching.  His  instruction  should  be  what  Christ's 
life  was — a  showing  that  God's  nature  may  be  revealed  in  human 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR  S  LANE  97 

circumstances,  and  man's  present  life  thus  made  one  in  spirit, 
law,  and  aim,  with  the  life  on  which  are  set  his  everlasting 
hopes.  But  while  he  should  insist  most  earnestly  on  the 
necessity  of  unfolding  in  the  humblest  human  duties  the  power 
of  the  divinest  spiritual  affections,  he  should  strive  to  maintain 
that  high  fellowship  of  the  heart  with  Christ — that  habitual  and 
profound  recognition  of  things  unseen — without  which  Christian 
virtue  will  be  a  feeble  and  worldly  thing.  In  the  tumult  and 
heat  of  this  world's  business,  it  is  for  the  Christian  minister  to 
make  the  hearts  of  his  brethren  familiar  with  the  calm  eternity 
of  God's  life,  and  to  make  hope  and  energy  aspire  to  that 
region  of  spiritual  peace  and  triumph,  so  remote  from  many  of 
us,  in  which,  even  on  this  side  of  death,  the  Christian  man 
should  dwell.1 

More  impressive  must  have  been  the  closing  appeal  of 
the  aged  pastor.  After  setting  forth  the  duties  of  the 
ministry,  its  special  perils,  its  peculiar  glory;  after  dwelling 
with  gratitude  on  the  love  and  honour  bestowed  on  him 
by  his  church,  and  bespeaking  the  same  loyalty  for  his 
young  colleague ;  and  having  touched  upon  the  difficulties 
of  the  relationship  into  which  they  had  now  entered,  he 
ended  his  address  with  these  words  : — 

Long  after  my  memorial  shall  be  added  to  those  which  are 
inscribed  on  yonder  marble,  may  you  occupy  the  pulpit  that  over- 
shadows my  tomb,  and  send  forth  over  my  sleeping  dust  the 
words  of  life  and  immortality.  A  long,  a  holy,  and  a  useful 
career  be  yours  in  this  place.  As  it  was  in  my  case,  so  may  it 
be  in  yours,  and  this  church  be  your  first,  your  last,  your  only 
love.  Even  longer,  more  happy,  and  more  useful  may  you  be 
here  than  I  have  been.  Rich  in  years,  in  honours,  and  in  useful- 
ness, may  you  come  at  some  far  distant  day  to  your  end :  and 
then,  after  labouring  in  the  same  pulpit,  come  and  lie  down  with 
me  in  the  same  grave,  at  the  foot  of  it :  so  shall  we  resemble 
warriors  resting  on  the  field  where  they  fought  and  conquered.2 

How  fully  his  wish  was  realised — in  the  spirit  if  not  in 
the  letter — the  story  of  later  years  will  show. 

There  is  one  other  episode  that  may  also  be  recorded. 
Between  the  morning  and  evening  services,  according  to 

1   The  Ordination  Services  of  the  Rev.  R.  IV.  Dale,  pp.  35,  36.      London  : 
Hamilton  and  Adams,  1854. 
a  Ibid.  pp.  65,  66. 

H 


9S  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

custom,  the  ministers  and  other  visitors  were  entertained 
at  dinner ;  and  part  of  the  afternoon  was  given  up  to 
speeches  of  congratulation  and  goodwill.  One  of  the 
speakers,  not  without  reason,  referred  to  the  peril  to 
which  a  young  man  was  exposed  in  being  called  so  early 
to  occupy  such  a  position,  and  prayed  that  God  might  give 
him  all  the  grace  he  would  surely  need.  Professor  Barker 
who  happened  to  follow  him — always  more  jealous  for  the 
reputation  of  his  students  than  for  his  own — quoted  in 
reply  a  saying  of  Dr.  Collyer,  an  eminent  American  divine. 
When  Dr.  Collyer  was  at  the  height  of  his  popularity,  some 
one  said  that  he  wondered  how  it  was  possible  for  him  to 
keep  his  vessel  straight,  considering  how  much  sail  he 
carried.  "  Ah  !  "  replied  Dr.  Collyer  ;  "  you  don't  know 
how  much  ballast  I  carry  too."  "  I  have  known  Mr.  Dale 
intimately  for  several  years,"  said  Mr.  Barker,  "  and  can 
assure  you  that  he  also  carries  ballast  of  no  small  weight." 

Any  account  of  Dale's  settlement  at  Birmingham  would 
be  incomplete  without  some  reference  to  his  marriage, 
which  followed  a  few  weeks  after  his  ordination.  He 
had  been  for  some  time  engaged  to  Miss  Elizabeth 
Dowling — the  second  daughter  of  Mr.  William  Dowling, 
of  Over  Wallop,  a  Hampshire  village,  lying  midway 
between  Salisbury  and  Andover.  One  of  her  brothers, 
Giles  Dowling,  had  been  his  fellow -student  at  Spring 
Hill ;  and  while  at  Andover  Dale  had  made  several 
friends  in  other  branches  of  the  family.  The  marriage 
was  celebrated  at  Andover  on  21st  February  1855.  It 
was  a  wintry  day,  and  the  wedding  party  had  to  drive 
for  some  miles  through  deep  snow ;  "  though,  as  soon  as 
we  were  married,"  he  says  in  a  letter  written  many  years 
later,  "  the  snow  began  to  melt."  But  the  cold,  inclement 
morning  proved  no  omen  for  the  future.  From  first  to 
last  his  married  life  was  one  of  singular  happiness, 
security,  and  peace. 

To  say  more  without  offence  to  due  reserve  is  no  easy 
task  ;  but  something  must  be  said — if  only  by  way  of 
outline  and  suggestion.  From  his  wife  Dale  received  not 
only  sympathy   but  support.     Within  the   home  he  was 


SETTLEMENT  AT  CARR  S  LANE  99 

harassed  by  no  household  cares,  by  no  petty  anxieties. 
As  time  went  on,  his  wife  relieved  him  of  other  burdens 
also  :  she  dealt  with  much  of  his  correspondence,  took  a 
considerable  share  in  the  activity  of  the  Church,  and  in 
many  other  ways  increased  his  power  for  pastoral  and 
public  service.  There  are  some  men  in  his  position  who 
fail  to  achieve  the  possibilities  and  the  promise  of  their 
earlier  years,  because  in  their  home-life  they  have  built 
upon  the  sand  :  their  strength  is  impaired  even  if  they  do 
not  forfeit  happiness.  It  was  Dale's  good  fortune — and  it 
was  one  of  the  secrets  of  his  success — that  in  this  respect 
also  his  foundations  were  all  on  solid  rock. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE    CO-PASTORATE 

Lecture  on  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  ;  controversy  provoked  by  it — Work  at  CanJs 
Lane — Mission  services  in  the  streets — Sermons  on  doctrine  —A  friendly 
warning  —  Subjects  for  the  year  —  Expositions  of  Romans  —  Attacks 
Calvinism  —  Alarm  in  the  Church — Mr.  James  intervenes — Dale's 
distress  ;  letter  to  Mr.  James — Confidence  restored  —  Invitation  to 
Manchester- — Mr.  James  says  "stay"  —  The  Eclectic — Articles  on 
ministers'  stipends,  theological  training,  French  politics — Lectures  at 
Spring  Hill — Influence  as  a  teacher — Speech  for  the  Patriotic  Fund — 
Competes  with  the  comet — Varied  activity — Mr.  James's  death. 

"  Few  young  men  have  set  sail  upon  their  ministerial 
voyage  with  a  smoother  sea,  a  fairer  wind,  or  fuller 
sails."  Such  was  Mr.  James's  estimate  of  the  position 
and  prospects  of  his  colleague  ;  and  it  was  true  enough 
in  the  main.  But  even  at  the  outset  there  were  storms, 
brief  indeed,  but  sharp  and  severe  while  they  lasted. 

The  earliest  of  these  followed  closely  upon  the  service 
of  ordination.  Early  in  November  1854  Dale  delivered 
a  lecture  on  "  The  Pilgrim  Fathers,"  illustrated  by  Mr. 
Lucy's  well-known  picture.  The  chapel  was  crowded: 
the  enthusiasm  was  great.  Many  Churchmen  had  come 
out  of  curiosity  to  hear  the  young  minister  ;  and  as  the 
lecture  was  not  only  historical  but  also  dealt  with  the 
principles  on  which  the  Congregational  polity  rests, 
divergence  of  opinion  found  expression  at  the  time. 
Some,  it  may  be  supposed,  who  were  present  to  hear 
about  the  founders  of  New  England— as  men  that  had 
long  since  taken  their  place  in  history — were  surprised  at 
finding  that  the  principles  which  had  led  Robinson  and 
Brewster  and  their  companions  to  cross  the  Atlantic  had 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  101 

so  close  a  relation  to  modern  controversy.  The  lecture 
was  not  reported  in  the  local  papers,  but  rumour  was  soon 
at  work.  It  was  asserted  that  the  lecturer  had  described 
the  Church  of  England  as  the  church  of  Antichrist  ;  that 
he  had  denied  its  clergy  to  be  Christians  ;  and  had  stated 
that  although  "  he  esteemed  Mr.  Miller — the  rector  of  St. 
Martin's  —  and  some  other  clergymen  as  men,  he  ignored 
them  as  Christian  ministers."  Such  were  the  tales  that  were 
abroad  in  the  town,  assuming  the  most  grotesque  forms 
from  day  to  day,  as  they  were  handed  on  by  one  credulous 
hearer  to  another.  The  wiser  course  would  have  been  to 
keep  silence,  and  to  reply  to  no  charges  that  were  not 
publicly  made  ;  but  Dale — no  doubt  acting  upon  advice — 
had  the  lecture  printed  and  published,  adding  a  few  notes 
and  a  postscript.  Then  the  storm  broke.  The  local  press 
reviewed  the  lecture  at  length.  The  controversy  was 
carried  into  their  correspondence  columns.  At  parish 
meetings  many  of  the  clergy  denounced  the  lecturer  and 
his  opinions — or  rather,  the  opinions  that  they  imputed 
to  him.  Their  charges,  indeed,  were  for  the  most  part 
singularly  reckless  ;  and  it  is  not  easy  to  understand  how, 
with  the  printed  lecture  before  them,  some  of  the 
speakers  could  have  gone  so  far  astray  from  the  truth. 
An  anonymous  pamphlet,  too,  was  issued  by  way  of 
rejoinder,  professing  to  supplement  the  lecture  by  showing 
how  the  Puritan  settlers  dealt  with  Quakers,  Indians,  and 
those  suspected  of  witchcraft,  and  by  illustrating  the  out- 
come of  Brownist  teaching  at  the  time  of  the  Common- 
wealth. The  attack  came  from  all  sides  and  in  all  forms. 
Much  of  the  controversy  arose  out  of  a  reference  to  the 
opinions  of  Robert  Browne — the  founder  of  English 
Independency — who  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  had  with- 
drawn from  the  Established  Church,  and  had  gathered 
several  Separatist  congregations  in  Norfolk.  He  im- 
peached the  constitution  of  the  Church,  and  denied  the 
Queen's  supremacy  in  matters  of  faith.  The  principles 
that  Browne  asserted  were  that  Christ  alone  is  Head  of 
His  Church,  and  that  a  Christian  Church  should  consist 
only  of  those  who  have  faith  in  Christ  ;  and  Dale  in   his 


102  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

lecture  said  that  there  was  "  an  immortal  life  in  them 
which  could  not  be  crushed  out."  He  also  quoted  some 
of  Browne's  opinions  :  "  He  denied  that  the  Church  of 
England  was  a  true  Church — that  her  clergy  were  Christian 
ministers — that  her  sacraments  were  valid."  As  to  the 
Church  and  its  constitution,  he  was  of  course  at  one  with 
Browne ;  but  on  the  other  two  points  there  is  not  a 
syllable  in  the  lecture  to  suggest  that  he  had  any 
sympathy  with  such  views — much  less  that  he  shared 
them.  As  to  the  efficacy  of  the  sacraments  administered 
by  the  clergy  of  the  Establishment,  he  said  nothing.  The 
right  of  the  clergy  to  recognition  as  Christian  ministers  is 
expressly  admitted,  both  in  the  text  and  also  in  a  note. 

It  is  enough  to  see  the  crowds  of  Christian  men  who  have 
been  rescued  from  the  power  of  the  devil  through  their  ministra- 
tions, and  who  gather  round  their  pulpits  every  Lord's  Day, 
that  they  may  be  taught  more  perfectly  the  love  of  Christ  and 
His  holy  laws,  to  be  quite  satisfied  that  many  of  our  brethren 
in  the  Establishment  are  "good  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ."1 

Even  stronger  is  the  testimony  in  the  lecture. 

God  be  thanked,  we  stand  in  a  relation  to  the  Established 
Church  very  different  from  that  in  which  they  stood.  Instead 
of  being  separated  from  its  clergy  by  persecution  and  cruelty  and 
contempt  on  their  side,  and  by  distrust  and  personal  antagonism 
on  ours,  we  are  bound  to  them  by  a  thousand  ties  of  affection, 
admiration,  and  confidence.  We  rejoice  to  share  with  them  the 
work  of  bringing  the  world  to  Christ.  We  look  with  intense 
interest  upon  the  endeavours  of  such  clergymen  as  that  noble- 
hearted  man  at  St.  Martin's,  to  Christianise  the  working  people 
of  this  great  town.  We  cheer  them  on  in  their  work ;  we 
triumph  in  their  success.  We  love,  we  honour,  the  devout  and 
earnest  clergy  of  the  Establishment.  Would  to  God  that  their 
holiness  adorned  our  character,  that  their  zeal  burned  in  our 
hearts,  that  we  were  able  to  follow  more  habitually  in  their  foot- 
steps, though  afar  off.2 

Either  passage,  taken  alone,  should  have  been  sufficient 
to  refute  the  charges  and  to  dispel  the  delusion. 

The  paragraph  in  the  lecture,  describing  the  attitude 

1    The  Pilgrim  Fathers,  p.  13.  2  Ibid.  pp.  30,  31. 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  103 

of  the  early  Independents  towards  the  Established  Church, 
more  readily  lent  itself  to  misconception  ;  though  its 
meaning,  even  without  the  explanatory  notes,  ought  to 
have  been  clear  to  any  one  acquainted  with  the  history 
and  principles  of  Nonconformity. 

They  thought  that  a  true  Church  was  "a  congregation  of 
faithful  men,"  not  an  institution  including  the  godly  and  the 
godless,  and  stretching  over  an  entire  nation.  They  thought 
that  when  a  church  was  gathered,  those  who  wished  to  enter  it, 
should  promise  to  live  and  worship  according  to  the  laws  of 
Christ ;  that  the  admission  and  exclusion  of  members,  and  the 
appointment  of  church-officers  should  be  the  work  of  all  the 
members  of  the  church,  in  church-meeting  assembled.  They 
thought  that  one  church  ought  not  to  exercise  any  authority 
over  other  churches ;  and  that  the  power  of  a  pastor  should  be 
limited  to  the  church  which  had  chosen  him.  They  did  not 
like  prescribed  forms  of  prayer.  They  did  like  lay-preaching ; 
though  they  believed  in  the  importance  of  a  regular  ministry. 
They  thought  that  the  civil  magistrate  ought  not  to  be  employed 
to  execute  church  censures. 

They  disapproved,  therefore,  of  the  constitution  of  the  Church 
of  England,  of  its  bishops,  and  of  the  government  exercised  over 
it  by  the  Queen  and  Parliament.  They  judged  it  by  its  own 
Articles,  which  declare  that  "a  Church  is  a  congregation  of 
faithful  men,"  as  well  as  by  the  New  Testament,  and  denied  it 
to  be  a  true  Church  at  all,  though  there  were  many  excellent 
Christian  persons  in  it ;  and  to  that  denial  I  firmly  hold.1 

The  last  clause,  as  Dale  acknowledged  in  the  post- 
script, has  "  an  abruptness  and  vehemence  "  which  might 
easily  wound  the  feelings  of  some  who  heard  him  ;  and  he 
regretted  that  he  had  expressed  himself  in  such  a  way  as 
to  give  offence.  But  to  the  substance  of  the  statement 
he  held  firmly.  Were  his  conviction  otherwise,  he  could 
not  have  honestly  remained  a  member  of  an  Independent 
church  ;  for  the  roots  of  Independency  are  in  the  spiritual 
not  in  the  political  domain.  At  his  own  ordination 
services — he  reminds  those  who  found  fault  with  this 
declaration  —  in  replying  to  the  question,  Why  do  you 
dissent  from  the  Church  of  England  ?  he  had  answered  : — 

1   The  Pilgrim  Fathers^  pp.  12,  13. 


104  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

I  dissent  from  the  Church  of  England  because  I  believe  that 
the  visible  Church  of  Christ  is  a  congregation  of  faithful  men  ; 
but  a  National  Church  cannot  be  a  congregation,  nor  can  there 
be  any  adequate  security  for  all  its  members  being  faithful. 
While,  therefore,  I  rejoice  to  honour  the  Christian  nobleness  of 
many  of  the  ministers  and  private  members  of  the  Establishment, 
and  to  recognise  within  its  limits  many  communities  of  Christian 
people,  which,  though  unnamed,  unorganised,  and  without  any 
ecclesiastical  separation  from  the  godless  people  around  them, 
are  virtually  Christian  Churches,  since  they  are  congregations  of 
Christian  men  who  regularly  meet  for  worship  and  Christian 
communion,  I  cannot  admit  that  the  heterogeneous  mass  of  godly 
and  godless  people  who  equally  belong  to  the  National  Estab- 
lishment constitute  a  Christian  Church.1 

Again  in  the  postscript  he  restates  the  principle  : — 

The  depth  and  energy  of  my  faith  in  the  cardinal  principle 
of  Congregationalism,  that  a  Church  is  a  society  of  Christian 
men,  bound  together  by  faith  in  Christ,  and  love  to  each  other, 
and  having  for  its  object  spiritual  fellowship  and  the  mainten- 
ance of  God's  worship  and  ordinances,  are  the  measure  of  my 
anxiety  so  to  represent  the  principle  as  to  command  for  it  the 
respect,  the  confidence,  the  attachment  of  Christian  people. 
The  withholding  of  the  title  of  Church,  in  the  apostolic  and 
Christian  sense  of  the  word,  from  every  society  which  makes  no 
adequate  security  for  its  members  being  spiritual,  which  practi- 
cally admits  the  believer  and  the  unbeliever  to  the  same  ecclesi- 
astical privileges,  is  a  necessary  and  obvious  application  of  that 
principle.2 

As  he  distinguished  between  the  ministry  and  the 
church — acknowledging  that  a  minister  might  be  a  true 
minister  of  Christ  although  not  a  minister  of  "  a  true 
Church,"  so  also  he  distinguished  between  the  church  and 
its  members.  The  church  might  not  be  "  a  true  Church  " 
according  to  his  interpretation  of  the  thought  and  will  of 
Christ ;  but  as  its  ministers  might  be  Christian  ministers, 
so  among  its  members  many  might  be  true  Christians  :  it 
was  the  constitution  of  the  church  that  was  at  fault. 
The  distinction  is  one  with  which  Episcopalians  in  our 
time  are  familiar.      Consistently  with  their  principles,  they 

1  Ordination  Services  of  the  Rev.  R.   IV.  Dale,  p.  33. 
2    The  Pilgrim  Fathers,  p.  36. 


THE  CO-FASTORATE  105 

refuse  the  title  "Church"  both  to  Independent  congrega- 
tions and  to  the  organised  societies  of  Presbyterianism 
and  Methodism.  Many  of  them,  if  not  all,  would  also 
deny  that  the  pastors  of  those  communions  are  in  the 
strict  sense  Christian  "  ministers."  But  very  few  would 
hesitate  to  acknowledge  that  these  pastors,  whether 
ministers  or  not,  are  Christian  men,  and  that  they  are 
doing  Christ's  work  ;  fewer  still  would  deny  that  these 
communities,  whether  "  churches "  or  not,  include  very 
many  Christian  people. 

Such  a  controversy  was  an  unfortunate  introduction  to 
the  town  at  large.  It  set  Dale  in  a  false  light,  and  left 
a  false  impression  of  his  character.  Those  who  formed 
their  opinions  by  report,  even  if  they  believed  only  half  of 
what  they  heard,  were  led  to  regard  him  as  a  violent  and 
contentious  partisan  who  found  his  natural  element  in 
strife.  It  was  well  for  himself  and  for  his  peace  of  mind 
that  when  the  ferment  was  fiercest,  he  was  away  on  his 
wedding  journey,  visiting  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and 
other  towns  of  historic  interest — for  the  wintry  weather 
made  the  sea  desolate  and  mountains  inhospitable. 
Had  he  been  in  Birmingham,  he  would  have  found  it 
difficult  to  keep  out  of  the  fray  and  to  avoid  renewing 
occasion  of  offence.  With  no  fresh  fuel  to  feed  the  flame, 
the  blaze  soon  subsided.  Other  incidents  held  the  public 
mind,  and  the  dispute  was  forgotten.  In  the  course  of  a 
few  months  the  commemoration  of  Mr.  James's  Jubilee, 
in  which  all  the  Churches  of  the  town  took  part,  helped 
to  restore  peace. 

Dale  himself  soon  had  his  thoughts  filled  with  other  Aged  25. 
things.  When  he  returned  from  his  honeymoon,  and  had 
settled  down  for  the  first  time  in  a  home  of  his  own,  and 
had  finished  his  furnishing — "  the  queerest  thing  possible," 
so  he  confessed  to  a  friend  ;  when  all  this  was  over,  and 
life  began  to  set  steadily  along  its  new  channels,  he  found 
himself  at  once  immersed  in  active  work  ;  and  though  the 
duties  of  the  pastorate  were  shared  with  his  colleague,  for 
some  time  he  found  ample  scope  for  all  his  energies  with- 
out venturing  beyond  his  own   domain.      As  a    rule,  he 


106  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

had  to  preach  once  only  on  the  Sunday,  taking  the 
morning  and  the  evening  services  alternately,  and  to  give 
an  address  at  the  week-night  meeting  twice  in  the  month  ; 
only  when  Mr.  James  was  absent  through  illness  or  any 
other  cause  had  he  to  sustain  the  whole  burden  of  the 
pastorate.  But  the  various  activities  of  a  great  congrega- 
tion made  large  demands  upon  his  strength.  He  con- 
ducted a  Bible  Class,  for  which  careful  preparation  was 
required.  He  regularly  attended  the  meetings  of  the 
"  Brotherly  Society,"  which  sought  to  develop  the  intel- 
lectual and  social  life  of  its  members.  He  led  their  dis- 
cussions, and  during  the  year  he  gave  them  two  lectures 
dealing  with  Christianity  on  its  historical  side — one  on 
"  The  earliest  uninspired  Christian  Writings,"  the  other  on 
"  Marcion,  the  Heretic."  He  also  had  to  take  his  share 
of  the  marriages  and  the  funerals,  in  the  oversight  of  the 
schools  connected  with  the  church,  and  in  the  visitation  of 
the  sick  and  the  sorrowing.  Nor  was  this  all.  It  is 
evident  that  he  rendered  substantial  aid  to  the  Village 
Preachers'  Association  established  for  the  evangelisation 
of  the  country  districts.  Week  after  week  their  meetings 
appear  in  his  diary  of  engagements,  and  he  was  not 
content  merely  to  help  the  evangelists  to  prepare  for 
their  work  ;  he  shared  it  with  them. 

He  had  not  been  able  to  shape  his  course  according 
to  his  dreams,  and  to  give  himself  to  mission  work  among 
the  poor ;  but  in  earlier  as  in  later  years  he  lost  no 
opportunity  of  appealing  to  those  who  stand  outside  all 
churches  and  are  almost  wholly  untouched  by  religious 
organisations.  In  a  letter  written  during  the  summer  of 
1855  ne  describes  a  united  effort  made  by  the  ministers 
of  the  town  to  reach  this  class  of  people. 

To  Mr.  C.  Jones 

tphjuly  1855. 

We  are  just  in  the  midst  of  a  glorious  week  in  Birmingham. 
The  Baptist  and  Independent  ministers  have  united  for  open-air 
services.      We    began    on    Monday,    and    have    had    increasing 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  107 

congregations  every  night.  On  Monday  we  had  quite  1500; 
last  night,  I  should  think,  more  than  2000.  I  have  been  at  it 
every  night  this  week,  and  enjoy  it  amazingly.  We  intend  to  go 
from  place  to  place  in  the  town,  giving  a  whole  week  (four 
nights)  to  each  spot  we  choose.  We  are  at  Smithfield  this  week ; 
next  week  we  go  to  Vauxhall.  The  congregations  have  been 
mainly  composed  of  men ;  and  from  their  appearance  I  should 
think  that  a  very  large  proportion  never  attend  a  place  of  wor- 
ship. Their  quietness  and  earnest  attention  are  very  remarkable 
and  encouraging. 


The  work  attracted  attention  in  the  town,  and  the 
accounts  published  in  the  local  papers  show  that  it  was 
then  regarded  as  a  new  and  strange  experiment.  One 
correspondent  vividly  describes  the  scene  in  Smithfield — 
the  rough  crowd,  massed  round  a  cabinetmaker's  cart 
which  served  the  speakers  as  a  platform  ;  the  earnestness, 
the  silence,  and  the  awe.  For  the  young  minister  it  must 
have  meant  much  so  to  escape  from  the  study  to  the  street, 
and  from  the  familiar  flock  to  the  unshepherded  multitude. 

Evangelistic  work  among  the  ignorant  and  the  un- 
believing is,  however,  only  one  of  the  functions  of  the 
ministry  ;  and  though  Dale  would  gladly  have  spent  his 
whole  strength  in  such  activities  had  he  been  only  a 
missionary  and  not  a  pastor  as  well,  he  recognised  from 
the  very  first  that  systematic  instruction  in  religious  truth 
is  essential  to  the  spiritual  vigour  of  a  Christian  church, 
and  that  in  many  cases  spiritual  ardour  is  enfeebled  and 
depressed  through  an  imperfect  apprehension  of  the 
primary  truths  of  the  gospel.  It  was  his  conviction  also 
that  a  congregation  of  ordinary  intelligence  would  not  be 
repelled  by  discourses  on  doctrine,  and  that  the  more 
active  minds  among  its  members  would  actually  welcome 
the  discussion  of  the  loftier  problems  of  life  and  faith. 
More  than  once  he  took  occasion  to  insist  that  religion 
has  its  rights  over  the  head  as  well  as  the  heart,  and  that 
Christ  claims  the  service  of  the  intellect  and  the  emotions 
alike.  He  laid  stress  upon  the  duty  of  strenuous  thought 
about  the  greatest  subjects,  and  also  upon  the  necessity 
of  it  for  the  full  development  of  the  Christian  character. 


io8  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

A  single  passage  from  one  of  these  early  sermons  will  be 
sufficient  to  indicate  his  standpoint. 

In  these  days  when  it  is  a  universal  lamentation  that  many 
of  our  most  vigorous  minds  are  quite  uncontrolled  and  even 
uninterested  by  Christian  teaching,  and  when  the  increasing 
disregard  of  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  New  Testament  is 
perpetually  acknowledged  and  loudly  deplored,  it  cannot  be  the 
duty  of  the  Christian  minister  to  drive  away  from  the  church  all 
the  thoughtful  people  that  are  left,  by  adopting  a  style  of  preach- 
ing that  calls  for  no  intellectual  activity,  or  to  confirm  and 
sanction  the  general  depreciation  of  the  importance  of  Christian 
doctrines,  by  avoiding  the  discussions  through  which  alone  these 
doctrines  can  be  established.  As  a  Christian  congregation  it 
should  be  our  ambition  to  be  as  much  distinguished  for  breadth 
and  depth  of  religious  knowledge  as  for  fervour  of  devotion, 
freedom  of  generosity,  and  nobleness  of  moral  character;  and 
there  is  a  more  intimate  connection  than  some  of  us,  perhaps, 
are  inclined  to  believe,  between  spiritual  truth  in  the  intellect 
and  spiritual  life  in  the  heart.  I  think  that  God  could  hardly 
confer  upon  this  country  a  greater  blessing  than  by  reawakening 
that  intense  interest  in  religious  doctrine  which  distinguished 
the  heroic  men  who  belonged  to  the  times  of  the  Common- 
wealth. 

Such  an  appeal  cannot  have  been  altogether  unneces- 
sary ;  though  the  sermons  excited  very  genuine  interest, 
especially  among  the  younger  members  of  the  congrega- 
tion. But  even  if  the  people  had  shown  themselves 
unwilling  to  listen  to  sermons  on  such  subjects,  the  young 
minister,  it  is  clear,  would  have  held  on  his  course  :  he 
was  resolved  to  give  his  congregation  not  what  they 
liked  but  what  they  needed.  An  incident,  which  he 
related  many  years  afterwards,  reveals  the  spirit  in  which 
he  came  to  his  work.  One  day,  soon  after  he  was  settled 
in  the  pastorate,  he  met  in  the  streets  of  Birmingham  a 
Congregational  minister — a  Welshman  and  a  preacher  of 
remarkable  power.  "  He  had  reached  middle  age,  and  I 
was  still  a  young  man,  and  he  talked  to  me  in  a  friendly 
way  about  my  ministry.  He  said  :  '  I  hear  that  you  are 
preaching  doctrinal  sermons  to  the  congregation  at  Carr's 
Lane ;  they  will  not  stand   it.'      I  answered  :  '  They  will 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  109 

have  to  stand  it.'  " *  There  may  have  been  some  of  "  the 
insolent  self-confidence  of  youth  "  in  both  the  temper  and 
the  form  of  his  reply  ;  but  his  conception  of  the  ministry 
— so  it  seemed  to  him  after  an  experience  of  nearly  forty 
years — was  in  the  main  a  just  one  ;  and  he  set  himself  to 
fulfil  it. 

To  ensure  a  certain  measure  of  fulness  and  complete- 
ness in  his  presentation  of  truth,  and  to  avoid  the  danger 
of  failing  to  give  to  any  of  the  great  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  faith  an  adequate  place  in  his  preaching,  it  was 
his  habit  to  draw  up  in  December  or  January  a  list  of 
some  of  the  subjects  on  which  he  wished  to  preach  during 
the  following  twelve  months.  The  lists  varied  from  time 
to  time  :  there  are  some  distinct  differences  between  the 
lists  of  earlier  and  those  of  later  years.  But  some  sub- 
jects remain  constant :  Regeneration,  Justification,  Sancti- 
fication,  the  Personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Divinity 
of  Jesus  Christ,  Judgment  to  Come,  and  Faith,  appear  in 
plans  for  two  years  widely  separated  in  time.  The  earlier 
list  also  includes  Judgment  by  Works,  the  Inspiration  of 
the  New  Testament,  Infant  Baptism,  and  the  Lord's 
Supper  ;  the  later  list  the  Incarnation,  the  Trinity,  Sin, 
and  the  Atonement.  In  addition  to  these  doctrinal 
subjects,  some  great  Christian  duties  are  included  in  the 
plans,  such  as  Truthfulness,  Kindness,  Industry,  Courage, 
Justice,  and  Contentment.  This  method  ensured  that  the 
choice  of  subjects  should  not  be  left  altogether  to  accident 
or  impulse.  Dates  and  other  marks  attached  to  the  lists 
show  at  a  glance  how  far  he  carried  out  his  scheme. 
Few  subjects  were  passed  over  ;  and  where  this  happened, 
he  took  care  to  make  good  the  omission  in  the  following 
year. 

He  had  already  begun  to  take  connected  portions  and 
even  books  of  Scripture  for  continuous  exposition,  dealing 
with  fundamental  principles  or  with  processes  of  argu- 
ment rather  than  with  isolated  texts.  A  course  of  ser- 
mons on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  involved  him  in 
serious  trouble.      At  first,  anxiety  was  excited  by  phrases 

1    Christian  Doctrine,  Preface,  p.  v. 


no  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

and  expressions  rather  than  by  definite  statements  of 
doctrine,  and  it  was  not  till  he  reached  the  middle  of  the 
second  chapter  that  any  real  apprehension  made  itself  felt. 
Most,  if  not  all,  of  those  to  whom  he  spoke  had  been 
brought  up  to  assume  that  the  heathen  nations  were  neces- 
sarily and  irretrievably  lost — that  those  who  had  never 
heard  of  Christ  and  His  gospel,  and  those  who  had  de- 
liberately rejected  Him,  were  destined  alike  to  an  eternity 
of  suffering.  Even  if  the  dogma  had  lost  its  hold  upon 
thought  and  imagination,  it  still  kept  its  place  in  their 
creed ;  though  when  assailed,  it  was  defended  without 
passion  or  fervour.  This,  Dale  argued,  was  not  Paul's 
teaching.  The  Apostle  declared  that  "  patient  continu- 
ance in  well-doing  "  was  possible  to  the  Gentile  as  well  as 
to  the  Jew  ;  that  the  Gentiles  were  not  altogether  without 
law,  as  shown  by  their  obedience  to  the  law  "  written  in 
their  hearts."  And  for  his  own  part,  he  believed  that  the 
promises  of  ultimate  deliverance — promises  made  before 
the  law  was  given — might  include  all  who  turned  to  God  ; 
that  the  heathen  might  find  the  unseen  Power  that  they 
had  sought  ;  and  that  the  death  of  Christ  might  redeem 
even  those  who  never  knew  Him.  He  rejected  as  horrible 
and  incredible  the  vision  of — 

Ten  thousand  sages,  lost  in  endless  woe, 
For  ignorance  of  what  they  could  not  know. 

This  declaration,  had  it  stood  alone,  would  have  made  no 
stir.  Some  of  the  older  members  of  the  church  were 
nervous,  foreboding  trouble  still  to  come  ;  others  com- 
plained that  such  teaching  "  would  weaken  the  missionary 
society."  But  as  yet  there  was  no  general  alarm.  Before 
long,  however,  a  storm  began  to  gather.  When  he  reached 
the  third  chapter  of  the  epistle,  he  proceeded  to  discuss  the 
doctrine  of  Justification.  While  holding  fast  to  the  fact 
of  the  Atonement,  he  discarded  the  theory  and  the  phrase- 
ology to  which  many  Nonconformists  of  the  Evangelical 
school  still  clung.  The  penalty  of  sin  had  been  regarded 
as  a  "debt"  due  from  man  to  God.  Such  a  debt  no  human 
power  could  discharge,  and  Eternal  Justice  was  bound  to 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  m 

exact  it  to  the  last  penny.  Christ,  in  His  infinite  com- 
passion, became  man,  suffered  in  our  stead,  and  in  His  own 
Person  "  paid  the  debt "  upon  the  cross,  bringing  pardon 
and  reconciliation  within  our  reach.  The  God  against 
whom  we  had  sinned  was  bound  to  forgive  us  because 
Christ  had  died.  Such  a  conception  of  the  Atonement, 
and  a  metaphor  so  certain  to  mislead,  Dale  repudiated. 

It  is  to  the  free  mercy  of  God  that  we  have  to  appeal  for 
justification.  Not  only  so  far  as  we  are  concerned  is  justifica- 
tion a  free  gift ;  even  the  Atonement  of  Jesus  Christ  does  not 
make  it  any  the  less  an  act  of  free  grace.  To  insist  upon  the 
analogy  between  the  punishment  our  sin  deserved  and  a  debt,  / 
and  to  maintain  that  when  Christ  suffered  He  so  paid  the  debt 
that  even  in  justice  God  is  obliged  to  forgive  us,  is  to  misrepre-  ) 
sent  the  whole  transaction.  There  would  be  no  forgiveness  in 
the  case  at  all  then.  If  my  debt  to  you  is  paid  by  another,  you 
do  not  forgive  the  debt  but  exact  it — though  from  another. 
You  show  me  no  favour.  You  are  not  merciful  but  just.  There 
is  no  free  gift — no  grace  in  the  matter  at  all,  but  law  and  only 
law. 

As  the  exposition  advanced,  excitement  rapidly  grew. 
Excitement  deepened  into  alarm,  and  alarm  rose  to  the 
height  of  a  panic.  Two  discourses  on  the  latter  half  of 
the  fifth  chapter  marked  the  culminating  point.  The 
congregation  was  like  one  great  Bible  Class  :  there  was  a 
Bible  open  in  almost  every  hand.  Wave  upon  wave  of 
emotion  rolled  through  the  congregation  as  the  preacher 
developed  his  theme.  For  now  it  was  not  a  metaphor 
or  a  phrase  that  was  exposed  to  assault,  but  an  article  of 
faith,  firmly  rooted  in  the  minds  of  those  who  had  grown 
up  under  the  influence  of  Calvinism — the  doctrine  of 
Original  Sin  and  Natural  Depravity  as  commonly  held  at 
that  time. 

Throughout  the  sermon  there  was  much  to  provoke 
hostile  criticism,  but  two  passages  stood  out  above  the  rest 
and  drew  the  lightning.  In  expounding  the  words,  "  For 
as  by  one  man's  disobedience  many  were  made  sinners  ;  so 
by  the  obedience  of  one  shall  many  be  made  righteous  " 
(v.  19),  Dale  ran  directly  counter  to  the  accepted  method 


1 12  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

of  interpretation.  He  argued  then,  as  he  argued  later, 
that  in  this  verse,  and  in  the  context,  Paul  alludes  to  the 
transgression  of  Adam  and  its  results,  not  for  the  sake  of 
giving  an  explanation  of  human  sin,  but  for  the  sake  of 
illustrating  the  greatness  of  the  Christian  salvation.  The 
Apostle  believed  that  the  sin  of  Adam  had  brought  vast 
evils  on  our  race,  as  the  righteousness  of  Christ  had 
brought  infinite  blessings.  By  Adam's  sin  we  have  been 
morally  degraded,  as  by  Christ's  righteousness  we  have 
been  morally  recovered.  The  fact  of  our  degradation  is 
accepted  as  incontestable :  the  theories  propounded  to 
interpret  the  fact  are  rejected. 

How  we  have  been  made  sinners  by  Adam's  sin,  the  Apostle 
does  not  tell  us ;  there  was  no  need  for  him  to  enter  into  that 
question  at  all.  That  he  means  we  have  been  made  actual 
wrongdoers  by  Adam,  and  not  merely  wrongdoers  by  imputation, 
I  hold  to  be  certain.  The  necessities  of  the  argument  require 
it,  and  I  can  nowhere  find  in  the  Scriptures  anything  to  favour 
the  idea  that  the  meaning  of  our  being  made  sinners  is  that  we 
are  simply  reckoned  to  have  committed  Adam's  sin.  Personally, 
I  repeat,  we  sin ;  and  Adam's  sin  is  in  some  sense  the  origin 
of  this.  I  do  not  believe  indeed  that  there  is  anything  which 
can  be  rightly  spoken  of  as  "  infused  "  into  our  nature  at  birth, 
which  is  the  direct  and  immediate  source  of  all  our  wrongdoing. 
When  I  am  told  that  an  infant  has  even  at  birth  a  disposition 
towards  evil — a  disposition  derived  from  Adam — I  shrink  from 
the  doctrine,  not  so  much  because  I  disbelieve  it,  as  because  I 
find  it  altogether  unintelligible.  I  cannot  understand  what  is 
meant  by  a  wrong  disposition  existing  in  a  nature  which  as  yet 
is  not  capable  either  of  right  or  wrong.  Before  moral  activity 
begins,  there  can  be  no  moral  character ;  and  where  there  is  no 
moral  character  there  can  surely  be  no  moral  dispositions.  I 
cannot  understand,  I  repeat,  what  is  meant  by  an  infant  having 
an  evil  heart — a  wicked  nature — when  it  cannot  distinguish 
between  its  right  hand  and  its  left,  when  all  moral  distinctions 
are  absolutely  unknown.  It  cannot  believe  either  falsehood  or 
truth,  when  it  is  incapable  of  believing  anything ;  and  it  cannot 
have  either  sinful  dispositions  or  good  dispositions,  when  it  is 
incapable  both  of  sin  and  of  goodness. 

This  was  not  all.  After  tracing  in  detail  the  tremen- 
dous inferiority  of  our  moral  position  to  that  of  Adam — 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  113 

an  inferiority  resulting  from  his  transgression — he  pro- 
ceeds to  denounce  the  Calvinistic  creed  with  passionate 
vehemence. 

Show  me  a  single  passage  in  the  Old  Testament  or  the  New 
which  teaches  that  in  addition  to  all  this,  Adam  has  transmitted 
to  us  a  nature  having  moral  evil  in  it  from  our  very  birth,  and  I 
bow  at  once.  But  after  the  most  patient  and  honest  endeavours 
to  find  such  a  passage,  after  diligent  reading  of  what  has  been 
written  by  those  who  believe  in  the  doctrine  which  I  deny,  I 
can  see  no  authority  for  it  either  in  the  Bible  on  the  one  hand 
or  in  philosophy  on  the  other.  And  it  should  be  remembered 
that  this  doctrine  that  evil  is  infused  into  the  heart  of  an  infant 
at  its  birth,  so  that  it  has  a  sinful  nature  before  it  has  committed 
sin,  has  always  depended  rather  upon  a  particular  system  of 
philosophy,  which  is  fast  passing  away,  than  upon  the  teaching 
of  the  Word  of  God.  Some  of  those  who  still  use  the  language 
of  Calvin  about  a  hereditary  tendency  to  evil,  really  hold  the 
doctrine  which  I  have  been  trying  to  expound  this  morning,  and 
mean  nothing  more  than  the  absence  of  holy  dispositions,  and 
the  absence  of  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  With  such  I 
have  no  real  controversy.  I  think  their  language  loose,  inaccu- 
rate, and  likely  to  lead  those  who  hear  it  into  most  mischievous 
error.  But  when  I  read — as  I  do  read  in  the  writings  of  men 
of  high  reputation  and  great  authority — that  the  natural  de- 
pravity which  is  in  infants  makes  them  deserve  God's  vengeance  ; 
and  when  I  further  read  that  only  the  infants  of  the  godly  are 
grafted  into  Christ,  and  that  the  rest  are  left  to  the  common  lot, 
— when  I  see  these  doctrines  put  forth  as  the  doctrines  of  the 
New  Testament,  taught  in  the  name  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  I 
know  not  how  to  repress  my  indignation ;  there  are  no  words 
strong  enough  to  express  my  abhorrence,  loathing,  and  disgust. 

This  brought  matters  to  a  crisis.  The  church  was 
disturbed  and  divided  :  feeling  began  to  run  high.  Anxiety 
and  alarm  were  not  confined  to  Carr's  Lane.  The  sermons 
were  gravely  discussed  at  Board  meetings  of  Spring  Hill 
College,  and  among  the  friends  of  the  college  elsewhere. 
One  old  fellow-student,  not  distinguished  by  his  sense  of 
humour,  said  to  Dale  :  "  I  wish  that  Paul  had  never  written 
that  chapter :  it  has  greatly  disturbed  your  position  at 
Carr's  Lane."  Within  the  church  and  congregation,  part 
— perhaps  the  larger  part — took  sides  with  the  young 
minister  ;  but  these  were  for  the  most  part  young  them- 
1 


1 14  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

selves,  and  the  men  of  age  and  experience,  who  could 
look  back  on  long  years  of  faithful  service,  were  generally- 
hostile  ;  and  although  the  balance  of  opinion  was  un- 
decided, dissatisfaction  was  far  too  strong  to  have  been 
suppressed  by  the  vote  of  a  majority,  had  appeal  been 
made  to  the  decision  of  the  church. 

Dale  himself  was  deeply  distressed.  He  would  have 
made  almost  any  sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  peace.  He  had 
not  been  in  haste  to  set  forth  his  own  opinions  ;  but  when 
the  occasion  came  for  plain  speaking,  he  had  felt  bound  in 
duty  to  his  church,  his  colleague,  and  to  truth  itself,  to 
make  his  own  convictions  clear :  silence  or  evasion  would 
have  been  criminal.  But  he  would  make  no  ignoble 
concession  to  disarm  antagonism.  The  sermons  on 
doctrine  were  delivered  in  the  morning,  and  to  a  con- 
gregation of  whom  very  many  were  not  present  at  night. 
A  friend,  in  discussing  the  state  of  affairs,  suggested  that 
he  should  change  his  usual  method,  and  should  preach 
in  the  morning  such  a  sermon  as  he  was  accustomed  to 
preach  at  night.  "  If,  now,"  she  said,  "  you  were  to  preach 
such  a  gospel  sermon  as  you  gave  us  in  the  evening  a 
fortnight  ago,  it  would  at  once  be  seen  that  the  charge 
of  unorthodoxy  is  baseless."  "  That  would  be  preaching 
Christ  for  my  own  ends,"  he  at  once  replied  ;  "  I  could  not 
do  that."      And  to  this  decision  he  firmly  held. 

In  this  crisis,  Mr.  James  showed  exceptional  courage 
and  generosity.  He  was  not  so  sound  a  Calvinist  as  he 
supposed  himself  to  be ;  but  he  was  by  no  means  in 
agreement  with  the  opinions  expressed  by  his  colleague. 
At  the  same  time,  he  was  satisfied  in  his  own  mind  that 
the  theological  differences  between  them  did  not  touch 
"  the  substance  or  core  of  Evangelical  truth "  ;  and  he 
was  resolved  that  the  settlement  arrived  at  after  so  much 
thought  and  prayer  should  not  be  lightly  annulled.  Any 
public  appeal,  he  felt,  would  be  injudicious  and  ineffective; 
so  he  went  to  one  after  another  of  those  whom  he  knew  to 
be  disquieted,  and  exerted  all  his  influence  and  authority 
to  calm  their  fears  and  to  remove  their  suspicions.  Some 
of  the  phrases  that  he  used  are  still  remembered.     Like 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  115 

Samuel  Johnson,  he  had  two  distinct  styles  of  speech. 
In  the  pulpit,  or  on  the  platform,  his  utterance  was 
clothed  with  dignity  and  pomp  ;  in  private  life,  he  spoke 
with  a  directness,  a  force,  and  a  rough  vigour  that  went 
straight  home.  He  did  not  beat  about  the  bush  ;  he  did 
not  appeal  to  abstract  principles.  "  Now  you  leave  the 
young  man  alone,"  he  said.  "  He  has  the  root  of  the 
matter  in  him.  The  young  man  must  have  his  fling." 
An  appeal  of  that  kind  all  could  understand.  They 
understood,  and  they  obeyed.  The  tumult  ceased,  and 
the  trouble  slowly  died  away.  Not  till  after  Mr.  James's 
death  did  Dale  learn  how  he  had  been  shielded  and 
upheld. 

It  was  a  painful  experience,  but  not  without  its  com- 
pensations. It  taught  him  to  give  as  he  had  received, 
to  help  others  in  after  years  as  he  had  himself  been 
helped.  More  than  one  young  minister,  similarly  beset, 
has  blessed  the  strong  arm  outstretched  in  his  defence  ; 
more  than  one  church,  after  the  peril  was  over,  has  been 
grateful  for  the  clear,  firm  guidance  that  kept  it  from 
disruption.  Nor  was  this  the  whole  of  the  lesson.  He 
learned,  as  he  could  have  learned  in  no  other  way,  when 
dealing  with  the  theological  problems  by  which  men  are 
divided,  to  distinguish  between  those  who  deny  the  great 
central  facts  of  the  gospel  and  those  who  accept  the  facts 
but  reject  the  theories  by  which  the  facts  are  interpreted, 
— to  distinguish,  in  short,  between  unity  of  form  or  ex- 
pression and  unity  of  substance. 

Trouble  of  such  a  kind,  however,  leaves  its  effects  long 
after  the  original  cause  of  misunderstanding  is  removed. 
Suspicion  survives,  and  estrangement.  The  sympathy, 
the  confidence,  the  affection,  so  essential  to  the  right 
relations  of  pastor  and  people,  are  lost  or  impaired  ;  and 
these  only  the  healing  influence  of  time  can  restore.  So 
as  months  went  by,  Dale  began  to  feel  more  and  more 
acutely  that  he  was  not  in  his  right  place  at  Carr's  Lane. 
The  meagre  success  of  his  work — so  far  as  he  could 
measure  it — filled  him  with  deepening  despondency  ;  and 
the  hostility  which  he  was  now  conscious  of  having  pro- 


n6  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

voked,  led  to  bitter  self-reproach.  The  following  letter, 
addressed  to  Mr.  James — undated,  but  evidently  written 
early  in  the  autumn  of  1856 — expresses  the  dissatisfaction 
with  which  he  reviewed  the  past  and  his  hopelessness  of 
future  usefulness  in  Birmingham. 

To  Mr.  James 

London,  September  (?)  1856. 

I  have  been  trying  several  times  during  the  past  six  months 
to  speak  to  you  about  anxieties  which  I  cannot  repress,  and 
which  I  feel  ought  not  to  be  concealed  from  you ;  when  I  asked 
you  to  be  kind  enough  to  call  round  before  the  last  church 
meeting,  I  hoped  to  be  able  to  gather  courage,  but  failed.  For 
the  last  year  and  a  half  I  have  had  a  growing  conviction,  which 
has  only  left  me  occasionally  to  return  very  soon  in  greater 
strength  than  ever,  that  I  am  utterly  useless  at  Carr's  Lane, 
and  am  standing  in  the  way  of  somebody  else  who  would  do 
the  work  far  better.  I  can  honestly  say  that  I  have  tried  hard, 
looking  to  God  for  help,  to  preach  the  very  central  truths  of 
the  gospel,  and  so  to  preach  them  as  to  reach  the  hearts  of 
the  ungodly.  You  know  how  wretched  have  been  the  results. 
Nor  do  I  feel  that  what  you  have  again  and  again  alleged  for 
my  comfort  avails  very  much.  How  can  I  tell  but  that  there 
is  something  in  the  relation  of  the  people  towards  myself  which 
hinders  your  usefulness  as  well  as  my  own  ?  The  fact  is  that 
I  made  mistakes  at  first  which  I  fear  are  irreparable.  I  did 
not  strive  as  I  should  have  done  to  win  the  confidence  of  the 
people,  and  I  am  sure  that  I  do  not  possess  it.  I  determined 
to  preach  exactly  what  I  thought  was  true — and  therein  indeed 
was  right ;  but  I  should  have  endeavoured  so  to  preach  it  as 
to  conciliate  prejudices  instead  of  strengthening  them ;  and  this 
I  forgot  to  do.  Whether  I  can  ever  do  it  I  am  not  sure ;  for 
it  is  very  hard  entirely  to  reconstruct  habits  of  thought  and 
speech ;  and  I  am  only  too  painfully  conscious  of  a  certain  dash 
of  bitterness  and  edge  of  sarcasm  which  occur  too  frequently  in 
my  preaching,  and  of  a  tendency  to  exaggerate  any  differences 
which  exist  between  my  modes  of  viewing  truth  and  those  to 
which  the  people  have  been  for  the  most  part  accustomed. 
The  consequence  is  that  the  electric  currents  of  spiritual 
sympathy  which  ought  to  stream  between  preacher  and  hearer, 
pastor  and  people,  are  absent.  Nothing  but  the  generous  con- 
fidence and  fatherly  patience  which  you  have  exhibited  towards 
me,  and  the  fear  that  any  indications  of  a  disposition  on  my 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  117 

part  to  move  might  imply  that  I  was  insensible  to  your  kindness 
and  ungrateful  for  it,  have  prevented  me  listening  to  one  or  two 
proposals  which  during  the  last  year  have  been  privately  made 
to  me.  I  could  not  endure  the  thought  of  appearing  to  forsake 
you  just  when  the  congregation  at  Carr's  Lane  was  passing 
through  a  season  of  trial ;  I  could  not  endure  the  thought  of 
bringing  new  anxieties  about  you,  and  have  therefore  stood  my 
ground.  But,  my  dear  friend,  are  you  sure  that  my  staying  is 
for  the  good  of  the  church,  and  for  your  own  real  happiness  ? 
The  way  would  be  much  easier  for  a  successor  than  it  has  been 
for  me,  and  he  might  profit  from  my  errors.  Perhaps  God's 
object  in  bringing  me  to  Carr's  Lane  was  that  I  might  make  it 
more  ready  to  receive  one  who  should  be  better  qualified  to 
work  with  you  than  myself. 

The  dissatisfaction  which  every  now  and  then  reveals  itself 
to  me,  is  not  likely  to  be  exhibited  before  your  eyes ;  so  that 
I  fear  you  are  hardly  in  a  position  to  judge  of  its  extent  and 
seriousness.  But  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  people 
come  to  hear  me,  rather  with  curiosity  as  to  what  I  shall  say, 
than  with  the  expectation  and  desire  of  being  spiritually  helped, 
I  am  tolerably  certain.  I  cannot  see  my  way ;  thick  darkness 
seems  all  round.  People  whom  I  meet  here  are  incessantly 
congratulating  me  on  the  good  tidings  which  they  say  they  hear 
about  me,  and  my  heart  often  aches  while  I  listen.  I  have 
written  this,  rather  because  I  feel  that  you  should  know  these 
feelings  and  thoughts,  than  because  they  have  led  me  as  yet  to 
any  clear  and  definite  result. 

Mr.  James's  answer  has  not  been  preserved  ;  but  in  this 
instance,  as  in  others,  it  evidently  succeeded  in  relieving 
Dale's  doubts  and  difficulties  for  the  moment,  if  it  did  not 
dispose  of  them  altogether. 

The  next  twelve  months  seem  to  have  been  entirely- 
free  from  trouble  of  any  kind,  and  the  attachment  of  the 
people  to  their  younger  minister  grew  rapidly.  Many  of 
those  who  at  first  had  regarded  him  with  suspicion,  found 
their  distrust  dissolve  as  they  came  to  know  him.  One 
good  man  with  a  keen  scent  for  heresy,  whose  hostility 
had  been  conspicuous,  at  a  week-night  prayer  meeting 
startled  those  present  by  the  tenderness  and  fervour  of 
his  intercession  for  the  pastor  who  was  crossing  the  Irish 
Channel  that  evening.  "  Say  to  the  winds  and  the  waves 
this   night  concerning  him,"  he  prayed,  "  Touch  not  my 


uS  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

anointed,  and  do  my  prophet  no  harm."  Some  indeed 
were  still  dissatisfied  ;  but  the  ill-feeling  for  the  most  part 
was  veiled.  Dale  himself  could  not  but  be  conscious  of 
the  change :  he  felt  that  his  hold  upon  the  church  was 
becoming  stronger  in  every  way.  But  the  earlier  experi- 
ences could  not  be  soon  forgotten  :  the  wound  had  healed  ; 
but  the  scars  remained.  And  he  was  still  uncertain 
whether  he  was  in  his  right  place,  or  doing  the  work  for 
which  he  was  best  qualified.  His  reputation  as  a  preacher 
was  spreading.  A  diary  of  engagements  for  the  year 
1856  shows  that  his  services  were  now  sought  even  in 
remote  parts  of  the  country.  Most  of  his  work  still  lay 
in  the  Midland  towns  within  easy  reach  of  Birmingham, 
and  in  the  neighbouring  villages  ;  but  he  preached  also 
at  Taunton,  Bristol,  Banbury,  Newcastle,  Ashton  -  under- 
line, at  Manchester,  Sheffield,  and  Limerick. 

In  Manchester  his  power  and  his  promise  were  at 
once  recognised  ;  and  when,  a  few  months  later,  the 
church  at  Cavendish  Street  was  in  search  of  a  pastor, 
Dale,  among  others,  was  invited  to  preach.  His  sermon 
made  such  an  impression  that  he  was  asked  to  come  again, 
it  being  understood  that  an  invitation  to  the  pastorate 
was  contemplated.  He  agreed  to  go  ;  but  in  doing  so  he 
thought  it  only  right  and  proper  that  Mr.  James  and  the 
deacons  of  Carr's  Lane  should  be  informed  of  what  was 
in  progress :  to  enter  into,  or  even  to  encourage,  any 
negotiations  behind  their  backs,  appeared  to  him  not  only 
discourteous  but  disloyal.  They  were  much  concerned  ; 
and  when  an  invitation  from  Cavendish  Street,  unanimous 
and  urgent,  followed,  their  distress  increased.  The  posi- 
tion in  itself  had  strong  attractions.  The  church  had 
noble  traditions  :  it  had  been,  and  might  again  become, 
a  great  centre  of  spiritual  force.  It  was  reported  that 
the  stipend  proposed  was  exceptionally  munificent — far 
in  excess  of  any  amount  that  Carr's  Lane,  notwithstanding 
the  generosity  of  the  senior  pastor,  could  possibly  offer.1 

1  Through  Mr.  James's  own  request,  and  by  his  own  act,  the  sum  devoted 
by  the  church  to  the  support  of  its  ministers  was  divided  equally  between  us 
when  the  co-pastorate  began  ;  and  .   .   .  gradually  his  own  pastoral  income  was 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  119 

Mr.  James  was  seriously  alarmed,  as  may  be  seen  in 
the  following  letter  : — 


From  Mr.  James 

I  believe  you  to  be  as  free  from  selfish  and  mercenary  con- 
siderations and  motives  as  any  man  living ;  yet  I  feel  it  requires 
such  an  act  of  self-denying  disinterestedness  to  resist  such  a 
tempting  offer  that  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  expect  it,  unless  you 
are  entirely  convinced  that  the  balance  of  usefulness  pre- 
ponderates for  Birmingham.  I  believe  it  does, — that  is,  if  we 
take  into  account  the  low  state  of  our  denomination,  and  the 
present  situation  of  the  college,  to  which,  with  all  its  deficiencies, 
you  owe  something. 

The  people  also  were  dismayed  by  the  possibility  of 
separation.  The  church  met,  and,  with  only  one  dissentient 
voice,  expressed  their  confidence  and  affection  in  a  strongly- 
worded  resolution.  More  than  eighty  young  men  of  the 
congregation  signed  a  memorial,  acknowledging  the 
spiritual  help  that  they  had  received  from  Dale's  ministry, 
and  urging  him  to  remain  among  them.  And  scrupulously 
careful  as  Mr.  James  showed  himself  not  to  exert  any 
undue  pressure,  and  not  to  force  a  favourable  decision,  the 
intense  concern  that  could  not  be  concealed,  even  by 
silence,  pleaded  with  a  pathetic  power. 

The  first  of  the  following  letters  was  addressed  to  Mr. 
James  from  Wasperton,  where,  in  quiet  and  seclusion,  the 
question  at  issue  could  be  calmly  and  fully  thought  out. 

To  Mr.  James 

Wasperton  Hill,  2s,th  December  1857. 

The  kind  and  generous  note  which  I  received  from  you  this 
morning  has  only  given  additional  strength  to  the  personal  ties, 
already  sufficiently  strong,  which  bind  me  to  Carr's  Lane.  It  is, 
however,  a  great  satisfaction  to  me  to  be  able  to  say  that  my 
mind  is  happily  entirely  free  from  the  pernicious  influence  of 
pecuniary  considerations.     If  indeed  such  an  offer  as  you  have 

diminished,  and  that  of  his  colleague  increased,  until  at  his  death  the  elder 
minister  received  from  the  church  less  than  one-half  the  amount  that  was 
received  by  the  younger  {Life  of  John  Angell  James,  p.  475). 


120  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

heard  of  had  really  been  made  me,  I  think  it  would  have  been 
rather  to  the  prejudice  of  the  interests  of  Cavendish  Street ;  I 
should  have  thought  of  it  as  indicating  a  secret  and  dishonour- 
able suspicion  that  my  choice  might  be  ruled  by  very  inferior 
motives,  and  that  in  the  judgment  of  the  church  at  Manchester 
what  was  deemed  a  "gift  of  God"  might  be  "bought  with 
money."  I  should  have  feared  to  accept  what  would  have  looked 
very  like  a  bribe  to  go,  lest  the  injury  likely  to  be  inflicted  both 
upon  Carr's  Lane  and  the  town  of  Birmingham  generally  by  the 
interpretation  which  would  infallibly  have  been  put  upon  my 
conduct,  would  outweigh  whatever  increase  of  usefulness  Man- 
chester might  appear  to  promise.  But  the  fact  is  that  no  such 
offer,  nor  anything  like  it,  has  really  been  made.  .  .  -1  The 
difference  between  their  offer  and  my  present  income  is  too 
inconsiderable  to  have  the  slightest  influence  in  determining  my 
choice.  I  need  not  say  that  other  private  considerations  are 
strongly  on  the  side  of  Birmingham.  You  would  not  be  pleased 
if  I  told  you  how  much  influence  my  remembrance  of  all  that 
you  have  been  to  me,  and  still  are,  exerts  on  all  my  meditations 
In  the  congregation  as  well  as  in  the  church  there  are  many, 
very  many,  from  whom  it  would  be  a  most  bitter  thing  for  me  to 
part.  I  love  and  reverence  numbers  of  the  Christian  brethren 
with  whom  and  for  whom  I  have  been  labouring,  more,  I  am 
sure,  than  they  imagine.  The  mode  of  life,  too,  in  Birmingham 
is  much  more  in  harmony  with  my  own  personal  tastes  and 
habits  than  the  mode  of  life  in  Manchester.  But  after  the  most 
devout  and  thorough  consideration  I  am  still  unable,  firmly  and 
with  entire  satisfaction  to  my  judgment  and  my  conscience,  to 
determine  what  I  ought  to  do ;  or  rather,  whether  I  ought  to  go 
or  remain. 

I  have  come  to  this.  In  your  personal  judgment  I  can 
implicitly  rely  :  I  believe  that  you  are  as  uninfluenced  by  private 
motives  in  this  grave  matter  as  though  your  interest  in  it  were 
only  that  of  any  other  Christian  man,  anxious  for  the  promotion 
of  Christ's  glory  and  the  most  efficient  employment  of  the 
special  and  characteristic  faculties  belonging  to  myself  as  one  of 
His  servants. 

Read  this  letter,  and  if  it  is  your  own  conviction  that  I  can 
serve  our  common  Master  most  efficiently  by  remaining  here, 
then  with  a  glad  and  bounding  heart  I  will  meet  the  church  on 
Friday  and  reconsecrate  myself — not  reluctantly  and  half- 
heartedly, but  with  joy  and  the  full  consent  of  my  whole  nature, 
to  their  service.     If  you   shrink   from  determining  the  matter, 

1  A  few  sentences  relating  to  the  financial  details  of  the  Manchester  pro- 
posal have  been  omitted. 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  121 

then — though  this  would  be  a  less  satisfactory  tribunal  to  my  own 
mind,  since  you  must  know  Carr's  Lane  better  than  they  can — 
let  Mr.  Redford,  Mr.  Greenfield,  and  Mr.  Wilson  of  Wolver- 
hampton have  the  whole  subject  put  before  them  ;  immediately, 
and  with  thorough  cordiality,  I  will  accept  their  decision.  I 
have  named  these  three,  because  I  really  do  not  know  how 
they  look  on  the  matter. 

Let  me  place  before  you  the  reasons  for  remaining,  and  those 
on  the  other  side,  as  they  have  occurred  to  me,  excluding — as  I  am 
writing  to  you — the  very  strong  considerations  derived  from  the 
happy  and  cordial  harmony  which  has  existed  between  us  and 
the  extent  of  obligation  under  which  I  am  conscious  that  I  lie 
to  your  generosity,  self-sacrifice,  and  trustfulness.  I  will  only 
say,  that  I  cannot  and  will  not  leave  you,  except  your  judgment, 
or  the  judgment  of  those  on  whom  you  can  rely,  declares  that 
for  Christ's  sake  I  ought  to  go.  If  I  separate  my  present 
connection  with  Carr's  Lane,  it  must  be  not  only  with  your 
concurrence,  but  in  harmony  with  your  convictions  of  what  will 
be  best  for  the  church  you  love  so  well,  and  for  the  universal 
Church  which  you  love  still  better.  There  are,  I  clearly  see, 
strong  reasons  for  remaining  in  Birmingham. 

(1)  The  present  church  and  congregation  are  on  the  whole, 
I  believe,  more  than  satisfied  with  my  ministry.  Many  are 
personally  attached  to  me,  and  believe  that  they  derive  strength 
and  instruction  from  my  ministry.  This  is  specially  true,  I 
imagine,  of  the  class  most  essential  to  the  future  prosperity  of  the 
church — the  young  people.  On  the  other  hand :  but  twelve  or 
fifteen  months  ago,  there  was  very  considerable  dissatisfaction 
on  the  part  of  many  of  the  wisest,  strongest,  and  best  people  in 
the  church,  occasioned  by  my  preaching  doctrines  which  I  still 
hold,  and  by  the  influence  on  my  ministry  of  mental  and  moral 
habits  too  deeply  rooted  ever  to  be  wholly  destroyed.  It  has 
happened,  of  late,  that  my  morning  sermons  have  been  almost 
entirely  historical ;  and  these  historical  sermons  have  excited  an 
interest  which  I  did  not  expect,  greatly  as  it  has  encouraged  me. 
But  nearly  all  this  time  the  kind  of  preaching  which  I  most 
approve,  which  is  most  natural  to  me,  for  which  I  am  conscious 
I  have  the  greatest  adaptation  and  to  which  I  must,  if  I 
remain,  in  some  measure,  return,  has  been,  partly  by  intention, 
partly  by  accident,  avoided :  I  feel  indeed  that  this  style  must 
be  abandoned  to  a  great  extent  if  I  remain.  If  it  is  my  duty  to 
work  at  Carr's  Lane,  it  is  my  duty  to  work  in  the  way  that  Carr's 
Lane  requires;  whether  I  shall  be  permanently  successful  in 
doing  this,  I  cannot  tell,  but  I  can  pledge  myself  without  any 
reservation  or  difficulty  to  do  my  best.     It  does  appear  to  my 


122  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

own  judgment,  however,  that  the  comparatively  recent  dissatis- 
faction and  the  circumstances  which  account  for  its  disappearance, 
should  diminish  to  some  extent  the  great  weight  to  be  attached 
to  the  unequivocal  demonstrations  which  have  lately  been  given 
of  present  confidence  in  my  ministry  and  attachment  to  it. 

(2)  Independency  in  Birmingham  is  so  inadequately  repre- 
sented that  to  imperil  the  church  which  stands  almost  alone  in 
its  strength  and  influence,  would  be  a  grave  evil :  this  I  feel 
most  deeply.  .  It  has,  however,  been  again  and  again  suggested 
to  me — and  that  not  simply  by  people  at  Cavendish  Street — 
that  Manchester,  notwithstanding  its  numerous  churches  and 
ministers,  is  lamentably  deficient  in  the  sort  of  ministry  which 
would  attract  the  educated  young  men  of  the  city,  on  whose 
future  piety  so  much  of  the  welfare  of  the  whole  country  depends. 
It  is  thought  that  my  preaching  would  command  their  sympathies 
and,  with  God's  blessing,  secure  their  attachment  to  Noncon- 
formity, and — what  is  of  infinitely  greater  importance — to  Christ. 
I  hear  of  men  once  connected  with  Christian  congregations  in 
Manchester  who  go  nowhere,  because  nowhere  do  they  find  what 
lays  hold  of  their  judgment  and  their  hearts.  If  Cavendish 
Street  could  be  filled  so  as  to  reach  these,  the  benefit  would  be 
incalculable ;  and  it  is  affirmed  that  it  would  be  easier  to  secure 
a  man  who  would  work  Carr's  Lane  as  efficiently  as  myself,  or 
more  efficiently,  than  to  secure  a  man  who  would  work  Cavendish 
Street  as  well. 

(3)  The  college  has  strong  claims  on  my  best  services.  The 
force  of  this  I  feel  as  much  as  any  man  can.  Necessarily  I 
must  feel  more  concerned  for  it  than  any  one  else  who  could 
occupy  my  present  position ;  and  though  it  is  now  tolerably 
certain,  I  suppose,  that  the  Theological  Chair  will  be  filled  by  a 
man  who  will  render  very  efficient  aid  in  all  ways,  it  would  be  a 
grief  to  me  to  be  obliged  to  leave  the  college  just  now.  She  is 
not  among  breakers,  I  think ;  but  she  requires  all  the  strength 
that  can  be  gathered  round  her. 

(4)  I  am  at  Carr's  Lane,  and  only  grave  reasons  should  induce 
me  to  leave.  Not  a  bare  preponderance  of  usefulness  even,  but 
a  considerable  one  is  necessary  to  justify  removal.  I  am  anxious 
again  to  place  before  you  briefly  and  clearly  what  the  reasons 
are  against  remaining,  which  from  the  beginning  have  had 
weight  with  me. 

The  present  congregation  cannot  —  ought  not  —  to  be 
occupying  the  place  ten  or  fifteen  years  hence.  Should  I 
remain,  it  will  be  one  of  my  most  prominent  objects  to  secure 
the  building  of  a  second  church  in  the  suburbs,  probably  at 
Highgate  :  I  am  quite  clear  about  the  duty  of  doing  this.     Carr's 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  123 

Lane  has  for  its  mission  the  conversion  and  right  training  of  the 
masses  of  the  Birmingham  people.  Its  size,  its  position,  alike 
indicate  this.  When  I  came  to  you,  the  vision  floated  before 
my  mind  of  a  powerful  working-class  church  filling  the  lower 
part  of  the  chapel  month  after  month  to  celebrate  the  Supper  of 
the  Lord.  I  burned  to  be  the  means  of  realising  that  vision  :  it 
seemed  to  me  the  grandest  thing  to  be  done  on  the  earth. 
Sadly,  but  slowly,  I  have  come  to  the  conviction  that  I  cannot 
do  it.  My  preaching  must  always  be  to  a  large  extent  specula- 
tive and  doctrinal.  To  reconstruct  one's  mind  and  completely 
transform  one's  habits  is  a  hard,  almost  an  impossible  task.  Such 
men  as  Mr. Beaumont — whose  head  appears  to  me  to  be  one  of 
the  finest  I  ever  met  with — complained  that  it  was  hard  work  to 
follow  my  sermons  on  "Romans."  Wherever  I  go,  I  must  strive 
against  the  excessive  tendency  to  abstractions  by  which  my 
preaching  must  have  been  characterised  for  such  a  man  to  speak 
so  of  it ;  but  do,  my  dear  sir,  ask  whether  it  is  for  the  true 
interests  of  Carr's  Lane  to  have  preaching  which  must,  however 
hard  I  try  to  remould  it,  be  always  characterised  by  this  element. 
I  may  be  as  successful  in  expelling  it  and  adopting  another 
style  as  some  men  are  in  speaking  a  foreign  language ;  but  it 
will  be  an  acquired  and  not  a  natural  thing.  I  have  tried  to 
place  myself  during  the  time  I  have  been  here  under  the  very  Cross 
of  Christ ;  to  anticipate  the  final  account  which  will  have  to  be 
given  of  my  ministry  ;  to  hear  what  Christ  Himself  would  say 
were  He  here ;  to  cherish  all  the  thoughts  and  principles  which 
ought  to  influence  the  decision  of  this  question  :  and  I  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  which  this  letter  indicates — that  the  whole 
subject  is  one  on  which  others  can  judge  better  than  I.  Your 
judgment,  my  dear  sir,  would  be  the  most  satisfactory  by  far, 
whichever  way  it  went.  Next  to  yours — but  a  long  way  behind 
— I  could  accept  the  decision  of  the  brethren  I  have  named. 
I  leave  the  whole  matter,  therefore,  in  your  hands.  My  private 
and  personal  predilections  are  in  favour  of  remaining ;  I  am  in 
doubt,  however,  whether  I  ought  not  to  go :  the  "  ought "  your 
own  decision  would  completely  determine.  .  .  . 

At  first  Mr.  James  shrank  from  taking  upon  himself 
so  serious  a  responsibility.  He  knew  that  any  decision 
to  which  he  might  come  would  be  loyally  accepted  at  the 
moment  ;  but  he  feared  lest  it  should  be  regretted  after- 
wards. His  own  mind,  however,  was  clear.  His  verdict 
was  for  Birmingham  and  against  Manchester.  He  said 
"  stay " — and    said    it  without    hesitation.      But    he  was 


j  24  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

willing,  if  his  colleague  so  desired,  to  call  in  others  to 
advise.  This  was  not  done  :  his  judgment  was  accepted 
as  final,  and  the  decision  was  communicated  to  the 
churches  concerned. 

In  announcing  his  decision  to  remain  at  Birmingham, 
Dale  made  no  secret  of  the  way  in  which  the  question 
had  been  settled.  He  said  plainly  that  his  own  judgment 
had  drawn  him  to  Manchester ;  that  he  believed  his 
preaching  would  be  more  effective  at  Cavendish  Street 
than  at  Carr's  Lane  ;  and  that  his  friends  were  of  the 
same  opinion.  But  the  case,  he  asserted,  was  not  one 
which  could  rightly  be  determined  by  such  considerations 
alone.  His  connection  with  Mr.  James  had  been  through- 
out "  a  very  sacred  thing  "  ;  it  could  not  be  lightly  broken. 
With  Mr.  James's  concurrence,  he  said,  I  could  have  gone 
to  Manchester  "  with  the  full  and  unfaltering  conviction  that 
I  was  following  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire."  Without 
it,  he  felt  that  he  ought  not  to  leave  Carr's  Lane  even 
with  the  prospect  of  greater  usefulness  elsewhere  ;  for  it  is 
sometimes  a  man's  duty  not  to  choose  the  work  that  he 
can  do  best,  but  to  accept  the  work  to  which  in  the  Divine 
wisdom  he  has  evidently  been  set. 

Dale  recognised  that  it  was  his  duty  in  this  crisis  of 
his  history  to  leave  himself  in  Mr.  James's  hands,  and  to 
accept  his  verdict,  whatever  it  might  be. 

After  earnestly  seeking  God's  guidance,  I  came  at  last  to  this 
conclusion — that  it  was  my  duty  to  state  to  Mr.  James  with 
perfect  frankness  and  unreserve  my  own  strong  convictions  of 
my  unfitness  for  the  work  which  lies  before  the  minister  at  Carr's 
Lane,  and  of  my  adaptation  to  the  position  at  Cavendish  Street ; 
and  that  if  he,  after  thoroughly  and  impartially  considering  this 
statement,  thought  I  should  remain  here,  it  would  be  my  duty 
to  remain ;  and  that  if  his  judgment  concurred  with  mine,  it 
would  be  as  clearly  my  duty  to  go  to  Manchester.  He  decided 
that  I  ought  not  to  leave  you ;  and  so  full  and  clear  is  my  con- 
viction that  he  had  the  right  to  determine  this  question,  that 
with  the  perfect  consent  of  my  conscience  and  my  judgment  I 
accept  his  decision. 

His  conduct  throughout  illustrates  his  readiness  to 
defer  to  authority.      Obedience  was  a  virtue  that  he  greatly 


THE  CO-PASTORATE 


125 


honoured.  He  was  quick  to  recognise  its  obligations  upon 
himself  as  upon  others.  In  matters  of  principle  and  of 
faith  he  could  be  inflexible,  as  he  had  shown  in  the  recent 
troubles.  At  any  cost — whatever  pain  he  might  inflict, 
whatever  suspicion  he  might  incur — he  had  thought  it 
right  to  assert  his  determination  to  preach  the  truth  as  he 
saw  it.  But  now,  when  the  question  at  issue  related  to 
the  conditions  under  which  his  work  should  be  done,  and 
not  to  the  laws  and  principles  by  which  he  should  be  ruled 
in  doing  it,  he  felt  that  he  not  only  might  defer  but  must 
defer  to  Mr.  James's  judgment,  even  though  it  conflicted 
with  his  own.  Here  loyalty  had  its  place,  and  indifference 
to  its  claims  would  have  been  dishonour.  He  surrendered 
his  will  ungrudgingly.  Never  for  a  moment  did  he  look 
back  or  swerve  from  his  course.  Weakness  is  as  impotent 
in  self-surrender  as  in  self-assertion  ;  but  his  obedience  was 
the  outcome  not  of  weakness  but  of  strength. 

With  increasing  experience  the  burden  of  the  pastorate 
grew  lighter,  and  Dale  found  time  for  work  of  other  kinds. 
In  the  autumn  of  1856  he  began  to  write  for  the  Eclectic 
Review,  then  edited  by  Mr.  J.  E.  Ryland  of  Northampton. 
Its  best  days  were  over  :  it  had  lost  the  reputation  and 
the  influence  that  it  possessed  when  Josiah  Conder  was  its 
editor,  and  when  John  Foster,  Robert  Hall,  and  Dr. 
Chalmers  were  among  its  contributors.  But  if  it  had 
ceased  to  lead  opinion,  it  was  still  of  service  to  young 
writers  who  wished  to  try  their  strength  on  serious 
subjects.  Dale's  relations  with  the  Eclectic  and  its  editor 
soon  became  intimate.  In  the  literary  reminiscences 
already  referred  to  he  says  : — 

Mr  Ryland  was  a  most  interesting  man — very  shy,  but,  when 
he  overcame  his  shyness,  charming.  He  was  an  excellent 
German  scholar,  and  had  a  considerable  acquaintance  with  litera- 
ture. His  letters  were  delightful.  In  1856  he  was  beating 
about  for  young  writers,  and  caught  Dr.  Paton,  now  of  Notting- 
ham, and  myself.  To  me  he  was  very  kind.  He  let  me  write 
as  often  as  I  liked,  and  on  whatever  subjects  I  liked,  and  was 
always  pressing  me  to  write  more.  I  remember  telling  him 
once  that  I  was  much  too  busy  to  find  time  to  read  some  big 
book  that  he  wanted  me  to  review,  and  he  answered  cheerily,  in 


126  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

his  quiet  voice,  "  Never  mind.  I'll  read  it,  if  you'll  write  about 
it."  I  was  obliged  to  decline  his  generous  proposal.  How  long 
Mr.  Ryland  retained  the  editorship  of  the  Eclectic,  after  I  began 
to  write  for  it,  I  cannot  remember ;  nor  can  I  remember  the 
circumstances  which  led  to  his  retirement.  But  in  the  course  of 
a  year  or  two  Dr.  Paton  became  the  responsible  editor  and,  in 
some  undefined  way,  I  shared  the  editorship  with  him.  But  Dr. 
Paton  was  a  man  of  enormous  energy  and,  as  far  as  editing  was 
concerned,  I  was  very  much  in  the  position — I  was  about  to  say 
— of  a  sleeping  partner.  That  description,  however,  would  be 
singularly  inappropriate ;  for  once  or  twice  in  the  month  Dr. 
Paton  used  to  come  to  me  about  eight  or  nine  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  and  we  discussed  subjects  and  writers  till  midnight,  or 
till  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  then  he  left  for  his  train ;  so 
that  whatever  share  I  had  in  editing  the  Eclectic  was  rather 
hostile  than  friendly  to  sleep. 


His  first  article — on  Whately's  edition  of  Bacon's 
Essays — appeared  in  September  1856,  and  during  the 
next  three  years  he  continued  to  write  regularly :  in  fact 
very  few  numbers  appeared  without  some  contribution 
from  him.  His  best  work  was  in  theology.  In  dealing 
with  such  books  as  Stanley's  Corinthians,  Maurice's  Gospel 
of  St.  John,  Harvey  Goodwin's  Hulsean  Lectures  on  the 
Divinity  of  Christ,  and  others  of  the  same  order,  he  found 
himself  on  familiar  ground.  His  grasp  of  principle  was 
firm,  his  vision  clear.  He  always  struck  at  the  centre. 
Mr.  Ryland  gave  him  a  free  hand  :  only  once  does  it 
appear  that  the  editorial  authority  was  exercised — in 
cutting  out  a  dangerous  paragraph  on  "  Justification " 
from  a  review  of  Dr.  Stoughton's  Ages  of  Christendom  ; 
as  a  rule  his  liberty  was  unfettered.  Three  articles  on 
"  Christianity  and  Hinduism,"  "  The  Indian  Mutiny,"  and 
"  The  Future  Government  of  India,"  show  not  only 
exceptional  knowledge,  but  a  remarkable  power  of  dealing 
with  the  problems  of  practical  statesmanship.  Some  of 
his  most  effective  contributions  to  the  Reviezv  were  con- 
cerned with  the  needs  of  the  Congregational  churches. 
Two  articles  on  the  inadequacy  of  ministerial  stipends 
attracted  much  attention  :  the  second  of  these  was 
reprinted,  and  had  a  wide  circulation.      It  examined  the 


THE  CO-rASTORATE  127 

remedies  proposed  for  existing  evils,  and  anticipated  much 
that  recent  discussion  has  made  familiar.  He  also  dealt 
with  the  relation  of  the  Theological  Colleges  to  the 
churches,  insisting  upon  the  necessity  of  radical  change  if 
the  colleges  were  to  make  the  best  of  the  material 
entrusted  to  them.  It  was  foolish  and  futile — so  it 
appeared  to  him — to  force  all  men  through  the  same 
mill  ;  both  those  who  entered  college  prepared  for  more 
advanced  study  by  their  previous  education,  and  those  who, 
having  forgotten  in  business  the  little  that  they  had  learned 
at  school,  might  make  successful  preachers,  but  could 
never  be  turned  into  scholars  :  the  needs  of  these  two 
classes,  he  urged,  were  absolutely  distinct,  and  should  be 
provided  for  in  different  ways.  He  also  maintained  the 
necessity  of  training  the  student  while  at  college  in  the 
practical  duties  of  the  pastorate,  in  order  that  when  placed 
in  charge  of  a  church  he  might  not  be  suddenly  called 
upon  to  discharge  functions  of  which  he  could  have  had 
no  preliminary  experience;  and  he  offered  some  suggestions 
as  to  the  way  in  which  such  instruction  in  pastoral  theology 
might  be  given. 

His  articles  on  general  literature — fiction  for  the  most 
part — were  less  successful.  He  had  not  yet  acquired  the 
lightness  of  touch  or  the  ease  requisite  for  work  of  this 
kind.  His  humour  was  heavy  ;  he  was  apt  to  labour  his 
points — to  demonstrate  where  he  should  have  suggested, 
to  spend  a  paragraph  where  only  a  sentence  was  needed. 

A  monthly  review  of  events,  which  ran  through  the 
year  1858,  displays  his  growing  interest  in  French 
politics.  In  January  he  regards  Louis  Napoleon  as  "  a 
grim  necessity — a  breakwater  against  the  surges  of 
political  fanaticism  and  unrule " ;  "  for  sagacity  and 
energy  "  he  places  him  "  foremost  in  the  royal  fraternity  of 
Europe."  Larger  knowledge  soon  dispels  the  illusion,  and 
in  a  few  months  the  note  has  changed.  "  He  has  no 
genius  but  the  genius  of  cunning,  and  his  achievements 
provoke  either  indignation  or  contempt :  in  his  youth  and 
obscurity  he  signalised  himself  by  his  follies,  in  his  matured 
manhood  and  the  pride  of  his  power  he  has  signalised 


128  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

himself  by  his  crimes.  The  working  men  of  England 
know  what  '  universal  suffrage '  means  on  the  lips  of 
Louis  Napoleon  : — solemn  vows,  oaths  of  fidelity  to  a 
Republic,  basely  violated  ;  the  destruction  of  representative 
institutions  ;  the  gagging  of  the  press  ;  the  supremacy  of  an 
ambitious  priesthood."  To  this  estimate  he  steadily 
adhered  with  ever  increasing  conviction  till  the  tyranny 
and  corruption  of  the  empire  met  with  righteous  retribu- 
tion at  Sedan. 

The  summer  of  1858  made  a  fresh  addition  to  his 
engagements.  Mr.  Watts,  the  theological  tutor  at  Spring 
Hill,  resigned  his  post  ;  and  about  the  same  time  Mr. 
Rogers  accepted  the  Presidency  of  the  Lancashire 
Independent  College,  and  removed  to  Manchester.  New 
arrangements  became  necessary,  and  Dale  undertook  the 
lectures  on  English  Literature,  Logic,  Philosophy,  and 
Homiletics.  His  interest  in  these  subjects  was  keen.  He 
had  the  freshness  and  the  enterprise  of  youth.  He  did  not 
leave  his  personality  at  the  door  of  the  lecture-room.  The 
abler  men  among  the  students  who  attended  his  classes  were 
stimulated  by  his  enthusiasm.  He  broke  new  ground 
with  them,  and  they  eagerly  followed  his  leading  ;  the 
plodders  were  no  less  grateful  for  the  patience  with  which 
he  set  himself  to  remove  their  difficulties.  Some  of  those 
who  then  studied  under  him  testify  in  the  strongest  terms 
to  his  faculty  as  a  teacher.      The  Rev.  R.  Tuck  writes : — 

I  have  always  cherished  a  very  high  sense  of  the  value  of  his 
instruction,  and  look  upon  the  short  time  during  which  he  pre- 
sided over  the  college  classes  as  the  most  inspirational  period  of 
my  college  training.  I  have  been  accustomed  to  say  that 
"  Professor  Barker  taught  me  how  to  work,  and  Professor  Dale 
taught  me  how  to  think."  What  I  believe  was  most  impressed 
upon  all  the  members  of  his  classes  was  the  influence  of  their 
contact  with  a  living  and  independent  mind.  I  retain  to  this 
day  the  memory  of  some  of  his  philosophical  illustrations,  which 
indicated  unusual  keenness  and  quickness  of  observation,  singular 
power  in  recognising  the  relations  of  things,  and  the  higher 
meanings  that  underlie  the  seemingly  commonplace. 

The  Rev.  Allan  Mines,  now  of  Rock  Ferry,  recalls  a 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  129 

different  part  of  his  work,  especially  a  series  of  lectures  on 
"  The  Structure  and  Preparation  of  Sermons." 

I  have  always  felt  myself — and  I  believe  my  fellow-students 
were  all  of  the  same  opinion — that  these  lectures  were  the  most 
interesting,  the  most  helpful,  and  the  most  inspiring  part  of  all 
our  college  work.  He  also  conducted  the  Homiletic  class  during 
the  same  session,  and  I  can  well  remember  how  the  conceit  was 
taken  out  of  us  by  his  severe  but  righteous  criticisms ;  how  he 
tried  his  best  to  discover  the  slightest  trace  of  genius  or  originality, 
and  to  expose  the  limping  logic  and  the  empty  platitude.  He 
had  no  mercy  here ;  but  withal  it  was  done  with  so  much  dignity 
and  generosity,  and  such  transparent  earnestness,  that,  though  not 
relished  at  the  time,  many  of  us  can  say  it  has  been  the  making  of 
us.  .  .  .  His  visits  to  the  college  were  frequent;  and  his  personal 
intercourse  with  the  students,  his  long  country  walks  with  two  or 
three  at  a  time,  and  the  discussion  of  knotty  questions  in  theology 
and  philosophy,  have  left  many  of  us  under  lasting  obligations. 

He  enjoyed  the  work,  put  his  whole  heart  into  it,  and 
did  it  well :   as  to  that  all  testimonies  agree. 

It  will  be  easily  understood  that  these  engagements,  as 
one  followed  upon  another,  claimed  all  the  energies  even 
of  an  active  man.  Dale  had  neither  time  nor  strength 
to  involve  himself  in  local  affairs  or  in  denominational 
business.  He  did  not  indeed  absent  himself  from  public 
meetings  or  from  the  assemblies  of  the  Congregational 
Union,  but  it  was  rarely  that  he  took  a  prominent  part  in 
the  proceedings.  His  first  appearance  in  Birmingham 
was  at  a  great  meeting  held  to  support  "  the  Patriotic 
Fund "  organised  during  the  Crimean  war.  Mr.  James 
was  asked  to  speak  in  the  first  instance,  but  he  refused, 
and  arranged  that  the  invitation  should  be  transferred  to 
his  colleague.  A  characteristic  note  came  with  it.  "  It 
will  be  a  fine  occasion,"  Mr.  James  wrote.  "  It  is  a  county 
meeting  in  the  morning.  Lord  Hill  in  the  chair.  Without 
committing  yourself  to  an  approval  of  war,  you  may  refer 
to  his  Lordship's  great  relation  —  the  Lord  Hill  of 
Wellington's  army — and  draw  a  fine  contrast  between  the 
war  of  the  sword  and  the  war  of  the  Bible."  It  is  one 
more  instance  of  the  old  man's  solicitude  for  his  friend's 
success.  But  dexterous  ambiguity  and  any  concern  to 
K 


130  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

avoid  "  committing  "  himself  were  entirely  foreign  to  Dale's 
disposition.  He  was  no  lover  of  war,  but  he  was  con- 
vinced that  there  are  times  in  the  history  of  nations  when 
war  is  both  inevitable  and  righteous,  and  that  "  to  decline 
the  duty  of  asserting  by  arms — when  all  other  means  have 
failed — the  claims  of  liberty  and  justice  must  bring  both 
shame  and  disaster."  Or,  as  he  once  said  in  later  years, 
"  I  believe  in  peace — true  peace — at  any  price  ;  in  peace, 
even  at  the  price  of  war."  These  were  his  convictions, 
and  he  would  not  hide  them.  And  so  the  speech  was 
framed  upon  lines  very  different  from  those  which  Mr. 
James  had  suggested.  He  followed  Dr.  Miller,  the  Rector 
of  St.  Martin's,  then  at  the  height  of  his  popularity,  who 
was  seen  at  his  best  when  addressing  a  great  assembly. 
This  gave  Dale  his  opening  ;  he  showed  how  war  not 
only  divides  but  unites  ;  how  it  draws  together  parties 
that  are  hostile,  and  even  Churches  that  are  estranged. 
He  refused  to  condemn  war  without  discrimination  :  if 
some  wars  are  monstrous  and  criminal,  others  are  noble 
and  righteous.  He  rejoiced  that  the  nation  had  shown 
itself  capable  of  sacrifice  for  unselfish  aims — not  to  extend 
its  commerce  or  to  increase  its  territory,  but  for  the  sake 
of  justice,  mercy,  and  truth.  And  the  war  so  waged  was 
bringing  out  in  its  progress  some  of  the  most  heroic  and 
Christian  virtues — not  only  superb  valour,  but  the  patient 
fortitude  of  our  troops,  and  the  beneficent  devotion  of 
Miss  Nightingale  and  her  fellow-workers.  He  also  gave 
utterance  to  the  hopes — the  too  sanguine  hopes — which 
the  friends  of  freedom  then  cherished  for  the  oppressed 
nationalities  of  Hungary  and  Poland.1 

1  In  the  structure  and  the  movement  of  the  speech  there  is  much  that  recalls 
a  splendid  passage  in  Tennyson's  Maud.  That  poem  indeed  was  not 
published  till  a  year  later ;  but  Tennyson  put  into  words  what  many  others 
felt  and  thought,  and  the  spirit  of  the  speech  is  perfectly  expressed  in  the 
famous  lines  : — ■ 

Tho'  many  a  light  shall  darken,  and  many  shall  weep 
For  those  that  are  crush'd  in  the  clash  of  jarring  claims, 
Yet  God's  just  wrath  shall  be  wreak'd  on  a  giant  liar  ; 
And  many  a  darkness  into  the  light  shall  leap, 
And  shine  in  the  sudden  making  of  splendid  names, 
And  noble  thought  be  freer  under  the  sun, 
And  the  heart  of  a  people  beat  with  one  desire. 


THE  CO-PASTORATE  131 

The  meeting  was  thoroughly  roused  ;  it  had  not 
expected  much  from  a  young  and  untried  speaker ;  and 
the  enthusiastic  cheering  which  burst  out  as  he  sat  down 
showed  that  a  new  force  had  appeared  in  the  public  life  of 
the  town. 

He  did  not  shrink,  even  in  those  days,  from  taking  a 
line  of  his  own,  even  when  he  was  in  danger  of  being 
misunderstood.  At  a  meeting  called  to  discuss  a  scheme 
for  providing  places  of  recreation  for  the  working-classes, 
some  urged  that  athletics  in  general  and  single-stick  in 
particular  should  be  discountenanced.  Dale — though  he 
was  no  athlete — vigorously  protested  against  a  policy  so 
narrow  as  to  ignore  that  the  body  had  its  needs  no  less 
than  the  mind,  and  so  futile  as  to  drive  away  the  vigorous 
lads  who  had  the  strongest  claim  to  sympathy  and  help. 
On  another  occasion,  when  Mr.  Washington  Wilks  had 
delivered  a  lecture  on  India  to  a  crowded  audience  in  the 
Music  Hall,  without  any  notice  a  resolution  was  proposed 
demanding  self-government  for  India  in  the  largest  and 
most  comprehensive  terms.  Most  of  those  present  had  no 
idea  that  such  a  declaration  of  opinion  would  be  asked  for, 
and  Dale,  whose  interest  in  Indian  affairs  has  already  been 
noticed,  rose  at  once  to  object.  The  Indian  people,  he 
urged,  were  not  ready  for  self-government.  Even  if  they 
had  been  ready,  that  was  not  the  time  to  concede  it.  The 
Mutiny  was  still  in  full  swing.  England's  first  duty  was 
to  re-establish  law  and  order,  and  to  visit  crime  with  just 
retribution.  Till  this  had  been  done,  no  other  policy  could 
be  considered.  The  lecturer  and  his  friends  had  no  right 
to  snatch  a  vote,  which  would  be  paraded  as  the  verdict  of 
the  town.  If  they  wished  to  test  public  opinion,  let  them 
call  a  town's-meeting  in  the  ordinary  way,  at  which  the 
whole  subject  might  be  discussed  by  all  concerned.  The 
protest  was  successful  ;  the  audience  responded  to  the 
appeal,  and  the  resolution  was  withdrawn. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  complete  the  picture  in  detail. 
When  Kossuth  visited  the  town  in  the  spring  of  1856 
Dale  seconded  the  address  of  welcome,  but  from  local 
politics  he  seems  to  have  held  entirely  aloof.      He  took  no 


132  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

active  part  in  Bright's  first  election  as  member  for  the 
borough.  One  incident,  however,  is  worth  recording  as  a 
warning  to  inexperienced  orators.  One  evening  in  1858, 
soon  after  Donati's  comet  appeared,  he  was  speaking  at 
the  Town  Hall,  having  come  in  late  from  another  engage- 
ment. For  a  week  it  had  been  dark  and  stormy ;  but 
that  night,  after  the  meeting  had  assembled,  a  sudden 
change  had  left  a  cloudless  sky.  When  called  on  to 
speak  he  soon  had  his  audience  well  in  hand,  until,  by  way 
of  illustration,  he  referred  to  the  comet — "  now  blazing 
with  matchless  splendour  in  the  heavens."  The  audience 
rose  at  once,  and  filed  out  in  long  lines ;  within  a  few 
minutes  the  hall  was  almost  empty.  The  experience,  he 
used  to  say,  taught  him  to  watch,  not  only  what  illustra- 
tions he  used,  but  when  and  where  he  used  them. 

It  was  a  busy  life,  full  of  varied  interests,  of  varied 
duties  ;  already  rich  in  usefulness,  though  lacking  the  con- 
centration of  force  and  the  unity  of  aim  by  which  the 
highest  eminence  is  achieved.  But  for  the  special  work 
which  lay  before  him  he  could  have  had  no  better  pre- 
paration. "There  is  that  scattereth  and  yet  increaseth": 
the  truth  of  the  proverb  was  illustrated  in  his  experience. 
At  Carr's  Lane,  at  Spring  Hill,  and  in  the  Eclectic  Revieiu 
he  learned  to  combine  the  powers  which  in  most  men  are 
found  singly  and  separated.  His  power  and  influence  in 
later  life  was  largely  due  to  the  conditions  under  which  his 
ministry  began. 

Mr.  James's  death,  after  a  few  hours'  illness,  early  in 
October  1859,  brought  a  sudden  and  complete  change  in 
Dale's  position.  A  few  days  later  the  church  met,  passed 
a  resolution  of  unqualified  confidence,  and  confirmed  him  in 
the  pastorate.  After  rather  more  than  six  years'  service, 
first  as  assistant  and  then  as  co-pastor,  he  thus  became 
the  sole  minister  of  Carr's  Lane. 


BOOK    II 


CHAPTER    VI1 

SOLE    PASTOR 

Birmingham  :  the  place  and  the  people  ;  social,  political,  religious  charac- 
teristics—  Dale's  position  —  New  churches  in  the  suburbs  —  Christian 
ethics — Practical  teaching — Positive  morality — Sermons  to  the  young — 
The  religious  life  of  children — Dominant  ideas  :  the  Humanity  of  Christ ; 
Judgment  to  come — Christian  history — James's  Life — Criticism  of  the 
Anxious  Enquirer  resented  —  Mr.  T.  S.  James's  pamphlet  —  Dale's 
reply — Holiday  at  Montauban — The  Protestant  College  and  its  Professors 
— Theological  training  in  France  and  in  England — The  weakness  of 
French  Protestantism. 

THE  changes  of  the  last  forty  years  have  left  their  mark 
on  Birmingham.  The  town  has  moved  with  the  main 
stream  of  national  life  ;  it  has  been  drawn  by  currents  of 
its  own.  New  forces  have  come  into  play  ;  the  conditions 
of  social  and  commercial  life  have  been  modified.  The 
population  has  grown  ;  the  suburbs  have  been  swamped 
by  the  town  ;  outlying  villages  have  been  turned  into 
suburbs.  Many  men — not  only  of  the  wealthier  classes, 
but  tradesmen  and  clerks  and  mechanics  also — spend  an 
hour  or  more  every  day  upon  the  rail.  The  hours  of 
work  and  the  hours  of  rest  are  divorced  ;  the  home  is 
remote  from  the  business.  Isolated  communities  have 
formed  on  all  sides,  each  with  interests  of  its  own  ;  and 
the  unity,  the  solidarity  of  the  town  has  been  so  far  im- 
paired. But  the  census  returns  show  that  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  people  of  Birmingham  were  born 
either  in  the  town  itself,  or  in  its  immediate  neighbourhood. 
And  so,  in  spite  of  all  change,  the  original  stock  survives  ; 

1  Much  of  the  material  in  this  chapter  has  been  borrowed  from  chapter  xiii. 
of  the  History  of  the  Corporation  of  Birmingham,  by  John  Thackray  Bunce. 


ij6  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

and  it  is  possible  even  now  to  trace  the  inheritance  of 
temper  and  tradition.  There  is  no  disposition  in  our  time 
to  underestimate  the  degree  in  which  character  is  affected 
by  environment.  In  one  sense  a  man  makes  his  business  ; 
in  another  sense,  his  business  makes  the  man.  The  work 
itself,  the  materials,  the  tools,  the  processes  employed,  the 
men  with  whom  he  is  associated,  the  place  in  which  he 
works,  all  tell  upon  him.  Day  after  day,  year  after  year, 
he  is  moulded  and  shaped,  imperceptibly  and  unconsciously, 
by  the  conditions  and  circumstances  of  his  daily  occupa- 
tion. These  forces  may  be  resisted,  they  may  be 
controlled ;  the  will  within  may  be  stronger  than  the 
pressure  from  without  ;  but  whether  supreme  or  subject, 
they  do  not  cease  to  act  and  to  affect  the  prevailing  type 
in  the  community. 

In  most  of  our  manufacturing  towns  some  one  industry 
predominates,  and  its  fluctuations  raise  or  depress  the 
prosperity  of  the  place.  Birmingham,  on  the  contrary, 
has  always  been  distinguished  by  the  variety  of  its  trades 
and  products.  The  report  presented  to  the  Board  of 
Health  in  the  year  1849  by  their  commissioner,  Mr. 
Rawlinson,  fastens  on  this  characteristic.  Even  then  there 
were  more  than  five  hundred  distinct  classes  of  manu- 
facturers, traders,  and  dealers  ;  and  each  class  included 
many  branches  or  subdivisions.  This  diffusion  and 
variety  of  occupation,  Mr.  Rawlinson  observed,  gave  an 
exceptional  elasticity  to  the  trade  of  the  town  ;  it  also 
developed  in  the  workpeople  a  special  facility  for  changing 
their  work  in  case  of  need,  and  for  turning  rapidly  from 
one  kind  of  employment  to  another,  and  so  encouraged 
freedom  and  independence  of  thought  and  action.  This 
diversity  again  created  and  sustained  a  large  number  of 
small  factories,  employing  no  great  amount  of  capital  and 
comparatively  few  workmen.  It  was,  as  Dale  used  to  say, 
a  great  village.  The  gap  between  masters  and  men  was 
not  wide  ;  personal  relations  were  close.  Many  of  the 
employers  had  worked  at  the  bench  themselves  ;  and  a 
man  who  was  sober,  industrious,  and  intelligent,  might 
hope  to  rise  in  the  same  way.      And  even   if  he  did  not 


SOLE  PASTOR  137 

prosper  to  this  extent,  he  was  not  effaced  in  the  crowd  of 
workers  ;  he  was  not  merged  in  a  vast  machine.  To 
these  and  similar  causes  Mr.  Rawlinson  attributed  the 
freedom  of  intercourse  between  masters  and  men,  the 
general  comfort  and  intelligence  of  the  workpeople,  and 
the  exceptional  consideration  and  kindness  of  the  em- 
ployers for  the  employed,  that  he  found  to  prevail  in  the 
town.  There  was  a  sturdy  independence,  but  no  deep 
division,  no  embittered  hostility,  between  class  and  class. 

Such  a  system,  it  is  obvious,  does  not  help  to  pile  up 
large  fortunes.  In  those  days  there  were  few,  if  any, 
millionaires  connected  with  trade  in  or  near  Birmingham. 
The  great  iron-masters  of  Staffordshire  formed  a  class 
apart ;  but  one  would  have  looked  in  vain  for  men  like 
the  "  cotton-lords "  of  Manchester,  or  the  "  merchant- 
princes  '  of  Liverpool.  Wealth  was  equally  diffused  ; 
large  fortunes  were  rare.  The  business  world,  like  the 
scenery  of  Warwickshire,  was  a  rolling  country,  with  no 
projecting  peaks.  The  style  of  living,  even  among  the 
wealthier  classes,  was  simple  ;  there  was  comfort,  but  little 
luxury,  and  no  extravagance.  The  most  prosperous, 
when  they  moved  out  into  the  suburbs,  were  content  with 
unassuming  houses  and  modest  gardens.  A  carriage  and 
pair  was  rarely  seen  in  the  streets.  Many  doctors  and 
lawyers  still  remained  in  the  centre  of  the  town.  Newhall 
Street,  the  Crescent,  the  Old  Square,  and  the  streets 
enclosing  St.  Philip's  Churchyard,  had  not  yet  been 
deserted  by  tenants  of  this  kind.  The  tide  indeed  had 
begun  to  set  outwards,  but  its  full  force  had  not  yet  been 
felt.  It  was  still  not  unusual  for  the  factory  and  the 
dwelling-house  to  stand  side  by  side ;  thriving  trades- 
people lived  above  their  shops.  The  wife  and  the 
daughters  often  took  a  quiet  share  in  the  business.  Their 
pleasures  were  simple,  and  their  entertainments  neither 
costly  nor  elaborate. 

Political  interest  in  the  town  was  keen  ;  Birmingham 
had  not  broken  with  its  traditions.  It  had  stood  by  the 
Parliament  against  the  King  ;  Clarendon  sets  it  in  the  first 
rank  for  "  hearty,  wilful,  affected  disloyalty."      During  the 


138  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

reign  of  Toryism  it  had  steadily  maintained  the  principles 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  It  had  been  foremost  in  the 
struggle  for  Parliamentary  reform.  Now,  indeed,  passion 
had  cooled  and  fervour  had  abated  ;  but  the  old  spirit 
still  lived  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  in  John  Bright 
— after  his  rejection  by  the  electors  of  Manchester — they 
found,  not  only  a  representative  but  a  voice,  and  a  leader 
gifted  with  a  prophet's  power  to  stir  and  to  inspire. 

Municipal  affairs  were  at  a  low  ebb.  Only  a  few  years 
had  passed  since  local  authority  had  been  consolidated 
after  a  long  and  embittered  struggle.  In  that  conflict 
vigour  and  enthusiasm  had  spent  themselves,  and  a  period 
of  apathy  had  set  in.  The  Town  Council  had  neither 
enterprise  nor  enthusiasm.  It  was  not  without  men  of 
character  and  ability ;  but  they  had  no  coherence  of 
opinion,  no  bond  of  union.  Their  policy  was  to  move 
slowly,  and  to  do  as  little  as  they  could.  The  Council 
was  not  corrupt  ;  but  the  wires  were  easily  pulled  in 
defence  of  "  interests  "  and  for  the  exaltation  of  individuals. 
Meanwhile,  the  streets,  even  in  the  very  centre  of  the 
town,  were  mean  and  sordid  —  badly  paved,  and  badly 
lighted  ;  two  gas-companies  supplied  the  town,  but  the 
public  did  not  profit  by  their  competition.  Farther  out, 
row  upon  row  of  smoky  dwarf  houses  extended  in  all 
directions  ;  and  behind  the  streets  lay  two  thousand  close 
courts,  approached  by  a  narrow  passage  and  doorway — for 
the  most  part  without  pavement  or  drainage.  Wells 
contaminated  by  the  filth  that  was  left  to  soak  into  the 
soil  supplied  two-thirds  of  the  population.  A  water 
company  supplied  the  remaining  third  on  three  days  in  the 
week.  Disease  was  wide-spread,  and  the  death-rate  high. 
Whole  districts  were  abandoned  to  vice  and  crime.  As 
yet,  a  municipal  conscience  and  municipal  statesmanship 
were  only  the  dream  and  the  ideal  of  a  few  younger  men 
whose  position  was  still  to  make. 

The  religious  life  of  the  town  was  not  without  dis- 
tinctive features.  When  the  Five  Mile  Act  required 
every  clergyman  expelled  from  the  English  Church  by  the 
Act  of  Uniformity  to  swear  that  he  held  it  unlawful  under 


SOLE  PASTOR  139 

any  circumstances  to  take  up  arms  against  the  King,  and 
that  he  would  at  no  time  "  endeavour  any  alteration  of 
government  in  Church  or  State,"  those  who  refused  the 
oath  were  forbidden  to  go  within  five  miles  of  any 
borough;  and  Birmingham — not  yet  incorporated — became 
a  city  of  refuge  and  a  stronghold  of  Dissent.  The 
tradition  lasted.  Nonconformity  kept  its  hold  upon  the 
town,  and  gained  adherents  among  its  most  enlightened 
and  prosperous  citizens.  Even  under  the  old  system  of 
local  government,  they  made  good  their  claim  to  a  share 
of  office  and  authority.  Among  their  pastors  they  had 
rarely  lacked  men  of  ability,  who  could  hold  their  own  in 
controversy,  and  were  fitted  to  take  the  lead  in  public 
affairs. 

For  very  many  years  Mr.  James  had  been  the  most 
conspicuous  representative  of  Evangelical  Nonconformity 
in  Birmingham  and  its  neighbourhood.  Ability,  ex- 
perience, character,  gave  him  an  undisputed  primacy  by 
no  means  confined  to  the  churches  of  his  own  order. 
After  his  death,  two  ministers — and  only  two — had  the 
ear  of  the  town — the  Rector  of  St.  Martin's,  Dr.  Miller, 
and  George  Dawson,  who  had  broken  away  from  the 
Baptists,  and  had  gathered  about  himself  a  congregation 
at  the  Church  of  the  Saviour.  Both  among  Churchmen 
and  Nonconformists  there  were  other  men  of  some  dis- 
tinction— the  Rev.  G.  D.  Boyle,  now  Dean  of  Salisbury  ; 
the  present  Bishop  of  Ballarat,  Dr.  Thornton  ;  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Oldknow,  then  regarded  as  a  Ritualist  of  an  extreme 
type.  But  these  men,  and  Nonconformist  ministers  like 
the  Rev.  Charles  Vince,  who  afterwards  became  one  of 
the  most  popular  and  prominent  of  public  men,  were 
almost  wholly  absorbed  by  the  claims  of  their  parishes  and 
their  congregations  ;  and  they  did  not  attempt  a  wider 
activity.  The  clergy,  moreover,  with  few  exceptions,  were 
drawn  from  one  theological  school,  and  represented  one 
type  of  thought ;  for  the  Evangelical  party,  through  the 
Simeon  and  other  trustees,  held  the  right  of  presentation 
to  very  many  churches  ;  and  in  making  their  appoint- 
ments, it  is  no  breach  of  charity  to  say  they  paid  greater 


140  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

regard  to  zeal  and  to  orthodoxy  than  to  intellectual  force. 
In  ability  and  reputation,  in  experience  of  affairs  and 
practical  wisdom,  Dr.  Miller  stood  head  and  shoulders 
above  the  men  around  him.  His  political  sympathies 
were  with  the  Liberal  party ;  when  the  members  for  the 
borough  addressed  their  constituents,  he  was  generally  to 
be  found  on  the  platform.  His  personal  relations  with 
Nonconformists  were  friendly.  Church-rates  in  Birming- 
ham had  been  abolished  by  a  local  arrangement  in  the 
year  1832  ;  and  he  not  only  opposed  any  attempt  to 
restore  them  in  the  town,  but  also  declared  his  desire  to 
put  an  end  to  the  system  altogether.  In  the  Bible 
Society,  and  in  works  of  beneficence,  he  cordially  co- 
operated with  the  Nonconformist  ministers  ;  and  in  ritual 
and  doctrine  the  lines  of  division  were  thin  and  faint. 
Peace  was  unbroken.  Questions  of  ecclesiastical  principle 
and  polity  were  rarely  raised  on  either  side — at  any  rate 
outside  church  and  chapel  ;  and  most  of  those  who  had 
grown  up  under  Mr.  James's  influence  regarded  Edward 
Miall  and  the  activity  of  the  Anti-State  Church  Society 
with  suspicion  and  dislike.  Within  a  few  years  the  state 
of  affairs  completely  changed.  In  the  controversies  that 
ensued  soon  after  Mr.  James's  death,  Nonconformity  in 
Birmingham  began  to  assert  itself  as  a  militant  force, 
demanding  religious  equality  instead  of  religious  toleration  ; 
and  the  Rector  of  St.  Martin's  and  the  minister  of  Carr's 
Lane  stood  out  before  the  town  as  leaders  of  contending 
parties. 

But  whatever  thoughts  may  have  come  to  Dale's  mind 
of  a  wider  service  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  congrega- 
tion, the  duties  of  the  pastorate — now  no  longer  shared — 
for  the  time  engrossed  his  entire  strength.  Without 
taking  upon  himself  the  oversight  and  control  of  the  net- 
work of  agencies  thrown  out  from  the  church  in  all 
directions — an  assumption  wholly  alien  to  the  genius  of 
Congregationalism — the  minister  of  Carr's  Lane  did  his 
best  to  keep  in  touch  with  every  part  of  the  organisation. 
It  was  inevitable  that  he  should  be  called  upon  to  advise 
and  to  suggest ;  that  he  should   be  consulted   in   cases  of 


SOLE  PASTOR  141 

difficulty  or  disagreement ;  and  unless  he  knew  the  work 
and  the  workers,  his  counsel  would  be  fruitless  and  his 
intervention  harmful.  To  meet  the  demands  that  came 
upon  him  from  day  to  day  was  more  than  enough  ;  if  he 
could  do  that,  he  was  content  to  attempt  nothing  more. 
He  had  already  overtaxed  his  strength  ;  signs  of  coming 
trouble  were  apparent  ;  and  it  would  have  been  the  height 
of  imprudence  to  subject  himself  to  any  additional  strain. 
But  there  was  one  task  that  he  could  not  decline  ;  and  he 
undertook,  not  without  reluctance,  to  write  the  life  of  his 
colleague  and  friend.  All  other  engagements — his  work 
at  Spring  Hill,  and  his  literary  projects— were  abandoned. 

Amid  all  the  difficulties  of  his  new  position,  he  was 
fortunate  in  having  the  support,  not  only  of  the  great 
majority  of  the  church,  but  of  the  men  whom  the  church 
had  put  in  charge  of  its  affairs.  At  that  time  the  deacons 
of  Carr's  Lane  were  for  the  most  part  old  men  and  grave 
men — "  inconceivably  grave  men  ;  men  grave  beyond  the 
dreams  of  this  generation  "—so  he  described  them  in  later 
years  ;  and  the  portraits  preserved  in  the  deacons'  vestry 
confirm  the  description.  Their  personal  character  and 
their  long  service  gave  them  exceptional  influence  and 
authority  ;  and,  almost  without  exception,  they  upheld 
their  young  minister  with  a  loyalty  that  was  beyond 
praise.  They  were  not  quite  easy,  some  of  them,  about 
the  soundness  of  his  theology ;  some  were  disturbed  by 
his  political  opinions  ;  those  who  had  been  accustomed  to 
the  solemn  stateliness  of  a  bygone  generation  must  have 
been  distressed  by  his  manner  of  speech  and  bearing. 
But  he  had  succeeded  in  winning  their  respect  and  their 
affection,  and  they  stood  by  him  with  wonderful  patience 
and  consideration.  And  he,  on  his  side,  though  he  often 
chafed  at  their  conventionalities  and  timidities,  was  not 
slow  in  recognising  how  largely  they  contributed  to  the 
security  and  strength  of  his  ministry. 

During  the  co-pastorate  he  had  steadily  maintained  the 
importance  of  expansion.  A  church  self-centred  and 
self-absorbed,  intent  on  its  own  prosperity,  and  eager  to 
draw  in   where  it  should  be  giving  out,  was   to  him    the 


U2  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

most  melancholy  of  spectacles.  Largely  through  his 
influence,  and  partly  at  his  suggestion,  a  new  chapel  had 
been  built  at  Edgbaston  to  commemorate  Mr.  James's 
jubilee  ;  and  he  had  impressed  upon  those  members  of 
Carr's  Lane  who  had  settled  in  the  neighbourhood  that  it 
was  their  plain  and  obvious  duty  to  associate  themselves 
with  the  newly  formed  church,  and  to  spend  their  strength 
in  its  service.  To  this  policy  he  resolutely  adhered  ;  and 
before  long  other  colonies  were  established  at  Moseley,  and 
still  farther  away  at  Yardley  and  Acock's  Green.  More 
than  two  hundred  members  were  thus  withdrawn  from  the 
mother  church  within  the  space  of  two  years,  and  among 
them  several  of  its  most  active  workers.  Human  nature 
asserts  itself  in  all  men,  and  it  was  not  without  a  pang 
that  he  saw  some  of  his  closest  friends  and  most  devoted 
helpers  severing  the  ties  that  bound  them  to  Carr's  Lane  : 
they  were  loath  to  go,  and  he  was  loath  to  lose  them. 
But  the  way  of  duty  was  clear,  and  he  never  felt  a 
moment's  hesitation  as  to  the  course  which  he  should 
follow.  A  letter  addressed  to  a  prominent  member  of  the 
church,  who  was  moving  out  of  the  town  in  the  direction 
of  Yardley,  shows  how  he  thought  and  felt  about  the 
matter. 


To  Mr.  Marris 

Patterdale,  \%thjuly  i860. 

Long  before  your  letter  arrived  I  had  thought  over  the 
question  which  occasioned  it,  and  had  you  not  written  I  should 
have  taken  an  early  opportunity  after  my  return  to  press  upon 
you  the  duty  of  associating  yourself  with  the  new  church  at 
Yardley.  Of  course  I  cannot  think  without  regret  of  the 
necessity  of  parting  with  one  after  another  of  those  to  whom  in 
different  circumstances  I  should  have  looked  as  the  strength  and 
honour  of  the  church  in  time  to  come,  but  I  have  from  the  very 
first  recognised  the  necessity  as  inseparable  from  my  position  at 
Carr's  Lane.  It  would  be  equally  wrong  and  foolish  to  attempt 
to  impede  the  free  and  healthy  movement  of  the  church  out- 
wards ;  and  my  personal  feelings  about  the  matter  I  have  always 
and  most  resolutely  set  aside.  Indeed,  although  I  am  pained  at 
having  to  part  with  those  who  have  affectionately  and  heartily 


SOLE  PASTOR 


143 


co-operated  with  me  in  my  ministerial  labours,  I  have  also  a 
great  joy  in  being  permitted  to  occupy  a  post  in  which  I  can  do 
so  much  towards  establishing  new  centres  of  religious  life  and 
activity.  I  pressed  and  persuaded  many  to  go  up  to  Edgbaston  ; 
if  there  is  any  holding  back,  I  shall  do  the  same  for  Yardley,  and 
the  same  for  Moseley.  If  Carr's  Lane  cannot  be  kept  full 
without  an  artificial  restraining  of  the  natural  progress  and 
extension  of  our  denomination,  it  must  be  emptied.  I  at  any 
rate  will  be  no  party  to  a  selfish  policy. 

How  grateful  I  feel  that  God  has  made  my  ministry  what  you 
say  it  has  proved  to  yourself,  I  need  not  and  cannot  say.  Doubt- 
less, the  conflicts  and  uncertainties  through  which  I  myself  have 
passed  have  their  explanation  in  the  service  which  on  account  of 
them  I  have  been  enabled  in  God's  goodness  to  render  to  others. 
It  is  now  my  most  earnest  desire  and  prayer,  that  I  may  be 
rendered  capable  of  yet  higher  work.  To  assist  the  intellect  is 
much ;  to  quicken  the  conscience  and  confirm  the  righteous  will 
is  more.  I  tremble  as  I  think  of  the  temptation  to  which  you 
and  others  must  be  exposed  in  business,  and  fear  that  I  have 
done  but  little  to  make  its  temptations  weaker.  The  firm  re- 
sistance of  temptation  to  every  form  and  degree  of  injustice  and 
unfairness  in  the  practical  affairs  of  life  is  after  all  a  greater  thing 
than  the  clearest  apprehension  of  a  great  truth  or  the  completest 
victory  over  a  haunting  doubt.  In  the  latter  direction  I  fear  I 
have  done  too  little. 

Though  we  must  and  ought  to  be  separated  ecclesiastically, 
believe  me  that  I  shall  ever  cherish  the  warmest  and  most 
affectionate  interest  in  all  that  concerns  your  welfare,  and  I  trust 
that  you  will  become  through  God's  grace  a  very  eminent 
blessing  to  the  church  with  which  you  ought  now  to  connect 
yourself. 

Incidentally,  the  letter  illustrates  a  new  development 
in  his  habits  of  thought.  During  the  earlier  years  of  his 
ministry  his  chief  aim  had  been  to  establish  the  central 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  revelation.  His  interest  in 
theology  and  in  theological  speculation  was  profound, 
and  when  he  turned  aside  to  other  themes  it  was  with  a 
certain  reluctance  and  regret.  But  now,  as  he  became 
more  familiar  with  the  needs  and  the  perils  of  his  people, 
Christian  morality  began  to  assert  its  claims  to  an  equal 
place.  The  ethical  element  became  more  conspicuous  in 
his  preaching  ;  and  the  discovery  that  some  of  those  who 
listened  to  him  were   disposed    to  resent  a  sermon  "  on 


i44  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

weights  and  measures,"  as  they  described  it,  and  the 
exclusion  of  several  members  from  church  fellowship  on 
account  of  irregularities  in  business,  deepened  his  con- 
viction that  it  was  as  necessary  to  dwell  upon  Christian 
conduct  as  upon  Christian  truth.  He  had  not  ignored 
these  duties  before,  but  he  had  given  them  a  secondary 
and  subordinate  place  in  his  teaching.  Now  he  brought 
them  into  the  front  rank,  made  them  prominent,  treated 
them  as  primary,  forcing  it  home  to  heart  and  conscience 
that  faith  and  fraud  are  incompatible;  that  "the  connection 
between  right  living  and  a  lofty  spirituality  is  so  close  that 
it  is  vain  for  any  of  us  to  implore  God  to  sanctify  us  in 
our  religious  affections,  if  we  are  not  striving  for  sanctity 
in  our  ordinary  life." 1  In  sermons,  in  addresses,  and  in 
letters,  he  reiterated  the  same  lesson.  He  was  not  un- 
aware of  the  difficulties  and  the  dangers  that  beset  the 
minister  who  attempts  to  deal  with  the  practical  problems 
of  daily  life.  Had  it  been  possible,  he  would  have  liked 
to  give  up  the  pulpit  now  and  then  to  some  solicitor, 
banker,  or  merchant,  who  could  have  spoken  both  in 
warning  and  rebuke  with  the  authority  that  only 
experience  can  command.  Habit  and  custom  stood 
in  the  way ;  nor  are  most  men  of  business  capable  of 
addressing  a  large  assembly :  he  had  to  do  the  work 
himself.  With  this  end  in  view  he  set  himself  to  study 
the  inner  working  of  the  shop,  the  office,  and  the  factory  ; 
and  in  course  of  time  his  knowledge  of  business  principles 
and  methods,  and  even  of  details,  was  so  thorough  that  it 
often  surprised  those  whom  he  consulted  and  those  who 
consulted  him.  One  young  man  says  :  "  He  seemed  to 
know  more  about  business,  with  its  many  temptations  and 
cares,  than  most  men.  I  could  not  help  feeling  that  I 
could  never  tell  him  anything  about  it  which  he  did  not 
know  already."  Another  adds  :  "  No  young  man  asked 
him  for  advice  who  did  not  get  more  than  he  asked  for  in 
wise,  sagacious  counsel,  which  not  only  covered  the  circum- 
stances of  the  moment  but  was  of  life-long  value."  Some 
of  the  precepts  which  he  enforced  with  all  his  energy  are 
1  Letter  to  the  church,  August  i860. 


SOLE  PASTOR  145 

worth  recalling.  "  The  eleventh  commandment,"  he  used 
to  say,  "is,  Thou  shalt  make  a  balance  sheet."  In  the 
same  way,  with  a  wealth  of  illustration  drawn  from  actual 
life,  he  would  insist  that  "  No  man  has  a  right  to  enter 
business  on  his  own  account  with  insufficient  capital." 
This  was  sound  doctrine  for  young  men  eager  to 
escape  from  service  and  to  set  up  for  themselves,  excited 
by  dreams  of  sudden  succees.  Many  preachers  reserve 
their  rebuke  for  dishonesty  in  its  open  and  avowed  forms  ; 
but  while  he  never  failed  to  denounce  offences  of  that 
kind,  his  indignation  was  roused  by  the  folly  and  the 
recklessness  which  are  often  as  ruinous  and  as  criminal 
as  dishonesty  itself. 

His  words  carried  all  the  more  weight  because  he  never 
shut  his  eyes  to  the  facts  of  life.  He  never  disparaged 
wealth,  or  slighted  the  qualities  by  which  it  is  acquired. 
He  did  not  tell  men  that  it  is  a  sin  to  make  money,  or  to 
take  pleasure  in  making  it.  He  knew  how  strong  a  force 
wealth  exerts  ;  how  it  fascinates  and  enthralls  ;  how  the 
passion  for  it,  if  left  uncontrolled,  takes  possession  of  a 
man's  whole  being.  To  expel  an  instinct  so  deeply 
rooted  in  human  nature  is  impossible ;  the  attempt  to 
expel  it  savours  of  Manicheism.  But,  though  not  ex- 
pelled, the  instinct  may  be  held  in  check  ;  and  if  so 
restrained,  it  can  be  only  by  some  force  of  even  greater 
power.  Such  a  force,  such  a  motive,  Christian  faith  and 
Christian  loyalty  can  supply.  The  man  who  consecrates 
the  hours  of  business  as  truly  as  the  hours  of  prayer,  who 
carries  on  his  secular  calling  as  the  servant  of  Christ,  is 
safeguarded  against  the  incitements  to  evil  that  beset 
other  men  ;  and  there  is  no  sure  defence  beside  this.  For 
such  a  victory  over  impulse  from  within  and  temptation 
from  without,  it  is  useless  to  rely  on  a  negative  and  pro- 
hibitive code  ;  even  positive  law  is  not  enough  ;  a  man 
must  have  that  personal  devotion  which  brings  with  it  the 
strength  and  the  inspiration  that  enable  him  to  keep  the 
law.  Those  who  are  familiar  with  Dale's  utterances  in 
later  years  know  how  the  thought  took  root  and  grew  ; 
how  it  branched  out  in  every  direction,  until  it  became 
L 


146  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

one  of  the  most  characteristic  elements  of  his  teaching  ; 
it  may  be  traced,  in  germ  and  suggestion,  to  a  sermon 
preached  about  this  time  on  the  text,  "  To  him  shall 
be  given  of  the  gold  of  Sheba  "  (Ps.  lxxii.  i  5). 

Anxious  as  he  was  about  other  parts  of  his  work,  it  is 
clear  that  he  was  most  deeply  concerned  for  the  young 
people  around  him,  and  for  the  children  of  the  Church. 
No  long  experience  is  necessary  to  teach  a  minister  that 
men  and  women,  when  middle  life  has  been  reached  and 
the  character  has  become  set,  do  not  readily  break  with 
their  past  and  rebuild  their  lives  on  a  new  foundation  ; 
and  that  the  finest  and  strongest  natures  are  those  in 
which  the  religious  life  has  developed  quietly  and  con- 
tinuously from  early  childhood.  He  began  at  once  to 
make  a  special  appeal  to  young  people,  and  on  New  Year's 
evening,  i860,  he  delivered  the  first  of  those  addresses  to 
young  men  and  women,  which  were  continued  throughout 
the  whole  course  of  his  ministry.  The  opening  sentences 
of  the  sermon,  in  their  dignity  and  gravity,  con- 
spicuously illustrate  the  spirit  in  which  he  approached  his 
work. 

Although  I  have  announced  for  this  evening  a  sermon  to 
young  persons,  I  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  choose  a 
quaint  text  which  would  be  sure  to  provoke  a  smile,  or  a  subject 
which  would  afford  me  the  opportunity  of  being  humorous  or 
grotesque.  I  respect  myself  too  much  to  attempt  to  rival  in  the 
pulpit  the  attractions  of  the  Christmas  pantomime.  I  respect 
you  too  much  to  suppose  that  you  come  here  only  to  be  amused, 
or  that  you  are  indisposed  to  listen  to  what  appeals  to  your 
judgment,  your  conscience,  and  all  those  principles  which  con- 
stitute the  dignity  and  grandeur  of  your  moral  nature.  I  have 
too  profound  a  reverence  for  the  beauty  and  majesty  of  those 
divine  truths  which  it  is  the  function  of  my  life  to  study,  explain, 
and  enforce,  to  be  willing  to  insult  them  by  dressing  them  up  in 
fantastic  and  harlequin  attire,  in  order  to  gratify  the  popular 
passion  for  the  ludicrous.  And  above  all,  I  should  tremble  at 
the  prospect  of  having  to  meet  you  before  the  Judgment  Seat  of 
Christ  on  the  last  great  day,  if  to-night  I  did  not  endeavour,  with 
all  gravity  and  with  an  agony  of  earnestness,  to  rescue  some  of 
you  from  the  sins  which  in  your  hearts  you  despise  and  loathe 
even  while  you  commit  them,  and  from  the  awful  danger  of  ever- 


SOLE  PASTOR  147 

lasting  damnation,  at  the  thought  of  which  I  know  you  some- 
times tremble. 

It  was  not  for  adults  only — for  those  who  had  reached 
manhood  and  womanhood,  and  whose  years  were  rapidly 
drifting  by — that  he  was  concerned.  Notwithstanding  a 
deep  and  genuine  affection  for  children,  he  never  was  and 
never  could  have  been  a  children's  preacher.  He  made 
more  than  one  attempt,  but  his  sermons  to  children, 
though  simple  in  language,  were  seldom  simple  in 
thought ;  and  he  never  possessed  the  passport  that 
admits  the  stranger  into  the  unknown  country  of  a  child's 
mind.  The  classes  which  he  held  at  intervals  for  many 
years  were  far  more  effective  in  their  influence,  especially 
among  the  older  children.  He  was  a  born  teacher.  He 
knew  how  to  make  religious  history  and  doctrine  both 
clear  and  interesting.  And  sitting  in  his  arm-chair,  or 
standing  on  the  hearth-rug  in  front  of  the  fire  in  the 
Carr's  Lane  Library,  where  he  could  address  the  children 
by  name,  he  got  rid  of  the  remoteness  and  the  awe  that 
he  could  not  shake  off  in  the  pulpit.  But  though  he 
could  not  preach  to  children,  he  never  ceased  to  insist  on 
the  possibility  and  the  importance  of  their  conversion. 
Religion,  he  knew,  could  help  them  as  well  as  older  people. 
But  he  never  forgot  that  the  faith  of  a  child,  if  it  is 
natural  and  healthy,  has  its  own  type  and  should  never 
be  forced  ;  or  that  of  most  children  it  may  be  said  that 
if  they  have  no  Church  in  the  home,  they  have  no  home 
in  the  Church. 

To  the  Church  at  Carr's  Lane 

Rydal,  2$rdjune  i860. 
An  eminent  minister  to  whom  I  was  speaking  a  few  weeks 
ago,  said  that  he  sometimes  told  his  people  that  the  Christian 
Church  was  an  institution  intended  to  remove  the  necessity  of 
adult  conversion ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  if  we  felt  this  more 
deeply,  our  families  would  present  a  very  different  aspect.  Not 
that  we  should  want  to  see  our  children  becoming  prodigies  of 
infant  piety ;  there  is  often,  I  fear,  a  great  deal  of  parental  vanity 
as  well  as  of  parental  folly  in  the  eagerness  with  which  extra- 


i43  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

ordinary  developments  of  religious  experience  in  little  children 
are  watched  for,  and  also  in  the  incessant  repetition — often  in  the 
presence  of  the  children  themselves — of  the  expressions  which 
have  awakened  surprise  and  delight.  The  piety  of  a  child,  if 
genuine,  will  be  a  childish  piety ;  it  will  have  its  worth  and  power 
by  habits  of  obedience,  gentleness,  self-sacrifice,  and  truthfulness. 
The  language  of  agonising  remorse  for  sin,  or  of  such  devotion 
as  only  a  Paul  or  a  John  can  feel  after  years  of  laborious  service 
and  of  trying  persecution,  ought  never  to  be  expected  from 
children,  and  never  encouraged ;  for  it  cannot  be  genuine  and 
natural. 

Aged  jo.  During  the  months  of  the  winter  and  the  spring  Dale 
was  working  under  heavy  pressure.  He  had  no  relaxa- 
tions, no  amusements,  as  a  safeguard  ;  walking  was  his 
only  exercise  ;  and  walking  too  often  left  the  mind  in 
the  study  while  the  body  was  abroad.  Collapse  was 
inevitable,  and  was  serious  when  it  came.  The  whole 
nervous  system  seemed  to  have  given  way.  A  long 
holiday  was  prescribed  by  the  doctors  ;  and  June,  July, 
and  August  were  spent  away  from  Birmingham,  partly  in 
the  English  Lakes  at  Rydal  and  Patterdale,  partly  in  the 
remote  solitude  of  the  Shetland  Isles. 

September  saw  him  at  home  again,  and  he  took  up 
his  work  with  an  impetuous  vigour.  He  was  busy  upon 
Mr.  James's  life  ;  and  a  task  that  had  seemed  simple  in 
the  outset — for  Mr.  James  had  left  an  autobiography  of 
some  length — grew  in  scope  and  in  difficulty  under  his 
hands.  At  the  same  time,  with  an  almost  reckless  pro- 
fusion of  energy,  he  was  launching  out  upon  a  long  course 
of  experiments  relating  both  to  the  substance  and  the 
method  of  his  preaching.  He  was  feeling  his  way  both 
in  the  study  and  the  pulpit ;  but  he  has  left  no  records  of 
the  processes  through  which  his  thought  passed  as  it  took 
shape,  and  it  is  easier  to  trace  the  evolution  of  his  preach- 
ing than  of  his  theology. 

In  his  theological  discourses  at  this  time  he  gave 
special  prominence  to  the  Humanity  of  Christ  and  Future 
Judgment.  The  mind  and  the  faith  of  the  Church,  he 
felt — partly  as  the  result  of  controversy,  partly  through 
other  causes — had  fastened  upon  the  Divine  element  in 


SOLE  PASTOR  149 

our  Lord's  nature,  while  the  human  element  had  been 
neglected,  ignored,  and  all  but  repudiated,  to  the  infinite 
loss  of  the  Church  and  the  world.  He  desired  to  readjust 
the  balance  of  thought,  to  restore  reality  to  what  had 
dwindled  and  degenerated  into  a  shadow.  Experience 
had  taught  him  how  men's  minds  are  most  effectively 
approached  ;  and  without  announcing  a  course  of  sermons 
— indeed  without  expressly  defining  the  doctrine  which  he 
had  in  view — at  short  intervals,  during  a  period  of  some 
months,  he  set  forth  this  truth,  presented  in  its  various 
aspects,  intellectual,  moral,  emotional ;  sometimes,  also, 
when  engaged  with  a  wholly  different  subject,  he  would 
introduce  it  incidentally,  or  by  way  of  illustration.  And 
so  by  slow  degrees,  ever  dwelling  upon  the  positive  side  of 
truth  and  destroying  nothing,  he  built  up  on  sure  founda- 
tions the  conviction  that  he  desired  to  establish. 

The  sermons  on  Future  Judgment  cost  him  severe 
effort.  From  such  a  subject,  and  from  the  thoughts 
connected  with  it,  his  heart  recoiled  ;  and  he  was  con- 
scious that  even  when  denouncing  sin,  he  had  said  too 
little  of  the  penalties  which  sin  entails.  But  once  aware 
of  the  tendency,  he  was  on  his  guard  against  it.  As  yet 
he  had  not  come  to  hold  the  theory  which  he  afterwards 
accepted  —  that  man  is  not  by  nature  immortal  ;  that 
eternal  life  is  attainable  only  through  union  with  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  ;  and  that  the  souls  of  the  impenitent  are 
annihilated.  He  was  not  convinced  that  the  theory  of 
extinction  was  warranted  by  evidence.  But  the  punish- 
ment inflicted  upon  evil-doers  he  never  regarded  as 
material  ;  nor  did  he  indulge  in  the  revolting  imagery 
that  has  so  strong  a  charm  for  preachers  of  a  certain 
type,  who  forget  that  the  sufferings  of  the  spirit  must  also 
be  spiritual.  It  is  noteworthy,  too,  that  the  sermons 
relating  to  this  subject  are  never  used  a  second  time  ; 
others  are  repeated,  but  not  these.  He  seems  to  have 
felt  that  utterance  upon  a  theme  so  terrible  must  come 
fresh  from  the  preacher's  heart,  forced  out  of  it  by  an 
overpowering  sense  of  duty.  There  are  matters  about 
which  a  man  may  speak  in  the  force  of  settled  conviction  ; 


150  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

here,  unless  the  inspiration  be  immediate,  speech  will 
be  ineffective  and  in  vain. 

The  central  doctrines  of  the  Faith  were  still  supreme 
in  his  thought  ;  but  he  was  anxious  to  give  his  people 
a  wide  outlook  upon  the  domain  of  Christian  history  and 
experience.  So  he  began  a  course  of  sermons  on  the 
early  Church,  passing  onwards  from  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  to  other  Christian  writings,  such  as  the  Epistles 
of  Clement  and  other  literature  of  the  same  order. 
Twice,  instead  of  expounding  a  verse  or  even  a  passage 
from  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  he  took  an  Epistle  as  a  whole, 
and  dealt  with  it  in  its  broad  outlines — as  an  artist  might 
sketch  some  mountainous  island,  not  with  the  minute 
accuracy  of  the  surveyor,  but  with  brief  and  bold  sugges- 
tion of  peak  and  valley  and  stream.  In  this  way  he 
handled  the  Epistles  to  the  Galatians  and  the  Philippians 
— each  in  an  evening — making  clear  the  purpose  of  the 
Apostle  in  writing  ;  the  errors  with  which  he  was  in  con- 
flict ;  the  truths  that  he  sought  to  enforce  ;  the  method 
and  the  sequence  of  his  argument.  The  multiplication  of 
text- books  and  commentaries  for  general  use  has  now 
made  such  aid  in  large  measure,  though  perhaps  not 
wholly,  superfluous  ;  for  in  an  ordinary  congregation  there 
are  still,  and  always  will  be,  some  who  learn  nothing  from 
books,  but  depend  for  their  instruction  upon  the  living 
voice  ;  and  the  preacher — if  he  understands  his  work — 
can  add  an  element  of  personal  force  which  disappears  in 
print.  But  thirty-five  years  ago,  literature  of  this  type 
was  almost  unknown  ;  and  to  many  of  those  who  listened 
to  these  discourses — intelligent  people  too — it  was  a  new 
and  an  amazing  discovery  that  the  Epistles  were  not 
abstract  treatises  on  theology,  but  actual  letters,  written 
by  a  friend  to  friends,  as  close  to  life  and  as  rich  in 
interest  as  a  political  speech  or  a  popular  lecture. 

By  the  end  of  April  1861,  Mr.  James's  Life  was  com- 
pleted and  published — a  volame  of  more  than  six  hundred 
pages.  The  Saturday  Revieiv  spoke  well  of  it  ;  but  the 
denominational  papers  differed  in  opinion,  and  were  for 
the   most  part    unfriendly.       The    notice   in   the  Noncon- 


SOLE  PASTOR  151 

formist  was  openly  hostile.  The  reviewer  complained 
that  the  book  was  poor  in  incident ;  that  it  contained 
much  aimless  writing  ;  and  that  it  was  likely  to  create  an 
impression  unfavourable  to  ministerial  life.  The  chapter 
on  the  co  -  pastorate  was  condemned  for  obtrusive 
egoism.  Other  critics  objected  to  the  portrait  of  Mr. 
James  as  ungracious  and  ungenial,  and  suggested  that 
the  nobler  elements  of  his  character  had  been  left  in  the 
shade. 

Such  criticism  was  not  quite  fair.  If  the  book  lacked 
incident,  it  was  because  Mr.  James's  life — as  he  himself 
recorded  it  in  the  chapters  of  autobiography — had  been  un- 
eventful ;  and  as  regards  personal  qualities  Dale's  defence 
was  complete.  So  far  as  he  could  he  had  left  Mr.  James 
to  speak  for  himself.  His  aim  had  been,  not  to  make  the 
man,  but  to  exhibit  him  ;  and  if  the  attempt  had  failed,  it 
was  because  in  private  letters  and  public  utterances  Mr. 
James  had  imperfectly  revealed  the  real  tenderness  of  his 
nature.  The  reviewer's  attack  upon  the  account  of  the 
co-pastorate  showed  a  singular  perversity.  Had  that  part 
of  the  book  been  omitted — indeed,  had  it  been  cut  short — 
the  impression  of  Mr.  James's  character  would  have  been 
less  distinct  and  less  favourable.  There  it  is  that  the 
large-heartedness  of  the  man,  his  unselfishness,  and  the 
simplicity  of  his  affection  stand  out  most  clearly.  The 
chapter,  as  Dale  explained,  was  inserted  with  reluctance, 
for  he  was  anxious  to  keep  himself  in  the  background, 
and  to  avoid  even  the  appearance  of  self-assertion  ;  but 
the  general  protest  provoked  by  the  suggestion  that  this 
section  might  be  omitted  in  later  editions  of  the  book  was 
too  strong  to  withstand,  and  the  chapter  kept  its  place. 

Another  part  of  the  book  led  to  more  serious  trouble. 
No  biography  of  Mr.  James  would  have  been  complete 
without  some  account  of  his  Anxious  Enquirer,  and  a 
whole  chapter  was  given  to  an  analysis  of  its  contents  and 
to  criticism  of  its  theology.  The  task  was  one  in  which 
Dale  delighted,  and  he  set  about  it  with  zest.  For  the 
spiritual  power  of  the  book,  for  its  skill  and  wisdom  in 
dealing  with  the  human  heart,  for  the  passion  that  glowed 


152  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

in  its  pages,  his  own  admiration  was  profound  ;  nor  did 
he  forget,  even  for  a  moment,  the  spell  and  the  charm 
which  it  had  wielded  wherever  it  had  made  its  way.  But 
when  he  comes  to  examine  the  theology  of  the  author,  and 
the  foundations  on  which  he  built,  the  biographer  passes 
into  the  critic,  and  the  criticism  is  frank  and  vigorous. 
As  he  once  said  to  a  friend,  Mr.  James  was  no  logician, 
and  could  never  give  a  thorough  explanation  of  any  point 
of  doctrine.  The  language  in  the  Memoir  is  not  so 
sweeping,  not  so  strong ;  but  the  feeling  is  the  same  and 
cannot  be  hidden. 

The  Anxious  Enquirer,  he  contends,  shows  "  a  want  of 
firmness  and  clearness  in  the  statement  of  Christian 
doctrine " ;  and  he  expressly  charged  its  author  with 
"  vacillation  "  in  his  treatment  of  the  cardinal  doctrine  of 
Justification.  In  one  place,  he  asserted,  Justification  and 
Pardon  are  carefully  distinguished  ;  while  on  the  very  next 
page  they  are  virtually  identified,  as  Mr.  James  was  wont 
to  identify  them. 

It  was  Mr.  James's  habit  to  tell  his  congregation  that 
pardon  and  justification  are  substantially  the  same.  His  great 
anxiety  was  to  distinguish  justification  as  a  change  of  our  personal 
relationship  to  God,  from  sanctification  as  a  change  of  our 
personal  character  ;  and  the  virtual  identification  of  justification 
with  pardon  enabled  him  to  do  this  with  great  ease.  There  was 
an  obvious  practical  benefit  to  be  gained  in  making  justification 
and  pardon  almost  identical ;  it  enabled  him  to  make  the  dis- 
tinction between  justification  and  sanctification  plain  to  the  most 
ill-informed  and  undisciplined  minds.  To  secure  this  advantage, 
he  seemed  almost  indifferent  to  the  two  theological  difficulties 
in  which  he  manifestly  placed  himself.  If  justification  be 
substantially  the  same  as  pardon,  it  cannot  consist  in  the  im- 
putation to  the  sinner  of  Christ's  obedience  and  sanctification ; x 
and  secondly,  the  attempt  to  distinguish  between  the  two 
blessings,  after  affirming  them  to  be  substantially  the  same, 
must  prove  a  failure. 

It  would  be  an  error  to  suppose  that  this  question  is  one  of 
merely  speculative  and  theological  interest.  If  justification  and 
pardon  be  "  substantially  "  identified,  the  soul,  when  conscious 

1  This  was  involved  in  the  definition  of  Justification  taken  from  the 
Assembly's  Larger  Catechism,  and  quoted  with  approval  immediately  before. 


SOLE  PASTOR  153 

of  needing  a  renewal  of  pardon,  will  practically  suppose  that  its 
justification  needs  renewal  too ;  in  other  words,  that  it  is  stand- 
ing in  precisely  the  same  unsheltered  and  perilous  condition 
which  preceded  its  original  reconciliation  to  God.  But  if  such  a 
theory  of  justification  be  held  as  leaves  that  great  and  permanent 
blessing  unaffected  by  the  infirmities,  follies,  and  sins,  which  are 
daily  confessed,  and  need  daily  forgiveness,  the  soul  will  be 
exempted  from  the  shock  and  injury  it  must  receive,  if  thrown 
back  day  after  day  into  the  wretchedness  and  horror  of  being 
under  the  Divine  condemnation.  Mr.  James  saw  that  justifica- 
tion abides  with  the  soul  as  long  as  faith  abides ;  but  through 
making  it  substantially  the  same  as  pardon,  for  which  we 
need  to  seek  God's  mercy  every  day,  he  reduced  the  permanent 
blessing  of  justification  to  insignificance  and  worthlessness. 

With  an  excess  of  eagerness  to  prove  his  point — for, 
as  a  friend  once  said,  "  Dale  drives  in  his  nails  so  hard 
that  he  splits  the  wood  " — he  proceeded  to  examine  Mr. 
James's  teaching  as  to  Faith  and  its  nature.  Here  again 
he  detected  similar  vacillation.  Mr.  James,  even  when  he 
held  the  true  conception,  was  apt  to  let  it  slip.  He 
distinctly  taught  that  Faith  was  "  Trust  in  Christ,  based 
on  the  belief  of  certain  truths  about  Him  " ;  but  in  some 
places  he  appears  to  identify  Faith,  not  with  Trust  in  a 
Person,  but  with  intellectual  belief  of  truths  relating  to  Him. 
In  one  and  the  same  paragraph  the  point  of  view  is  shifted  ; 
and  one  sentence  implies  a  theory  of  Faith  that  is  not 
recognised  in  the  sentences  that  stand  nearest  to  it.  This 
confusion  of  Faith  in  doctrine  with  Faith  in  a  Person  had 
misled  Dale  himself  in  the  early  struggles  of  his  religious 
life  ;  the  memory  of  his  own  bewilderment  and  distress 
was  vivid  as  he  wrote  ;  and  here — as  in  his  protest  against 
the  tendency  of  the  book  to  divert  the  mind  to  the  act  of 
Faith  from  the  object  of  Faith,  and  to  confirm  the  common 
error  of  losing  sight  of  Christ  through  looking  to  ourselves 
to  discern  whether  we  are  looking  to  Him — he  feels 
himself  on  an  old  battlefield  and  facing  a  familiar 
foe. 

Such  criticism  could  not  but  be  resented,  and  many  of 
Mr.  James's  friends  gave  expression  to  their  displeasure  ; 
his  son — Mr.  Thomas  Smith  James — published  a  pamphlet 


154  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

in  his  father's  defence,  courteous  throughout  in  spite  of 
the  strong  feeling  by  which  it  was  inspired,  but  ineffectual 
for  conviction.  Others,  while  admitting  the  criticism  to 
be  just,  thought  that  it  was  out  of  place.  As  part  of  a 
general  survey  of  Mr.  James's  theological  teaching,  such 
an  estimate  would  have  given  less  offence ;  but  when 
associated  with  the  book  on  which  his  fame  chiefly  rested, 
its  effect  could  only  be  to  wound.  The  two  letters  that 
follow  require  little  explanation.  The  first  was  written 
upon  the  receipt  of  Mr.  Thomas  James's  pamphlet ;  the 
second,  some  months  later,  when  for  the  first  time  Mr. 
James  had  stated  his  objections  in  detail. 


To  Mr.  T.  S.  James 

loth  October  1 86 1. 

The  copies  of  your  pamphlet  reached  me  just  as  I  was 
starting  for  Manchester  on  Monday,  and  I  have  been  unable  to 
give  it  a  careful  reading  till  this  morning.  I  greatly  regret  that 
you  should  think  any  part  of  my  criticism  on  the  Anxious  En- 
quirer unjust.  That  chapter  of  the  Memoir  was  written  under 
the  conviction  that  hardly  anything  could  contribute  so  much  to 
the  usefulness  of  your  father's  life  as  a  careful  analysis  of  his 
most  remarkable  book  and  an  account  of  the  elements  of  its 
power.  He  himself  calls  attention  again  and  again  to  the 
contents  and  manner  of  the  Anxious  Enquirer  as  likely  to 
suggest  important  lessons  to  preachers  ;  in  that  opinion  I  concur, 
and  wrote  the  criticism,  believing  it  would  do  something  towards 
increasing  the  usefulness  of  your  father's  book,  by  placing  before 
preachers  the  causes  of  its  success.  Moreover,  as  the  writing  of 
the  Anxious  Enquirer  was  the  greatest  event  in  your  father's 
history,  an  extended  notice  of  it  was  inevitable.  Now  even  if 
as  a  biographer  I  had  been  released  from  the  obligation  which 
rests  on  all  men  to  fairness  and  candour,  I  should  have  had  too 
much  faith  in  the  solidity  of  your  father's  reputation  to  think  it 
necessary  to  slur  over  the  imperfections  of  his  book  while  speak- 
ing of  its  excellences. 

But  I  did  not  intend  to  inflict  upon  you  a  long  letter;  I 
wished  simply  to  acknowledge  the  pamphlet,  and  to  express  my 
regret  that  in  your  judgment  there  should  have  been  anything 
in  the  Memoir  to  render  such  a  vindication  necessary. 


SOLE  PASTOR  155 

To  Mr.  T.  S.  James 

yd  January  1S62. 

I  have  received  your  letter  with  the  books,  and  regret  very 
sincerely  that  I  had  not  had  a  similar  communication  before  the 
present  edition  was  issued.  It  would  have  relieved  me  from  all 
doubt  and  difficulty  about  the  method  of  dealing  with  the  parts 
of  the  "  Life "  of  which  you  complain.  You  will  remember 
that  you  sent  back  the  volume  in  which  I  requested  you  to  make 
any  suggestions  that  occurred  to  you,  with  an  intimation  that  the 
first  edition  had  done  the  mischief,  and  that  any  future  change 
would  be  powerless  to  undo  it.  Had  you  written  then  as  you 
have  written  now,  I  could  have  intimated  at  once  that  the 
criticism  should  be  withdrawn.  If  it  would  be  any  satisfaction 
to  you  to  have  the  fly-leaves  printed  the  size  of  the  new  edition 
and  inserted  in  the  appendix,  I  will  order  it  to  be  done  at  once ; 
and  should  any  future  edition  be  called  for,  I  will  take  care  to 
confer  with  you  before  going  to  press. 

I  may  just  add  that  your  protest  in  the  preface  to  your 
volume  containing  the  Anxious  Enquirer  appeared  to  me  to 
relieve  you  of  responsibility  for  anything  said  by  me  in  reference 
to  the  book.  I  have  written  to  Nisbet,  stopping  the  further 
issue  of  the  edition  till  I  have  your  reply. 

In  the  fifth  edition — for  five  editions  followed  rapidly- 
one  upon  another,  in  less  than  a  year — the  obnoxious 
passages  were  omitted,  though  without  any  mention  of  the 
controversy  that  they  had  excited. 

As  soon  as  the  last  sheets  of  the  book  had  been 
returned  to  the  printer,  Dale  left  Birmingham  for  the 
South  of  France,  where  he  settled  at  Montauban,  a  little 
town  about  a  hundred  and  forty  miles  south-east  of 
Bordeaux,  and  midway  between  Toulouse  and  Cahors. 
A  sister-in-law,  settled  at  Bordeaux,  often  stayed  there, 
and  had  suggested  the  plan  to  him.  It  was  a  small  place, 
surrounded  by  a  fair  and  fertile  country,  with  the  chain  of 
the  Pyrenees  dimly  shadowed  in  the  distance  on  a  clear 
day.  For  the  chief  town  of  a  Department,  its  population 
was  small — not  more  than  20,000.  As  an  industrial 
centre  it  had  its  factories  and  its  mills  ;  but  even  its 
business   ways   were    leisurely   and    sedate.       It    was    an 


156  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

abode  of  peace  ;  the  river  ran  shining  through  its  streets, 
and  its  chimneys  did  not  blacken  orchard  or  vineyard 
with  their  smoke.  The  town  had  traditions  that  redeemed 
it  from  insignificance.  In  the  great  religious  wars  of 
France  it  had  fought  and  suffered.  Simon  de  Montfort 
besieged  and  stormed  it,  when  he  led  his  troops  in 
the  crusade  against  the  Albigenses.  During  the  eventful 
struggle  of  the  sixteenth  century  its  inhabitants  rose  in 
fury  against  the  Roman  Catholics,  expelled  the  monks, 
and  demolished  the  cathedral.  So  strong  indeed  was  the 
Protestant  feeling  of  the  place  that  it  was  one  of  the  four 
strongholds  given  to  the  Huguenots  by  the  treaty  of  St. 
Germain-en-Laye ;  even  after  the  massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, liberty  of  worship,  denied  in  Paris,  was  conceded 
there.  And  through  the  whole  course  of  that  long  con- 
flict, its  courage  and  endurance  never  failed,  until  at  last 
it  shared  the  defeat  of  its  more  famous  ally,  La  Rochelle, 
and  was  stripped  of  its  walls  and  defences  by  Richelieu. 
Those  heroic  days  were  over  ;  but  the  memories  of  the 
past  had  not  died  out.  The  faith  survived  ;  Montauban 
was  still  a  stronghold  of  Protestantism  ;  the  Theological 
Seminary  of  the  National  Reformed  Church  was  established 
there,  and  the  Ultramontane  bishop  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Cathedral  shared  a  divided  authority  with  the  Protestant 
pastor. 

Dale  was  profoundly  interested  in  all  that  he  saw. 
Paris  he  already  knew  ;  but  this  was  his  first  introduction 
to  a  new  world  and  a  new  people — to  that  inner  life  of 
the  French  provinces  which  foreigners  are  too  apt  to 
overlook.  He  could  watch  with  his  own  eyes  the  influence 
of  the  two  rival  forms  of  faith,  and  could  observe  to  what 
instincts  and  emotions  in  human  nature  they  severally 
appealed.  While  he  was  there  spring  passed  into  summer, 
and  the  ripening  harvest  brought  with  it  a  festival  that 
left  a  lasting  impression  on  his  mind  ;  more  than  once 
in  after  years,  when  preaching  to  his  own  people  at  a 
harvest  thanksgiving,  he  recalled  the  ceremony  and  the 
thoughts  that  it  had  suggested.  This  is  the  description 
that  he  grave  of  it : — 


SOLE  PASTOR 


157 


The  bishop  in  his  most  gorgeous  robes,  the  priests  in  their 
sacred  vestments,  the  judges  and  magistrates  in  their  official 
dress,  little  children  in  white  carrying  garlands,  and  several 
hundred  soldiers,  marched  in  procession  through  the  chief  streets 
of  the  city.  They  had  with  them  the  sacred  vessels  of  silver  and 
gold  from  all  the  churches  of  the  place  ;  and  as  they  passed  along, 
some  were  swinging  censers  of  burning  incense,  and  some  were 
chanting  solemn  litanies ;  and  now  and  then  the  military  band 
filled  the  air  with  animating  and  exulting  music.  There  was 
much  in  the  celebration,  with  all  its  artistic  beauty,  to  distress  a 
thoughtful  Christian ;  but  there  was  one  part  of  it  which  was 
equally  simple  and  touching.  Borne  on  the  shoulders  of  some 
in  the  procession  there  were  rich  clusters  of  grapes,  and  on  the 
shoulders  of  others  small  sheaves  of  corn,  in  acknowledgment  of 
the  bountiful  goodness  of  God  who  gave  them  the  vintage  and 
the  harvest.  Year  by  year,  in  this  symbolical  form,  they  proclaim 
that  the  corn  and  the  wine  and  the  oil  are  divine  gifts ;  that  God 
opens  His  hand  and  supplies  the  wants  of  every  living  thing. 

But  the  chief  attraction  of  the  place  for  him  lay  in 
the  Protestant  College  and  its  staff.  With  three  of  the 
Professors — M.  Bois,  M.  de  Felice,  and  M.  Pedezert — he 
soon  became  intimate.  They  were  all  theologians,  and 
one  of  them — M.  de  Felice — was  a  great  preacher.  He 
admired,  and  imitated,  the  amplitude  of  the  Puritan  divines. 
For  a  genuine  sermon — a  conference — he  needed  an  hour 
and  a  half,  and  would  take  more  if  he  could  get  it ;  when 
restricted  to  thirty  minutes,  he  would  describe  his  discourse 
as  une  petite  me'ditation.  All  three  were  as  full  of  talk  as 
their  guest,  and  evening  after  evening  they  sat  together 
and  discussed  subjects  of  every  kind,  but  especially 
those  that  would  naturally  hold  the  first  place  in  their 
minds — the  various  aspects  of  Christian  truth,  as  appre- 
hended in  England  and  in  France  ;  the  secret  and  the 
style  of  famous  preachers  ;  the  methods  of  training  students 
for  the  duties  of  the  pastorate.  Upon  the  last  of  these 
questions  there  was  much  to  say.  Dale  already  had  very 
definite  opinions  of  his  own,  and  all  that  he  saw  at  Mon- 
tauban  confirmed  him  in  his  conviction  that  the  educational 
system  of  the  Nonconformist  colleges  in  England  was 
miserably  inadequate  for  its  purpose  and  was  based  upon 
a  wrong  foundation.      In  the  account  that  he  gives  of  the 


158  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

organisation  of  the  Seminary,  he  foreshadows  some  of  the 
changes  that  he  afterwards  helped  to  bring  about  by  the 
removal  of  Spring  Hill  College  to  Oxford. 

Just  now  there  are  about  seventy-live  students  in  residence, 
all  intending  to  be  pastors ;  and  there  are  seven  Professors. 

I  sometimes  break  the  tenth  commandment  when  thinking 
of  the  magnificent  advantages  which  these  young  men  enjoy  for 
becoming  accomplished  and  learned  divines.  While  some  Eng- 
lish Nonconformists  seem  inclined  to  think  that  the  five  or  six 
years'  course  at  St.  John's  Wood,  Manchester,  and  Spring  Hill, 
must  over-educate  the  ministry,  just  consider  what  kind  of  an 
education  the  pastors  of  the  French  Church  are  receiving. 

In  the  first  place,  before  entering  the  Theological  School,  the 
students  have  to  take  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Letters — a 
degree  which  is,  perhaps,  about  equal  to  the  London  B.A.,  minus 
its  requirements  in  mathematics  and  natural  science.  In  other 
words,  the  Latin  and  Greek  and  general  scholarship  is  acquired 
in  the  public  colleges,  before  the  special  theological  training 
begins ;  an  advantage  this,  which  every  professor  and  every 
student  in  every  Nonconformist  college  in  England  can  appreci- 
ate without  a  syllable  of  comment  from  me.  Here  the  spirit  of 
our  professors  is  broken,  and  their  fire  quenched,  by  the  drudgery 
to  which  they  are  obliged  to  submit  —  dragging  young  men 
fresh  from  the  workshop  through  the  mere  rudiments  of  the 
Latin  and  Greek  grammar.  Work  of  this  kind  spoils  the  pro- 
fessor for  the  higher  departments  of  his  chair  ;  and  those  students 
whose  early  education  has  been  more  liberal,  have  their  aims 
and  ambition  lowered  by  being  yoked  with  men  wholly  destitute 
of  scholarly  culture. 

In  the  second  place,  the  course  at  the  Theological  College 
extends  over  five  years,  and  if  the  student  is  negligent  in  his 
work,  or  unpunctual  in  his  attendance  at  class,  the  five  years  may 
become  six.  I  happened  to  be  present  at  lecture  one  morning 
when  the  class-room  looked  unusually  empty ;  the  lecturer  was 
struck  with  the  number  of  vacant  benches,  and  instead  of  turn- 
ing to  his  manuscript,  he  opened  his  class-book  and  began  to 
call  the  names ;  in  a  moment  the  door  burst  open,  and  fifteen 
students  rushed  into  their  places  in  hot  haste,  greatly  to  the 
amusement  of  their  class-mates  and  greatly  to  my  amazement. 
The  gentleman  sitting  by  me  whispered  that  these  fifteen  had  all 
been  waiting  at  the  door  listening  for  the  appel,  and  that  if  the 
Professor  had  commenced  without  calling  it,  they  would  have 
slipped  off  to  their  studies  to  their  private  work.     According  to 


SOLE  PASTOR  159 

the  law  of  the  College,  any  student  absent  from  class,  without  a 
satisfactory  excuse,  twice  in  three  months,  has  three  months 
added  to  his  course.  Hence  these  fifteen  pairs  of  ears  outside, 
and  hence  the  rush  as  soon  as  the  first  name  on  the  list  was 
heard.  Moreover,  if  a  student  does  not  pass  any  of  his  examina- 
tions satisfactorily,  he  is  turned  back  and  has  his  course  length- 
ened. These  laws  are  administered  with  considerable  rigour. 
This  very  year  several  students  whose  course  should  have  closed 
this  midsummer — and  among  them  one,  at  least,  who  had  re- 
ceived and  provisionally  accepted  an  invitation  to  a  vacant 
church — having  failed  in  their  examinations,  have  to  remain  at 
the  Faculte  still. 

Of  course  no  college  can  give  brains  to  empty  skulls ;  but  it 
would  be  wonderful  if  with  a  five  years'  course  of  Theology  and 
Philosophy,  Montauban  did  not  send  out  many  accomplished 
ministers.  The  French  Protestants  feel  the  necessity  of  culture 
for  their  pastors,  however  indifferent  some  English  Nonconfor- 
mists may  be  growing  to  ministerial  scholarship. 

At  the  same  time,  while  alive  to  the  superiority  of 
ministerial  training  in  France,  he  recognised  the  weakness 
of  French  Protestantism  as  a  religious  force.  Its  pastors 
— so  it  seemed  to  him — had  caught  the  temper  and  the 
spirit  of  a  government  department ;  they  were  content 
with  the  decencies  and  the  respectabilities  of  life  ;  their 
faith  lacked  fire  and  fervour,  and  had  no  aggressive 
impulse,  no  enterprise,  no  inspiration.  And  yet  it  was 
precisely  these  elements  that  the  nation  needed  most. 
He  never  forgot  the  words  of  a  friend  with  whom  he  had 
once  discussed  the  spiritual  and  moral  condition  of  the 
French  nation.  "  An  Englishman,"  she  said,  "  can  scarcely 
understand  French  unbelief.  In  your  country,  when  a 
man  becomes  an  unbeliever,  there  is  always  some  fibre 
left  in  his  nature  telling  of  the  Christian  influences  under 
which  he  was  educated  ;  but  in  France  it  is  not  so. 
Among  those  that  do  not  believe,  all  trace  of  faith  has 
utterly  and  absolutely  vanished."  The  task,  therefore, 
of  the  Christian  Church  was  the  more  severe  and  the 
more  momentous  ;  and  unless  Protestantism  could  take  the 
field  with  fresh  courage  and  energy,  those  who  rejected 
the  demands  of  Rome  upon  their  submission  and  their 
credulity,  would  have  no  alternative  left  but  blank  atheism. 


160  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

To  avert  so  grave  a  disaster,  Dale  was  eager  that  the 
Protestant  Churches  in  both  lands  should  make  common 
cause.  For  France,  such  an  alliance  might  supply  the 
enthusiasm  that  she  lacked  ;  while  England  also  had  much 
to  gain  as  well  as  to  give  ;  for  the  Christian  life  and  the 
Christian  character  of  his  own  countrymen,  he  felt,  could 
never  reach  their  perfect  development  so  long  as  they 
were  cut  off  from  Christian  influences  abroad — islanders 
in  religion  as  well  as  in  philosophy  and  literature. 

The  effect  of  this  visit  was  lasting,  not  merely  in  the 
intimacies  with  French  theologians  and  ministers  to  which 
it  led,  but  in  a  wider  outlook  upon  affairs  and  in  a  fuller 
comprehension  of  feeling  and  thought  in  France.  It  was 
no  less  successful  in  its  immediate  results.  Dale,  when  he 
left  home,  was  on  the  verge  of  a  serious  collapse  ;  he  re- 
turned with  strength  renewed,  and  with  his  nervous  system 
completely  restored, 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  BICENTENARY  CONTROVERSY  AND  THE  MELBOURNE 
INVITATION 

Fears  for  health — The  Congregational  Union  at  Birmingham  —  National 
education — Essays  and  Reviews — Bicentenary  commemoration  of  1662 — 
Dr.  Miller's  lecture  on  "  Churchmen  and  Dissenters  " — Dale's  reply — 
Indignation  of  the  Evangelical  clergy — Sir  Culling  Eardley's  visit — 
Dale  stands  firm — Faction  at  Carr's  Lane — Invitation  to  Melbourne — 
Its  issue — Letter  to  the  church. 

About  the  third  week  in  June  the  holiday  came  to  an  l86l# 
end,  and  Dale  returned  home,  ready  to  take  up  his  work  Ased  3*. 
and  to  accept  fresh  burdens.  He  became  Chairman  of  the 
Board  of  Education  at  Spring  Hill  College.  He  laid  the 
foundation  stone  of  a  chapel  at  Moseley,  built  in  pursuance 
of  the  policy  that  he  had  advocated.  At  another  stone- 
laying  in  the  borough  cemetery  his  nerves  were  put  to  a 
severe  test  A  large  block  of  stone  hung  by  ropes  and 
pulleys,  ready  for  lowering  into  its  place,  and  while  he 
was  offering  prayer,  the  cords  broke  and  the  stone  fell 
with  a  crash.  At  the  moment  it  was  impossible  to  tell 
whether  any  one  had  been  injured,  and  the  alarm  was 
great ;  but,  after  a  moment's  pause,  he  went  on  with  the 
prayer,  and  the  panic  was  checked  at  once. 

But  though  his  strength  had  been  restored,  he  was 
still  assailed  by  those  shadowy  fears  which  may  be 
combated  but  cannot  be  controlled.  Even  during  the 
busy  months  of  the  autumn,  when  his  mind  was  full  of  other 
things,  the  haunting  terror  returned.  His  force — so  it 
seemed  to  him — was  beginning  to  decay ;  his  intellectual 
M 


1 62  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

vision  was  growing  dim  ;  and  upon  wide  domains  of  truth, 
which  once  lay  clear  before  him,  mist  and  darkness  were 
threatening  to  descend.  He  never  spoke  of  these  fore- 
bodings ;  they  are  not  mentioned  in  any  letters  that  have 
survived  ;  but  a  written  statement  preserved  among  his 
papers  gives  us  the  key  to  his  heart.  It  begins  as 
follows  : — 

Having  sometimes  an  apprehension  that  my  intellectual 
powers  may  before  long  lose  their  clearness  and  vigour,  and 
knowing  that  life  is  uncertain,  I  am  anxious  to  place  on  record 
an  outline  of  opinions  at  which  I  have  arrived  on  certain  great 
theological  questions,  by  which  for  many  years  to  come  the 
Church  is  likely  to  be  agitated.  Should  I  be  unable  to  carry  out 
a  purpose  which  I  have  long  cherished,  of  fully  developing  and 
demonstrating  these  opinions,  some  friendly  eye  may  discover  in 
these  rough  hints  what  was  the  outline  I  intended — God  helping 
me — to  fill  up. 

The  paragraph  betrays  his  mood  when  he  wrote.  It 
was  not  his  habit  to  deal  with  himself  in  this  way.  Till 
he  had  reached  sixty  he  kept  no  diary,  nor  any  such 
record.  Twice  or  thrice  only,  when  borne  down  by  the 
supreme  sorrows  of  his  life,  did  he  seek  relief  by  giving 
expression  to  his  pain.  His  habitual  reticence  emphasises 
this  disclosure. 

But  whatever  his  own  fears  may  have  been,  no  one 
who  watched  him  at  work  during  the  autumn  and  winter 
would  have  suspected  any  decline  of  energy  or  loss  of 
force.  Early  in  October  the  Congregational  Union  met 
at  Birmingham,  and  the  burden  of  local  arrangements 
and  organisation  rested  to  a  large  extent  upon  his 
shoulders.  Besides  this,  he  had  to  speak  more  than  once 
in  the  course  of  the  meetings — in  acknowledgment  of  a 
resolution  of  condolence  upon  Mr.  James's  death,  and  in 
support  of  a  proposal  to  establish  a  new  Congregational 
church  in  Paris,  and  to  provide  for  the  maintenance  of  its 
pastor,  a  scheme  in  which  his  visit  to  France  had  led 
him  to  cherish  a  keen  interest.  He  also  took  part  in  a 
memorable  debate  upon  elementary  education,  in  which  Dr. 
Vaughan,  abandoning  the  position  that  he  had  hitherto 


THE  BICENTENARY  CONTROVERSY  163 

maintained,  declared  that  elementary  education  must  be 
the  concern  of  the  Churches  and  not  of  the  State  ;  and 
that  Government  aid  and  Government  control,  inseparable 
as  they  were,  could  work  nothing  but  mischief.  Dale 
rose  to  combat  the  abstract  principle,  admitting  the 
difficulties  involved  in  any  system  of  national  education, 
but  asserting  that  difficulties  did  not  prove  the  system 
to  be  indefensible.  At  the  same  time  he  declared  his 
preference  for  a  national  as  compared  with  a  voluntary 
system,  separating  himself  in  the  matter  from  Edward 
Miall,  Samuel  Morley,  Edward  Baines,  and  the  most 
prominent  leaders  of  Congregationalism  at  that  time. 

A  few  weeks  later,  a  speech  that  he  made  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Bible  Society  in  Birmingham  attracted  much 
attention.  Essays  and  Reviews — a  book  now  remembered 
mainly  through  the  indiscretion  of  a  future  archbishop — 
had  been  recently  published,  and  it  was  then  running  the 
gauntlet  in  almost  every  religious  assembly.  At  Birming- 
ham, the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  and  Dr.  Miller  fiercely 
denounced  the  Essayists  and  their  teaching.  Dale,  who 
followed  them,  gave  a  new  turn  to  the  indictment  by 
raising  the  question  of  subscription  and  the  obligations 
that  subscription  entails.  The  fact  that  Dr.  Miller  not 
long  before  had  charged  the  younger  men  in  the 
Congregational  ministry  with  a  disloyalty  to  the  gospel, 
begotten  of  German  heresies — an  accusation  indignantly 
repudiated — gave  additional  pungency  to  the  opening 
sentences. 

The  body  to  which  I  belong  are,  as  Nonconformists,  watching 
a  struggle  that  is  going  on  between  scepticism  and  a  hearty 
belief  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  and  although  we  are  not 
members  of  the  community  in  which  that  conflict  is  raging,  we 
feel  it  to  be  both  our  right  and  our  duty  to  have  a  voice  in  the 
settlement  of  the  controversy.  Nothing  that  concerns  the 
English  Church  can  be  uninteresting  or  unimportant  to  English- 
men ;  nothing  that  affects  the  religious  life  and  power  of  any 
branch  of  the  Christian  Church  can  be  uninteresting  to  any  other 
branch  of  it.  Details  of  creed  and  ecclesiastical  government 
are  not  enough  to  separate  those  who  are  obeying  the  same 
sceptre,  preaching  the  same  gospel,  and  engaged  in  serving  the 


164  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

same  world ;  and  on  these  grounds  we  who  stand  outside  the 
Established  Church  feel  that  we  have  a  right  to  say  some- 
thing concerning  that  which  is  now  proceeding  within  its 
limits. 

But  before  any  other  ground  is  touched,  there  is  one  great 
question  to  be  settled.  We  are  willing  to  meet  with  what 
learning  and  ability  God  has  blessed  us  the  objections  of  doubtful 
and  sceptical  minds.  But  before  we  can  consent  to  argue  with 
the  gentlemen  committed  to  the  views  against  which  we  protest, 
we  ask,  as  Englishmen,  that  in  common  honesty  those  gentlemen 
shall  change  their  position  and  abandon  the  church  within  whose 
pale  they  pretend  to  take  shelter.  We,  as  Nonconformists, 
object  to  the  establishment  of  any  form  of  religious  truth ;  but 
while  we  feel  called  upon  to  express  clearly  and  emphatically  on 
all  fitting  occasions  our  strong  conviction  of  that  great  principle, 
we  have  further  objections  to  urge  against  such  views  as  those 
held  by  the  authors  of  Essays  and  Reviews  being  supported  out 
of  the  revenues  of  the  State  and  dignified  with  the  honours  of  the 
nation.  We  fear  for  the  morals  of  the  nation,  when  men  who 
have  been  consecrated  to  the  priestly  office  and  have  taken 
solemn  oaths  to  preach  certain  forms  of  doctrine,  unblushingly 
stand  forward  as  the  antagonists  of  that  which  they  have  sworn 
to  maintain.  If  indeed,  as  a  question  of  political  expediency, 
men  of  all  opinions  are  to  find  a  place  in  a  State  Church,  then  I 
feel  that  I  am  expressing  the  opinion  of  all  my  brethren  of  the 
Church  of  England  around  me,  that  the  sooner  the  tie  between 
the  Church  of  England  and  the  State  is  dissolved,  the  better  it 
will  be  for  the  truth. 

This  vindication  of  the  ethics  of  subscription  was  the 
prelude  to  a  larger  and  more  important  controversy.  At 
the  Birmingham  meetings,  the  Congregational  Union,  in 
response  to  an  appeal  from  Dr.  Vaughan,  had  determined 
to  celebrate  the  Bicentenary  of  the  great  ejection  in 
the  year  1662,  when  the  Act  of  Uniformity  drove  two 
thousand  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England  from  the 
churches  and  parishes  to  which  they  had  been  appointed. 
Rather  later,  a  conference  of  Nonconformists  was  held  in 
London,  and  an  organisation  was  established  for  concerted 
action.  The  proposal  was  widely  discussed,  with  much 
divergence  of  opinion.  It  was  not  easy  to  agree  upon  the 
method  and  scope  of  celebration.  Some,  while  willing  to 
commemorate  the  event  as  a  noble  tribute  to  conscientious 


THE  BICENTENARY  CONTROVERSY  165 

conviction,  insisted  that  it  should  be  regarded  in  its 
historical  character  alone,  and  that  no  attempt  should  be 
made  to  give  it  any  controversial  application.  Such  were 
the  terms  proposed  by  the  leaders  of  the  Evangelical 
Alliance  as  a  condition  of  their  support — a  compact  that 
could  never  have  been  carried  out,  and  rejected,  not  without 
indignation,  by  most  of  those  who  had  a  right  to  speak  in 
the  name  of  Nonconformity. 

In  Birmingham  the  Church  made  the  first  move.  1862 
Before  any  Bicentenary  meetings  had  been  held  or 
planned  by  the  local  committee,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Bardsley, 
then  eminent  as  an  ecclesiastical  gladiator,  lectured  in  the 
Town  Hall  upon  the  history  and  the  prospects  of  the 
Established  Church,  with  special  reference  to  the  proposals 
of  the  Liberation  Society.  He  was  followed  a  few  weeks 
later  by  Dr.  Miller,  who  dealt  more  closely  with  the  point 
at  issue.  The  title  of  his  lecture  was  significant : — 
"  Churchmen  and  Dissenters  :  their  relations  as  affected 
by  the  proposed  Bicentenary  commemoration  of  St. 
Bartholomew's  Day,  1662."  If  not  exactly  a  declaration 
of  war,  it  may  not  unfairly  be  described  as  a  warning  of 
hostilities. 

Dr.  Miller's  attitude  was  in  the  main  that  of  the 
Evangelical  Alliance.  He  condemned  the  Act  of 
Uniformity  even  when  regarded  as  a  measure  of  retalia- 
tion. He  denounced  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  conceived  ; 
the  manner  in  which  it  was  carried  out ;  the  recklessness 
with  which  King  Charles  the  Second — "  that  wretched 
and  perfidious  profligate  "  —  broke  his  most  solemn 
pledges ;  and  the  folly  and  fanaticism  of  the  royal 
counsellors  in  Church  and  State.  Nor  did  he  fail  to  do 
justice  to  the  heroic  sacrifice  of  the  ejected  clergy  :  "  We 
honour  the  men  who  go  out  in  obedience  to  conscientious 
conviction,  rather  than  stay  within  (the  Church)  as 
hypocrites  and  traitors."  "  Nevertheless,"  he  continued, 
"  as  a  question  of  expediency,  we  regret  this  Bicentenary. 
It  is  hardly  likely,  whatever  homage  it  may  pay  to  the 
rights  of  conscience,  to  further  the  cause  of  Christian  unity 
and  love." 


166  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

He  took  objection  to  the  celebration  on  various  grounds. 
He  alleged,  in  the  first  place,  that  modern  Dissenters  had 
so  entirely  changed  their  position  and  principles  as  to  lose 
all  vital  relation  to  the  men  whom  they  claimed  as  their 
spiritual  ancestors.  This  point  he  went  on  to  argue  in 
detail  ;  and  after  dealing  with  some  matters  of  secondary 
importance,  he  touched  the  centre  and  core  of  the  differ- 
ence— the  fact  that  the  men  of  1662  were  as  friendly  as 
the  men  of  1862  were  hostile  to  the  principle  of  church 
establishments.  The  remainder  of  his  lecture  was  partly 
a  criticism  of  the  voluntary  system — "  the  commercial 
system,"  as  he  preferred  to  call  it — partly  an  indictment 
of  those  who  were  leagued  together  "to  destroy"  the  Church 
of  England.  He  distinguished  "  political "  from  "con- 
scientious "  Dissenters,  and  implied  that  although  for 
secular  purposes  the  clergy  would  still  act  with  men  of 
all  parties,  they  could  not  be  expected  to  co-operate  with 
Liberationists  on  the  platform  of  the  Bible  Society  or 
elsewhere.  Practically  his  declaration  amounted  to  this, 
that  any  reference  to  Disestablishment  during  the  cele- 
bration would  destroy  all  friendly  relations,  and  that 
Nonconformists  must  make  their  choice  between  the 
Liberation  Society  and  association  with  the  clergy  of  the 
English  Church. 

Feeling  ran  high,  both  among  the  audience,  who  were 
by  no  means  of  one  colour,  and  among  those  who  read 
the  lecture  in  print.  The  local  Bicentenary  Committee 
determined  that  a  formal  reply  should  be  made,  and  cast 
about  for  a  spokesman.  They  applied  first  to  the  Rev. 
Charles  Vince ;  and  when  he  declined  the  task,  they 
turned  to  Dale,  who  accepted  the  invitation  with  alacrity. 
The  interval  between  the  two  lectures  was  short — just  over 
a  fortnight — and  excitement  had  not  yet  cooled  down.  The 
Town  Hall  was  thronged  from  end  to  end  ;  the  seats  had 
been  removed  from  the  greater  part  of  the  floor,  where 
men  stood  packed  in  a  solid  mass  ;  the  highest  rows  in 
the  vast  orchestra  and  the  very  embrasures  in  the  windows 
of  the  deep  gallery  facing  the  platform  were  filled  to  over- 
flowing ;    even  then,  many  hundreds  were  turned  away 


THE  BICENTENARY  CONTROVERSY  167 

from  the  doors,  so  deeply  had  the  controversy  stirred 
and  agitated  the  town. 

It  was  inevitable  that  the  lecture  should  open  with  a 
historical  review  ;  but  this  part  was  comparatively  brief 
and  dealt  with  the  question  on  broad  lines.  Two  points 
in  it  are  worth  notice.  In  the  first  place,  Dale,  instead 
of  beginning  his  retrospect  at  the  struggles  under  the 
Commonwealth,  went  farther  back  and  showed  the  conflict 
to  be  the  outcome  of  that  great  movement  of  religious 
thought  which  began  with  the  Reformation.  In  the 
second  place,  he  condemned  unsparingly  the  intolerance 
displayed  by  the  Presbyterian  party  when  in  power,  as  ex- 
hibited both  in  the  decree  that  made  the  use  of  the  Prayer 
Book,  even  in  families,  a  penal  offence,  and  also  in  their 
bearing  towards  the  Independents.  But  he  was  careful 
not  to  claim  too  high  a  degree  of  enlightenment  for  any  of 
those  who  were  concerned  in  the  struggle.  With  but  few 
exceptions,  they  had  failed  to  grasp  the  true  principles  of 
religious  liberty,  and  even  the  Independents  for  the  most 
part  were  anxious  that  religion  should  be  sustained  by  the 
revenues  of  the  nation  and  should  be  established  by  the 
civil  power.  He  pointed  out,  however,  that  the  rights 
of  conscience  and  the  principle  of  toleration  were  far 
more  widely  and  clearly  apprehended  among  the  In- 
dependents than  among  any  other  religious  body  in  that 
age. 

After  tracing  the  King's  tortuous  dealings  with  the 
Puritans,  and  describing  the  sacrifices  to  which  the  ejected 
clergy  submitted,  he  replied  to  the  objection — so  often 
raised  at  that  time  and  since — that  their  ejectment  was  an 
act  of  retaliation  for  the  injustice  that  they  themselves 
had  committed.  The  two  cases,  he  contended,  stand  in 
glaring  contrast. 

Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Episcopalian  clergy  had  been 
ejected  at  a  time  when  the  country  was  convulsed  with  civil 
war ;  the  Puritans  were  ejected  when  the  laws  and  ancient 
constitution  had  been  securely  restored,  and  when  no  danger  was 
to  be  feared  from  the  Presbyterians  if  they  were  treated  fairly  : 
that  the  Episcopalian  clergy  were  almost  to  a  man  the  known 


168  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

enemies  of  the  Government  that  deprived  them,  and  were  eager 
for  its  destruction ;  the  Presbyterians  had  never  approved  the 
execution  of  King  Charles,  or  the  supremacy  of  Cromwell ;  they 
had  cordially  helped  to  bring  back  the  King,  and  were  amongst 
the  most  faithful  supporters  of  the  throne :  that  whatever 
irregularity  there  may  have  been  in  obeying  the  law,  the 
Parliament  had  required  that  a  fifth  of  their  former  incomes 
should  be  granted  to  the  ejected  Episcopalians ;  and  that  the 
Government  of  King  Charles  not  only  made  no  such  provision  for 
the  Nonconformists,  but  studiously  fixed  the  day  of  their  ejectment 
so  as  to  exclude  them  from  the  tithes  which  were  justly  their  due : 
and  finally,  Baxter  himself,  who  was  an  open  enemy  of  the  various 
committees  under  the  Commonwealth  for  trying  ministers  and 
sequestering  livings,  testifies  that  in  all  the  counties  where  he  was 
acquainted,  "six  to  one  at  least  (if  not  many  more)  that  were 
sequestered  by  the  committee  were,  by  the  oaths  of  witnesses, 
proved  insufficient  or  scandalous,  or  both ;  especially  guilty  of 
drunkenness  or  swearing ;  and  those  that  being  able,  godly 
preachers,  were  cast  out  for  the  war  alone,  or  their  opinions'  sake, 
were  comparatively  very  few  "  ;  while  the  2000  were  ejected  not  for 
their  vices  at  all,  nor  for  their  inefficiency,  nor  for  their  enmity  to 
the  Government,  but  simply  because  they  refused  to  be  false  to 
conscientious  convictions,  which  their  opponents  might  con- 
scientiously have  respected.1 

Then,  coming  from  the  past  to  the  present,  he  proceeded 
to  justify  the  commemoration.  He  made  short  work  of  the 
objection  taken  by  Dr.  Miller  and  others  —  that  the 
ecclesiastical  differences  between  earlier  and  later  Non- 
conformity were  so  far-reaching  as  to  preclude  any  such 
celebration.  That  argument  had  been  anticipated  both 
by  Dr.  Vaughan  in  his  speech  before  the  Congregational 
Union,  and  also  in  the  manifesto  issued  by  the  Bicentenary 
Committee.  It  had  been  carefully  pointed  out  that  the  com- 
memoration was  not  based  upon  "identity  of  ecclesiastical 
or  theological  faith  between  the  willing  Nonconformists  of 
1862  and  the  forced  Nonconformists  of  1662."  It  was 
not  the  opinions,  but  the  conduct  of  the  ejected  ;  their 
spirit,  not  their  convictions  ;  their  fidelity  to  conscience, 
not   their   articles   of  belief,  that  were   now  held  up  for 

1  "  Churchmen  and  Dissenters  :  their  mutual  relations  as  affected  by  the 
celebration  of  the  Bicentenary  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  1662,"  pp.  11,  12. 


THE  BICENTENARY  CONTROVERSY  169 

honour  and  imitation.  The  ejected  ministers,  he  said, 
were  not  claimed  as  Congregationalists  ;  the  vast  majority 
of  them  were  Presbyterians  :  they  were  not  claimed  as 
Anti-State  Churchmen  ;  they  belonged  to  the  National 
Establishment  ;  and  had  terms  of  subscription  been 
imposed  which  they  could  have  conscientiously  accepted, 
they  would  have  remained  in  it.  But  yet  there  were 
reasons,  "  strong,  manifold,  and  spirit-stirring,"  why  their 
memory  should  be  honoured. 

In  the  first  place,  honour  was  due  to  the  men  who 
surrendered  everything  rather  than  assent  and  consent  to 
what  they  believed  to  be  untrue.  The  time  imperatively 
demanded  that  all  religious  parties  should  "  assert  the 
peril  and  the  sin  of  trickery  and  equivocation  in  the 
profession  of  religious  belief,  and  should  do  homage  to 
men  who  recognised  so  nobly  the  awful  authority  of 
conscience."  During  the  last  five  and  twenty  years,  three 
great  sections  of  the  Church  had  attempted,  each  in  its 
own  way,  to  deal  with  the  question  of  subscription.  The 
Tractarians,  led  by  Newman,  had  attempted  to  prove  that 
it  was  possible  to  sign  the  articles  in  one  sense  and  to 
interpret  them  in  another.  More  recently,  the  clerical 
authors  of  Essays  and  Reviews,  not  troubling  themselves 
about  creeds  and  articles  at  all,  had  attacked  "  the  central 
and  foundation  principles "  of  the  Church's  theological 
system.  Further,  five  hundred  clergymen  had  petitioned 
for  a  reform  of  that  Liturgy  to  which  they  had  all  given 
their  "unfeigned  assent  and  consent";  and  Dr.  Vaughan — 
then  Vicar  of  Doncaster,  afterwards  Dean  of  Llandaff — 
while  desiring  to  see  the  form  of  subscription  reconsidered 
and  revised,  had  resisted  the  demand  on  the  ground  that 
"  whatever  remains  after  revision  must  be  taken  as  it  stands, 
and  interpreted,  at  least  for  a  generation  or  two,  according 
to  its  grammatical  sense."  "  We  wish,"  he  continued,  "  to 
remind  the  clergy  belonging  to  these  three  sections  of  the 
Church  in  our  day  of  the  incorruptible  fidelity  of  the  two 
thousand  men  who  never  dreamt  of  sophistries  like  these  ; 
and  we  think  that,  in  celebrating  their  honesty,  we  are  doing 
an  important  service,  not  to  a  party,  but  to  the  State  j   not 


170  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

to  a  religious  sect,   but  to   all    who   love   God    and    wish 
to  keep  His  commandments."1 

A  second  reason  for  celebrating  the  Bicentenary  was 
the  religious  liberty  which  the  ejection  had  helped  to 
secure.  For  the  most  part  Dale  in  his  reply  avoided  by- 
issues,  but  an  allusion  of  Dr.  Miller  provoked  a  vigorous 
retort.  Dr.  Miller,  in  his  eagerness  to  prove  that  modern 
Dissent  had  shifted  its  ground,  and  had  drawn  away  from 
the  position  of  its  ancestors,  referred  to  the  Gothic 
architecture,  prodigally  ornate,  of  a  new  Baptist  Church 
in  one  of  the  main  thoroughfares  of  the  town.  Dale 
admitted  that  the  character  of  the  buildings  used  for 
worship  by  Nonconformists  had  changed  ;  he  suggested 
an  explanation. 

It  is  true  that  then,  and  long  afterwards,  our  fathers  did  not 
build  places  of  worship  with  graceful  spires,  and  columns  crowned 
with  clustering  beauty,  and  windows  rich  with  purple  and  gold ; 
they  did  not  feel  secure  enough  in  their  liberties  to  invest  their 
money  in  buildings,  of  which  new  political  convulsions  might 
deprive  them.  Even  in  the  trust-deed  of  my  own  place  of 
worship,  built  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  provision  is  made 
for  the  disposal  of  the  edifice  should  it  ever  become  illegal  to 
employ  it  for  the  purposes  of  Independent  worship ;  so  insecure, 
even  then,  in  the  judgment  of  our  fathers  was  the  religious  liberty 
of  the  country.  They  erected  mean  buildings  in  obscure  places 
for  another  reason  too ;  if  the  magistrate  did  not  touch  them,  the 
mob  might ;  and  by  retreating  to  courts  and  lanes,  they  sought 
both  to  avoid  public  notice  and  to  place  their  chapels  as  much  as 
possible  beyond  the  fury  of  great  crowds  of  people.  And  as  men 
who  have  been  in  prison  long  get  to  like  the  very  darkness  of 
their  cells,  and  feel  ill  at  ease  when  their  chains  are  removed,  our 
fathers  got  to  like  the  plain  dull  buildings  to  which  necessity  had 
originally  driven  them.  As  for  ourselves,  we  were  never  in  the 
house  of  bondage,  and  have  pretty  well  escaped  from  its  influence, 
and  feel  quite  at  liberty  to  build  our  places  of  worship  in  another 
style;  and  if  we  sometimes  make  queer  blunders,  if  "  Dissenting 
Gothic "  affords  amusement,  as  well  it  may  very  often,  to 
architectural  critics,  we  can  only  say  that  we  are  inexperienced 
hands  at  this  work,  we  are  improving  already,  and  hope  to  do 
better  still  by  and  by.2 

1  "  Churchmen  and  Dissenters  :  their  mutual  relations  as  aflected  by  the 
celebration  of  the  Bicentenary  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  1662,"  pp.  15,  16. 

3  Hid.  p.  16. 


THE  BICENTENARY  CONTROVERSY  171 

After  giving  other  reasons  for  the  commemoration, 
Dale  went  on  to  deal  with  another  objection.  It  was  this 
part  of  his  address  that  stirred  the  audience  to  the  highest 
pitch  of  enthusiasm,  as  it  provoked  the  keenest  resentment 
of  opponents. 

But  still  it  may  be  objected  that  while  on  some  great  points 
we  agree  with  the  Nonconformists  of  1662,  in  others  we  differ 
from  them ;  and  that  especially  we  who  object  to  Establishments 
altogether  are  not  the  persons  to  do  honour  to  the  men  whose 
grievance  it  was  that  the  terms  of  subscription  did  not  permit 
them  to  remain  in  the  Establishment :  the  tithes  which  were 
taken  from  them,  we  say  they  ought  never  to  have  had ;  the 
political  status  of  which  they  are  deprived,  we  maintain  ought  not 
to  belong  to  the  Christian  ministry;  and  it  is  urged  that  we 
therefore  ought  to  be  silent  about  the  crime  of  ejecting  them, 
and  the  loss  and  suffering  which  followed.  I  reply,  that  we 
should  have  been  very  glad  to  have  given  the  prominent  position 
in  this  celebration  to  other  men.  We  should  have  been  very 
willing  to  occupy  a  subordinate  place ;  instead  of  speaking  we 
should  have  rejoiced  to  applaud  while  others  spoke  ;  it  is  not  in 
our  power  to  render  such  a  magnificent  homage  to  the  memory 
of  the  victims  of  the  weakness  of  Charles  and  the  tyranny  of 
Sheldon  as  other  men  might  have  rendered.  There  are  clergy- 
men ministering  at  the  altars  of  the  English  Church,  in  our  own 
time,  who  object,  as  the  Two  Thousand  objected,  to  the  doctrine 
of  baptismal  regeneration ;  to  language  used  in  the  confirmation 
service ;  to  the  absolution  in  the  service  for  the  visitation  of  the 
sick;  to  the  burial  service.  It  belongs,  I  admit  it,  to  them 
rather  than  to  us,  to  do  honour  to  the  heroic  fidelity  to  conscience 
of  the  men  of  1662.  They  could  do  it  in  a  nobler  fashion,  and 
on  a  grander  scale.  The  truest,  fittest,  sublimest  celebration  of 
this  Bicentenary  would  be  for  eight  or  ten  thousand  of  the 
Evangelical  clergy  who  object  to  these  services  in  the  Prayer 
Book,  but  who  obtained  their  ministerial  office  and  their  ministerial 
income  by  avowing  their  "  unfeigned  assent  and  consent "  to  all 
the  book  contains,  to  come  out  and  to  declare  to  the  English 
people  that  they  can  no  longer  retain  a  position  which  they 
acquired  by  professing  to  approve  what  now  at  least  they  reject ; 
that  they  can  no  longer  use  in  the  house  of  God  and  at  the  most 
touching  and  solemn  crises  of  human  history  words  which  their 
hearts  condemn.1 

1  "Churchmen  and  Dissenters:  their  mutual  relations  as  affected  by  the 
celebration  of  the  Bicentenary  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  1662,"  pp.  19,  20. 


172  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

He  next  referred  to  the  distinction  drawn  between 
"  political  "  and  "  conscientious  "  Dissent,  and  also  to  the 
interruption  of  friendship  threatened  in  case  the  Bicentenary 
celebration  should  be  used  to  enforce  the  principles  of  the 
Liberation  Society.  This  demand  for  silence,  he  suggested, 
had  a  wider  scope  than  might  at  first  sight  appear  :  the 
real  objection  was  not  to  the  sermon  being  preached  from 
that  particular  text,  but  to  its  being  preached  at  all  ; 
it  was  not  the  occasion  but  the  argument  at  which 
offence  was  taken.  As  to  the  two  classes  into  which 
Dissenters  had  been  divided,  he  pointed  out,  after  a 
vigorous  protest  against  the  stigma  placed  on  politics, 
that  the  "  conscientious  "  Dissenter — so  called — is  really 
divided  from  the  Church  by  a  far  deeper  gulf  than  his 
"  political "  brother.  The  one  objects  to  the  polity,  the 
discipline,  the  ritual,  and  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  ;  he 
dissents,  not  from  the  Establishment,  but  from  the  Church 
itself.  Disestablishment  and  disendowment  would  leave 
him  where  he  stood  ;  his  antagonism  touches  essentials. 
But  the  "  political "  Dissenter,  on  the  contrary,  is  not 
hostile  to  the  Church  itself;  he  objects  merely  to  its 
connection  with  the  State  ;  his  objection  is  confined  to 
what  is  accidental  and  not  essential.  Why  then,  if 
"  conscientious  "  Dissent — with  its  insuperable  differences 
— is  no  bar  to  religious  communion,  should  "  political " 
Dissent  form  an  impassable  gulf?  If  it  be  asserted  that 
friendship  is  possible  between  Churchmen  and  those  who 
object  to  the  Church  itself,  but  must  cease  when  objection 
is  taken  to  the  links  that  bind  the  Church  to  the  Civil 
Power,  such  language  would  lead  men  to  believe — without 
reason  —  that  the  Evangelical  clergy  love  the  Establish- 
ment better  than  they  love  the  Church  itself.  Dr.  Miller's 
declaration,  though  not  quoted,  must  have  been  in  every 
one's  mind  as  they  listened  :  — "  Although  we  have 
thousands  committed  to  our  charge ;  though  we  have 
sick-beds  waiting  for  us  on  every  side ;  we  will  leave 
everything — our  schools,  our  sick-beds,  our  studies,  our 
homes — if  it  becomes  a  death-struggle  for  the  establish- 
ment of  the  good,  old,  glorious  Church  of  England." 


THE  BICENTENARY  CONTROVERSY  173 

But  whatever  course  Nonconformists  might  choose, 
whether  they  spoke  or  were  silent,  the  relations  between 
Church  and  State,  he  asserted,  would  be  closely  and 
rigorously  examined.  Churchmen  themselves  were 
already  stirring  ;  and  he  quoted  passages  from  an  essay 
by  Dr.  Irons,  vindicating  the  spiritual  freedom  of  the 
Church  and  protesting  against  a  system  which  submitted 
questions  of  faith  to  the  ultimate  decision  of  a  secular 
Parliament.  His  own  sympathy,  he  said,  went  with  such 
a  protest.  Others  might  ask  for  the  separation  of  Church 
and  State  on  the  ground  of  political  expediency  ;  he 
asked  for  it  because  the  alliance  weakened  the  Church 
while  professing  to  strengthen  it. 

In  conclusion,  he  deprecated  the  reluctance  to  discuss 
these  great  principles  fully  and  frankly,  and  especially  the 
menaces  by  which  it  was  sought  to  enforce  silence. 

Again,  I  ask,  why  should  this  discussion  be  discouraged  ?  If 
it  be  answered  that  controversy  must  produce  alienation  between 
friends,  must  break  up  the  kindly  relationships  which  years  of 
peace  have  silently  and  happily  created  between  men  whose 
judgments  differ,  I  reply  that  we  can  see  no  reason  for  this 
estrangement.  Serious  as  are  the  opinions  now  in  debate  they 
are  insignificant  compared  with  those  truths — transcendently 
sublime — in  which  we  all  believe.  The  charity  we  are  so  afraid 
to  disturb  is  worthless  if  it  is  not  mighty  enough  to  hold  our 
hearts  together  while  we  investigate  questions  like  these.  To 
warn  us  that  our  protest  against  the  political  bondage  of  the 
Church  must  interrupt  that  measure  of  religious  co-operation 
which  at  present  exists  between  Evangelical  Dissenters  and 
Evangelical  Churchmen  may  embitter  but  cannot  prevent  this 
controversy  ;  while  the  continuance  of  co-operation  might  help  to 
repress  passion,  remove  misunderstandings,  and  maintain  the 
remembrance  of  those  points  in  which  we  are  one. 

I  deeply  regret  that  at  the  very  opening  of  the  discussion  such 
considerations  should  be  imported  into  it.  Religious  fellowship 
between  Christians  belonging  to  different  Churches  is  not  merely 
a  pleasant  luxury,  it  is  an  important  aid  to  religious  knowledge 
and  spiritual  growth.  It  satisfies  the  hunger  of  the  heart.  It  is 
a  means  of  grace.  It  supplies  the  corrective  influences  to  that 
narrowness  of  thought  and  sympathy  which  every  man  is  likely 
to  contract  who  is  enclosed  within  the  limits  of  his  own  sect  or 
his  own  party.     There  are  aspects  of  truth  with  which  you  are 


i74  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

familiar  which  we  need  to  supplement  our  doctrinal  theories ; 
there  are  types  of  character  among  you  which  may  help  to  rectify 
tendencies  which  our  ecclesiastical  system  and  history  have 
unduly  encouraged.  Perhaps  there  is  something  among  us  from 
which  you  in  your  turn  may  derive  benefit.  The  intercourse  of 
the  last  twenty  years  has  strengthened  the  instincts  which  make 
hostility  a  pain  and  friendship  a  joy  to  us.  But  if  fidelity  in 
proclaiming  truth  which  appears  to  us  of  infinitely  more  im- 
portance to  you  than  to  ourselves  is  to  be  visited  with  this 
penalty,  we  have  no  choice.  The  penalty — the  only  one  you  can 
inflict — is  no  slight  one ;  the  best  men  among  us,  the  men  with 
the  freest  intellect  and  the  warmest  heart,  will  feel  it  most ;  but 
I  repeat,  we  have  no  choice.  For  your  sakes  we  cannot  be 
silent.  But  we  gratefully  remember  that  no  interruption  of 
external  communion  can  really  separate  those  that  love  Christ. 
We  are  members  of  one  body,  and  have  been  baptized  into  one 
spirit ;  and  though  temporary  alienation  should  arise  between  us 
— which  may  God  in  His  mercy  prevent ! — we  shall  still  endea- 
vour in  another  form  to  maintain  communion  with  that  Church 
which  we  desire  to  emancipate.  The  great  doctors  and  bishops 
of  the  Church  of  England,  whose  names  are  her  crown  of  glory 
and  her  strong  defence,  will  come  to  us  in  our  solitude  still. 
The  calm  wisdom  of  Richard  Hooker,  uttered  in  periods  as 
majestic  as  the  architecture  of  one  of  your  own  cathedrals,  shall 
still  instruct  us ;  the  fervid  eloquence  of  Jeremy  Taylor  shall 
stimulate  us  to  live  a  Holy  Life,  and  to  prepare  for  a  Holy 
Death  ;  Bishop  Hall  shall  speak  to  us  still  of  Christ  Mystical,  and 
the  Blessed  Union  of  Christ  and  His  Members ;  we  shall  still 
find  weapons  to  defend  the  orthodoxy  of  the  early  Church  in  the 
writings  of  Bishop  Bull ;  and  shall  study  Christian  ethics  in  the 
matchless  sermons  of  Isaac  Barrow.  We  shall  still  pray  that 
God  would  send  down  upon  your  bishops  and  curates,  and  all 
congregations  committed  to  their  charge,  the  healthful  spirit  of 
His  grace.  We  shall  thank  God  for  your  spiritual  triumphs  as 
though  they  were  our  own.  And,  meantime,  confident  that  the 
principles  to  which  we  are  committed  are  in  harmony  with  the 
genius  of  the  Christian  faith,  sanctioned  by  the  authority  of  its 
Founder,  and  inseparable  from  its  complete  and  perfect  triumph, 
we  shall  wait,  with  hearts  in  which  we  trust  that  neither  malice 
nor  envy  nor  impatience  will  have  any  place,  for  that  time,  which 
is  sure  to  come,  and  may  come  soon,  when  a  charity  at  once 
more  manly  and  more  divine  shall  reign  universally,  and  when 
whatever  now  clouds  the  splendour  or  impairs  the  strength 
of  any  Christian  Church  shall  have  perished,  and  perished  for 
ever. 


THE  BICENTENARY  CONTROVERSY  175 

More  than  once  in  the  course  of  the  evening  he  had 
brought  the  audience  to  their  feet  in  tumultuous  excite- 
ment, and  now,  as  he  closed  with  this  noble  tribute  to  the 
National  Church,  there  was  a  scene  of  wild  enthusiasm. 
The  interest  produced  by  the  lecture  was  not  limited  to 
those  that  heard  it.  In  pamphlet  form  it  ran  through 
edition  after  edition,  and  made  its  way  into  all  parts  of 
the  country.  The  religious  newspapers  on  all  sides  took 
note  of  it ;  friends  and  foes  alike  combined  to  make  it 
known.  Dale  found  himself  suddenly  lifted  to  a  new 
position.  The  lecture — as  he  said,  looking  back  on  his 
early  years  —  "fairly  launched"  him  on  his  career  of 
public  service. 

Meanwhile  it  gave  a  new  turn  to  the  local  controversy. 
The  advocates  and  the  opponents  of  the  celebration  con- 
tinued their  activity  ;  but  a  war  of  pamphlets  also  ensued 
between  the  clergy  of  the  two  contending  schools.  High 
Churchmen  pressed  Dale's  utterances  into  a  campaign 
against  the  Evangelicals,  and  the  Evangelicals  on  their 
side  vindicated  their  consistency  with  equal  energy.  For 
many  weeks  the  newspapers  too  were  crowded  with  letters 
upon  all  sides  of  the  question. 

When  matters  were  at  this  pass,  an  effort  was  made 
from  outside  to  restore  peace.  Sir  Culling  Eardley, 
the  Chairman  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  came  down  to 
see  if  he  could  make  terms  between  the  antagonists.  He 
spent  some  days  in  Birmingham,  and  discussed  the 
question  with  all  concerned.  His  motives  were  better 
than  his  methods,  and  he  came  too  late  to  intervene  with 
success.  Dr.  Miller  had  already  carried  out  his  threat  of 
withdrawing  from  the  presidency  of  the  Bible  Society  ; 
and  whatever  concessions  Dale  might  have  been  willing 
to  make  at  an  earlier  stage  of  the  conflict,  he  was  now 
immovable. 

The  passage  in  his  lecture  at  which  the  Evangelical 
clergy  took  offence  was  the  demand  that  they  should 
declare  that  "  they  can  no  longer  retain  a  position  which 
they  acquired  by  professing  to  approve  what  now  at  least 
they  reject ;  that  they  can  no  longer  use  in  the  House  of 


176  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

God,  and  at  the  most  touching  and  solemn  crises  of  human 
history,  words  which  they  in  their  hearts  condemn."  Sir 
Culling  Eardley  endeavoured  to  induce  Dale  to  modify 
these  phrases  or  to  explain  them  away.  The  earlier  part 
of  the  correspondence  has  not  been  preserved,  but  in  a 
private  letter  Eardley  urged  him  to  "  say  something  kind 
and  generous  "  that  would  remove  the  imputation  on  the 
clergy.  To  this  appeal  Dale  replied  as  follows.  The 
reply  was  not  intended  for  print,  but  as  Sir  Culling 
Eardley  in  some  letters  that  he  sent  to  the  Record  referred 
to  the  correspondence,  Dale,  finding  his  hand  forced, 
consented  to  its  publication. 

To  Sir  Culling  Eardley 

1st  May  1862. 

Even  if  I  had  not  received  your  letter  which  has  just  reached 
me,  I  should  not  have  permitted  you  to  leave  Birmingham 
without  expressing  my  very  hearty  appreciation  of  your  noble  and 
generous  attempt  to  prevent  the  sin  and  misery  which  must  arise 
from  permanent  alienation  and  estrangement  between  individuals 
and  communities  that  serve  the  same  Master,  and  hope  to  dwell 
in  the  same  heaven.  Whether  successful  or  not,  you  will  have 
the  joy  of  knowing  that  the  blessing  which  Christ  has  pronounced 
upon  "  peacemakers  "  is  yours. 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  answering  the  inquiries  suggested  by 
the  paragraph  you  quote  from  my  recent  lecture.  What  I  mean, 
and  what  I  meant,  is  that  the  Evangelical  clergy,  whether  they 
number  seven,  or  eight,  or  ten  thousand,  obtained  orders  by 
declaring  their  approbation  of  Services,  which,  taken  in  their  plain 
grammatical  sense,  embody  doctrines  which  "  now  at  least  they 
reject " ;  that  they  habitually  use  in  the  House  of  God,  and  at 
the  most  solemn  crises  of  human  history,  words  which,  taken  in 
their  plain  grammatical  sense,  express  principles  "which  their 
hearts  condemn." 

That  excellent  Evangelical  clergymen  are  completely  satisfied 
that  the  parts  of  the  book  which  seem  to  me  irreconcilable  with 
Evangelical  doctrines  may  legitimately  receive  an  Evangelical 
interpretation,  I  have  never  dreamt  of  denying.  I  should  think 
it  very  probable  that  many  are  at  times  sorely  troubled  with  what 
seems  to  me  a  discrepancy  so  startling  between  what  they  say  in 
the  pulpit  and  what  they  say  at  the  font  and  at  the  grave  mouth  ; 
but  only  God,  who  knows  the  hearts  of  men,  can  be  acquainted 


THE  BICENTENARY  CONTROVERSY  177 

with  their  mental  conflict ;  and  whenever  good  men  tell  me  that 
this  discrepancy  is  not  felt  by  themselves,  I  should  think  it  a 
violation  not  only  of  Christian  charity,  but  of  all  the  principles  of 
common  justice,  to  doubt  their  word.  This  same  principle  I 
apply  not  merely  to  the  case  of  the  Evangelical  clergy,  but  to  that 
of  the  high  Tractarian  party,  and  the  clerical  disciples  of  Professor 
Jowett  and  Dr.  Williams.  I  fear,  however,  that  you  over-estimate 
the  effect  which  these  statements  on  my  part  may  have  on  the 
recent  decision  of  some  of  the  Evangelical  clergy  to  retire  from 
religious  co-operation  with  Evangelical  Nonconformists. 

Dr.  Miller,  for  instance,  must  have  taken  the  step  he  has, 
knowing  the  hearty  love  and  admiration  with  which  many  of  us 
regard  him ;  and  knowing  that  whatever  our  language  might 
appear  to  him  to  mean,  we  were  incapable  of  suspecting  him,  or 
men  like  him,  of  a  conscious  and  habitual  violation  of  the 
authority  of  conscience.  With  the  keenest  regret  that  he  should 
think  us  guilty  of  such  a  wrong,  and  with  the  greatest  surprise 
and  pain  on  account  of  his  recent  movements,  I  have  too  firm  a 
faith  in  him,  and  too  strong  a  love  for  him,  to  feel  any  personal 
bitterness  ;  and  the  expressions  contained  in  the  closing  paragraph 
of  my  lecture  do  but  very  imperfectly  convey  what  is  in  my  heart 
towards  him  and  other  devout  members  of  the  English  Church. 
I  have  written  very  frankly,  and  have  no  time  to  weigh  words 
nicely. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  incriminated  passage 
was  calculated  to  give  offence  ;  and  though  Dr.  Miller, 
in  asserting  that  the  clergy  were  taxed  with  deliberate 
dishonesty  and  perjury,  overstated  the  case,  he  and  his 
friends  had  a  reasonable  ground  of  complaint.  If  Dale 
wished  to  say  that  the  Evangelical  clergy  instinctively  but 
unconsciously  rejected  in  their  teaching  the  doctrines  that 
they  had  undertaken  to  maintain,  his  language  is  open  to 
misinterpretation  :  if  he  meant  to  say  that  the  passages 
in  the  baptismal  and  burial  services  and  in  the  service  for 
the  visitation  of  the  sick — to  which  he  specially  referred — 
when  taken  in  their  plain  grammatical  sense,  in  his  opinion 
involved  doctrines  that  the  Evangelical  clergy  repudiated 
and  abhorred,  his  words  needed  qualification.  In  any 
case,  a  few  years  later,  he  would  have  found  ways  of 
expressing  his  meaning  that  would  not  have  left  so  deep 
a  wound  or  have  so  embittered  strife.  Even  as  it  was, 
had  he  been  approached  without  recourse  to  menace,  he 
N 


178  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

was  not  the  man  to  have  placed  any  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  conciliation. 

The  lecture  was  important,  not  only  because  it  brought 
Dale  into  public  notice,  but  in  its  effect  on  his  after  life. 
So  far  as  it  is  possible  to  speak  with  any  assurance  about 
the  chances  of  human  existence,  it  is  certain  that  but  for 
its  influence  he  would  soon  have  left  Birmingham.  For 
more  than  eighteen  months  previously  he  had  been  sorely 
distressed  by  trouble  within  his  church,  involving  two  of 
its  members,  both  of  whom  he  counted  among  his  personal 
friends.  As  the  quarrel  went  on,  he  had  been  drawn  into 
it,  with  the  result  that  one  of  the  two  men  concerned  came 
to  regard  him  with  intense  hostility.  Even  when  the  case 
had  been  finally  settled  by  the  verdict  of  independent 
arbitrators,  chosen  from  outside  the  church,  a  minority, 
small  indeed,  but  including  a  few  men  of  position  and 
influence,  who  had  been  partisans  throughout,  still  felt 
themselves  aggrieved.  They  did  not  conceal  their  resent- 
ment, and  Dale  had  come  to  mistrust  his  hold  upon  the 
affection  and  confidence  of  the  church.  A  long  and 
painful  controversy  that  was  constantly  breaking  out  at 
fresh  points,  the  rupture  of  friendly  relations  with  men  to 
whom  he  looked  for  counsel  and  support,  and  the  peculiar 
bitterness  of  the  hostility  that  he  had  incurred,  left  him 
weary  and  out  of  heart  :  his  illness  in  the  previous 
summer,  if  not  wholly  due  to  this  cause,  had  been  ag- 
gravated by  it.  Now,  a  way  of  escape  suddenly  opened 
before  him  ;  and  as  there  was  every  reason  to  suppose 
that  the  matters  in  dispute  had  been  finally  settled,  he 
felt  that  he  was  free  to  go.  A  change  in  the  pastorate, 
he  thought,  would  be  good  for  himself ;  and  he  thought  it 
would  be  good  for  the  church. 

At  this  time,  Mr.  Binney's  recent  visit  to  Australia  had 
drawn  attention  to  the  needs  of  Congregationalism  in 
Victoria.  In  response  to  an  appeal  from  the  leaders  of 
the  churches  in  that  colony,  the  Committee  of  the  Colonial 
Missionary  Society  were  seeking  for  a  man  who  would  not 
only  strengthen  their  own  denomination  but  might  also 
take  an  active  part  in  the  life  of  the  community.      Their 


THE  MELBOURNE  INVITATION  179 

thoughts  turned  to  Dale,  and  they  invited  him  to  accept 
a  pastorate  in  Melbourne. 

The  position,  with  all  its  possibilities  of  influence  and  Aged  32. 
usefulness,  was  one  that  attracted  him.  If  he  succeeded 
— and  he  felt  that  success  was  possible — he  might  leave 
his  mark  upon  the  history  of  one  of  our  noblest 
dependencies  ;  he  would  at  least  have  some  part  in 
shaping  the  thought  and  life  of  a  society  still  in  the  earlier 
stages  of  development.  And  at  the  same  time,  without 
abandoning  the  work  on  which  his  heart  was  set,  he  would 
be  able  to  make  a  new  start,  free  from  the  restrictions,  the 
hindrances,  and  the  prejudices  entailed  by  the  ecclesiastical 
system  of  the  mother  country.  His  inward  conviction 
that  many — if  not  most — of  his  own  people  would 
welcome  a  change  in  the  pastorate  confirmed  his  inclina- 
tion. But  before  taking  any  final  step,  he  told  the  church 
and  its  officers  how  matters  stood,  and  then  took  himself 
away  to  Rydal  to  think  out  the  problem  among  the  hills. 

If  there  had  been  any  uncertainty  as  to  the  real  feeling 
of  the  church,  that  uncertainty  was  soon  dispelled.  From 
the  very  beginning  of  his  ministry,  Dale  had  never  lacked 
loyal  and  generous  friends :  time  had  added  to  their 
number.  And  among  those  who  were  less  closely  at- 
tached to  him,  the  recent  controversy,  and  his  part  in  it, 
had  left  a  conviction  that  he  was  a  man  with  a  future,  who 
might  live  to  become  a  power  ;  the  personal  attacks,  too, 
that  he  had  drawn  on  himself  touched  their  sympathy  and 
their  pride,  and  prompted  them  to  rally  round  him  as  their 
natural  leader.  The  church  meeting,  called  to  consider 
the  situation,  was  delayed  for  a  few  days,  and  during  the 
interval  the  tide  of  feeling  grew  in  volume  and  in  force. 
At  last  his  opponents,  who  had  made  their  influence  felt 
in  many  ways,  were  compelled  to  show  their  strength. 
They  were  badly  advised  and  badly  led.  Their  spokes- 
man, though  a  man  of  some  position,  had  neither  the 
vigour  nor  the  voice  required  for  so  difficult  a  task  ;  and 
instead  of  boldly  opposing  the  resolution  requesting  Dale 
to  remain,  he  proposed  that  the  pastor  should  be  asked  to 
state   his   reasons   for  contemplating  a  change.      A   bold 


180  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

policy  might  have  impressed  the  waverers  ;  but  so 
frivolous  and  futile  an  amendment  made  the  opposition 
ridiculous,  and  when  the  vote  was  taken  they  did  not 
muster  a  dozen  supporters.  The  blood  of  the  meeting 
was  up  ;  they  showed  unmistakably  that  they  intended  to 
put  down  obstruction  and  intrigue  with  a  strong  hand. 
Some  of  the  malcontents  took  a  broad  hint  and  removed 
to  other  churches  ;  those  who  remained  accepted  the  vote 
as  final.  That  night  practically  stamped  out  the  trouble  ; 
and  for  the  next  thirty  years  and  more,  the  peace  of  the 
church  and  the  security  of  its  pastor  were  unbroken. 

The  letters  that  follow  tell  their  own  story.  The 
decision  to  remain  at  Birmingham  was  only  arrived 
at  after  a  long  struggle,  and  even  then  not  without 
hesitation. 

To  Mr.  Offord 

Rydal,  Ambleside, 
26th  June  1862. 

Mrs.  Dale  sent  to  a  friend  of  mine  in  Birmingham  yesterday 
to  post  you  what  I  think  is  the  most  successful  of  the  rather 
queer  set  of  photographs  which  have  been  perpetrated  upon  me, 
and  I  hope  it  will  reach  you  to-morrow.  Give  my  kind  love  to 
John1  when  you  send  it.  By  the  way,  it  is  just  possible  that  I 
may  look  in  upon  him  some  morning  early  next  year.  Binney 
and  one  or  two  others  this  side,  and  some  people  in  Australia, 
are  anxious  I  should  settle  in  Melbourne.  I  have  been  personally 
invited  to  a  pastorate  there,  and  informally  have  had  suggested 
to  me  the  pastorate  of  a  church  at  St.  Kilda,  one  of  the  suburbs 
of  Melbourne,  with  the  presidency  of  a  new  college  in  Melbourne 
itself.  I  have  felt  strong  inclinations  to  go.  My  health  has  been 
rather  poor  for  some  time  past,  and  the  complete  change  might 
help  me.  However,  the  Carr's  Lane  people  have  made  a  very 
strong  demonstration  of  their  attachment  and  confidence,  and  of 
their  anxiety  that  I  should  remain ;  and  I  am  a  good  deal 
perplexed  what  to  do.  Cuthbertson  from  Sydney  comes  up  here 
this  week  or  next,  and  then  it  must  be  settled.  Mrs.  Dale  and  I 
with  our  three  children  came  up  here  last  Monday,  and  till  this 
morning  the  weather  has  been  pleasant.  We  are  staying  in  a 
couple  of  cottages  standing  by  themselves  on  Rydal  Water,  and 
enjoy  the  rest  exceedingly.  Everything  here  reminds  us  of 
1  John  Offord,  the  friend  of  his  boyhood,  pp.  7,  8. 


THE  MELBOURNE  INVITATION  181 

Wordsworth,  from  the  hills  which  he  loved  so  well,  down  to  our 
little  home  which  he  built,  and  the  spoons  which  bear  his 
initials,  and  the  very  sheets  which  are  marked  with  his  name. 
My  brother  and  I  were  here  last  year,  and  Mrs.  Dale  and  I  the 
year  before,  so  that  it  seems  quite  like  a  second  home.  Dr. 
Arnold's  old  house — his  beloved  Fox  How — is  about  a  mile  and 
a  half  off,  and  Wordsworth's  new  residence  about  half  a  mile. 
The  nearest  house  is  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  us,  and  there 
De  Quincey  once  lived  and  Hartley  Coleridge  died.  The 
scenery  is  to  my  mind  the  most  perfect  I  have  ever  seen. 


To  Mr.  W.  Beaumont 

Rydal,  2nd  July  1862. 

Through  you  I  beg  to  acknowledge  the  resolution  of  the 
Trustees  and  Deacons  passed  at  their  meeting  on  the  30th  ult, 
and  to  thank  them  very  cordially  for  the  promptness  with  which 
they  have  given  effect  to  the  wishes  of  the  congregational 
meeting  held  on  the  23rd. 

As  I  am  very  anxious  that  in  the  event  of  my  remaining  at 
Carr's  Lane,  the  ministerial  and  pastoral  arrangements  should  now 
be  made  so  efficient  as  to  anticipate  and  remove  all  necessity  for 
revision  and  alteration,  at  any  rate  for  many  years  to  come,  I 
think  it  right  to  give  a  full  and  frank  explanation  of  my  views  in 
reference  to  one  department  of  my  work  ;  an  explanation  I  did 
not  feel  at  liberty  to  make  before  the  very  unambiguous  demonstra- 
tion given  last  week  of  the  affection  and  confidence  of  my  people. 

In  the  warmth  and  earnestness  of  their  personal  attachment 
to  me,  and  their  too  generous  estimate  of  my  public  services,  they 
forget  for  the  moment  how  little  they  have  seen  of  me  at  their 
own  homes,  and  how  imperfectly  I  have  fulfilled  many  of  my 
more  private  ministerial  duties.  For  this  neglect  I  am  unable  to 
reproach  myself  very  seriously,  but  the  consciousness  of  it  has 
been  a  constant  source  of  distress  to  me.  Were  I  much  more 
robust  than  I  am,  thorough  and  prompt  attention  to  these 
departments  of  ministerial  work  would  be  incompatible  with 
the  worthy  discharge  of  those  public  duties  which  the  minister 
of  Carr's  Lane  cannot  decline,  and  which  he  ought  not  to 
discharge  carelessly  and  inefficiently. 

You  cannot  have  forgotten  how  frequently  Mr.  James  lamented 
his  inability  to  carry  out  his  own  ideas  of  pastoral  visitation,  or 
how  earnestly  he  maintained  the  necessity  of  that  kind  of  work 
for  the  comfort  and  efficient  development  of  the  church.  In  his 
estimate  of  its  importance  I  fully  concur ;  and  I  am  sure  that 


182  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

unless  some  provision  for  it  can  be  made,  Carr's  Lane  must 
suffer  from  the  want  of  it. 

For  the  pulpit  I  can  find  time  and  strength,  and  I  am  not 
conscious  that  my  recent  illness  has  at  all  affected  my  capacity 
for  preaching.  Nor  could  I  think  of  delegating  to  another  the 
responsible  and  perplexing  duty  of  conversing  with  those  who  are 
troubled  by  anxiety  about  their  peace  with  God.  I  think,  too,  it 
would  be  possible  to  arrange  opportunities  for  interviews  with  all 
persons  in  the  church  and  congregation  who  may  wish  to  see  me. 
But  as  far  as  private  visitation  is  concerned,  I  cannot  see  my  way 
to  doing  very  much  more  than  I  have  done  already,  and  this  is  so 
inadequate  to  the  requirements  of  the  congregation  as  to  occasion 
me  constant  disquietude. 

It  is  very  true  that  by  a  vigorous  working  of  the  diaconate 
and  of  the  district  machinery,  much  visitation  by  the  members  of 
the  church  of  each  other  might  be  secured,  and  I  believe  that 
this  mutual  service  would  prove  one  of  the  most  admirable  means 
of  developing  among  us  the  highest  powers  and  the  noblest 
excellencies  of  the  Christian  life ;  but  to  sustain  and  direct  this 
very  mechanism  requires  a  very  large  amount  of  ministerial 
thought,  time,  and  co-operation. 

I  have,  therefore,  to  suggest  to  the  church  and  congregation, 
and  to  its  officers  through  you,  the  great  desirableness  of  securing 
an  assistant  minister  to  supplement  the  work  of  the  pastor,  and 
to  do  what  he  must  leave  undone.  This  proposal  is  not  made 
with  the  idea  of  lightening  my  own  labours,  but  to  promote  the 
efficiency  of  the  religious  work  among  us.  Should  my  way 
become  quite  clear  to  continue  at  Carr's  Lane,  I  should  hope, 
whether  I  have  an  assistant  or  not,  to  see  more  of  the  people 
than  in  the  past ;  but  I  am  quite  clear  that  neither  their  views 
about  the  working  of  the  church  nor  mine  can  be  carried  out  by 
a  single  minister.  It  is  quite  time  that  we  returned  to  more 
primitive  arrangements,  and  that  we  learnt  this  one  lesson  at  any 
rate  from  the  machinery  of  the  English  Establishment.  If  our 
Nonconformist  churches  are  to  maintain  their  strength,  it  must 
be  not  merely  by  powerful  vindications  of  the  principles  on  which 
they  are  founded,  but  by  the  perfection  and  beauty  of  their 
working ;  and  I  believe  that  the  day  is  not  distant  when  we  shall 
be  unable  to  find  a  single  Independent  church  in  the  country  of 
a  magnitude  at  all  approaching  to  our  own,  with  only  one  minister 
at  the  head  of  it. 

I  place  this  matter  through  you,  my  dear  sir,  before  your 
brethren  in  office,  and  the  people  generally ;  being  encouraged  to 
do  so  by  the  cordiality  expressed  in  public  last  week,  and 
expressed  too  in  many  private  communications  I  have  received 


THE  MELBOURNE  INVITATION  183 

since  the  meeting,  for  all  of  which  I  feel  deeply  grateful.  Should 
the  proposal  commend  itself  to  the  judgment  of  those  with  whom 
the  decision  of  it  must  rest,  I  am  willing,  in  the  event  of 
remaining,  to  contribute  .£50  per  annum  towards  an  assistant's 
salary,  on  condition  that  ^100  be  found  elsewhere.  Of  course 
the  assistant  would  be  appointed  by  myself  and  be  responsible 
only  to  me. 


To  the  Church  and  Congregation  assembling 
at  Carr's  Lane  Meeting  House,  Birmingham 

Rydal,  wthjuly  1862. 

The  invitation  I  lately  received  to  remove  to  the  city  of 
Melbourne  involved  questions  too  serious  and  too  complicated 
to  be  easily  and  promptly  determined.  As  many  of  you  know,  I 
have  long  been  impressed  with  the  transcendent  importance  of 
securing  to  the  great  Australian  colonies,  in  the  earliest  years  of 
their  history,  a  truely  Evangelical  theology  and  a  free  ecclesiastical 
system.  There  is  no  country  in  the  world  where  the  principles 
most  dear  to  you  and  me  have  the  opportunity  of  obtaining  a 
nobler  development  or  a  more  commanding  influence  than  there. 
The  ministers  labouring  in  Australia  for  the  next  fifty  years  will 
have  the  glory  and  responsibility  of  educating  a  great  empire,  and 
of  directing  the  currents  of  its  religious  life  and  thought  for  a 
century  or  two  to  come. 

You  can  feel  no  surprise  that  the  claims  of  the  position  offered 
me  by  the  Colonial  Missionary  Society  appeared  to  me  strong  and 
almost  irresistible.  It  appealed  to  my  judgment  and  fascinated 
my  imagination.  For  such  a  work  one  could  gladly  sacrifice  all 
that  binds  the  heart  with  its  strongest  affections  and  sympathies 
to  this  dear  old  land. 

To  this  sacrifice,  however,  on  a  careful  and  thoughtful  examin- 
ation of  the  whole  case,  I  do  not  feel  that  I  am  called ;  and 
having  pledged  myself  to  communicate  my  decision  to  you  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment,  I  write  by  the  same  post  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Colonial  Missionary  Society,  declining  their  invitation,  and 
to  yourselves,  that  the  uncertainty  of  the  last  three  or  four  weeks 
may  be  terminated. 

It  is  unnecessary  that  I  should  detail  at  length  the  reasons 
which  have  led  me  to  this  conclusion ;  but  I  cannot  pass  by  the 
unexpected  warmth  and  earnestness  of  the  demonstrations  of  your 
affection  and  confidence  at  the  recent  congregational  meeting. 
Had  I  felt  constrained  to  leave  you,  I  could  have  had  no  hope 
of  finding  in  any  part  of  the  world  a  church  and  congregation 


1 34  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

that  would  cherish  for  me  an  affection  more  ardent  than  yours,  or 
that  would  manifest  a  more  earnest  desire  to  promote  my  personal 
comfort  and  my  ministerial  usefulness. 

You  have  already  given  practical  proof  that  the  resolutions 
passed  at  that  meeting  were  not  the  expression  of  a  transient 
excitement ;  may  I  point  out  some  other  ways  in  which  you  may 
help  to  make  my  heart  lighter  and  my  work  more  hopeful  ? 

For  a  long  time  I  have  been  greatly  troubled  by  the  habitual 
absence  of  a  large  number  of  church  members  and  seat-holders 
from  the  Sunday  evening  service.  If  I  could  suppose  that  all 
the  absentees,  or  even  a  considerable  proportion  of  them,  were 
engaged  in  Christian  work  either  in  their  own  families  or  among 
their  neighbours,  I  should  rejoice ;  and  their  vacant  places, 
instead  of  occasioning  me  any  anxiety,  would  stimulate  and 
strengthen  me.  Nor  should  I  be  greatly  depressed  if  I  could 
persuade  myself  that  old  age,  sickness,  and  distance  from  Carr's 
Lane,  fully  accounted  for  their  absence.  But  I  see  very  often  that 
the  old  are  present,  and  the  middle-aged  are  not ;  that  the  infirm 
are  present,  and  the  vigorous  are  not ;  that  those  who  live  farthest 
away  are  present,  and  those  who  live  much  nearer  are  not.  The 
only  interpretation  that  I  could  put  upon  this  state  of  things  was, 
that  while  our  services  appear  to  be  attractive  to  many  strangers, 
they  fail  to  interest  many  of  our  own  people ;  and  this  has  con- 
tributed very  much  to  the  fears  which  have  often  disturbed  me, 
that  my  ministry  was  not  adapted  to  the  wants  of  a  considerable 
number  of  persons  in  the  congregation.  These  fears  your  ex- 
pressions of  loving  appreciation  have  dissipated ;  what  then  can 
be  the  reason  that  so  many  of  you  are  satisfied  with  attending 
your  own  place  of  worship  but  once  on  the  Lord's  Day  ?  I  entreat 
you  to  give  this  question  your  most  devout  and  earnest  con- 
sideration. Indifference  to  public  worship  cannot  be  consistent 
with  a  healthy  condition  of  the  religious  life. 

The  attendance  at  the  Wednesday  evening  service  has 
occasioned  me  not  less  concern.  The  stress  of  anxiety  and  of 
labour  resting  upon  many  of  you  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
of  the  week,  instead  of  forming  an  excuse  for  absence  from  the 
service,  should  be  a  reason  for  making  the  most  strenuous  efforts 
to  be  there.  You  need  the  assistance  of  public  prayer  in  the 
middle  of  the  week  to  prevent  the  tide  of  worldliness,  checked 
and  thrown  back  on  one  Sunday,  rising  to  its  former  level  before 
the  return  of  the  next.  There  are  many,  no  doubt,  so  fettered 
by  business  and  by  domestic  claims  that  it  is  impossible  for  them 
to  come ;  but  those  who  can  attend  should  feel  that  they  are 
called  upon  to  be  present,  to  intercede  for  the  absent  as  well  as  to 
invoke  God's  blessing  upon  themselves. 


THE  MELBOURNE  INVITATION  185 

It  is  now  about  eight  years  since  I  was  called  to  be  your 
pastor.  For  the  first  five  I  had  the  inestimable  advantage  and 
happiness  of  working  under  the  direction  and  of  being  sustained 
by  the  affectionate  and  generous  sympathy  of  one  whose  memory 
is  among  the  dearest  treasures  of  the  church.  To  me  his  death 
was  a  loss  the  greatness  of  which  the  lapse  of  time  only  illustrates 
and  confirms  ;  to  have  to  bear  alone  the  pressure  of  responsibilities 
which  while  he  lived  rested  mainly  upon  him,  is  a  severer  and 
more  exhausting  duty  than  I  had  ever  anticipated.  But  sustained 
by  your  love,  encouraged  by  your  hearty  co-operation,  and  above 
all  strengthened  by  the  exceeding  greatness  of  that  Divine  power 
whose  constant  aid  your  prayers  may  secure  for  me,  I  can  resume 
my  work,  if  not  without  apprehension,  yet  without  dismay.  Hours 
of  despondency  such  as  I  have  known  too  often  during  the  last 
three  years,  chilling  the  heart  and  enfeebling  the  brain,  will  no 
doubt  sometimes  return  ;  but  if  we  can  trust  each  other,  and  look 
up  with  confidence  to  Heaven,  these  times  of  gloom  and  weak- 
ness will  not  remain  long,  and  may,  through  the  loving  ministry 
of  God's  Spirit,  issue  in  good  rather  than  evil.  You  and  I  have 
entrusted  to  us  great  opportunities  for  serving  God  and  blessing 
mankind  together ;  let  us  watch  the  temper  of  our  spirits,  and 
consecrate  ourselves  afresh  day  by  day  to  Him  who  is  our  Prince 
now  because  once  He  was  our  Sacrifice  ;  and  our  life  shall  be 
enriched  with  deeds  which  even  in  heaven  we  shall  look  back 
upon  with  grateful  joy. 

The  plan  for  the  appointment  of  an  assistant  minister, 
unfortunately,  did  not  take  effect.  Had  Dale  made  this 
a  condition  of  remaining — as  he  should  have  done — the 
relief  would  have  been  great ;  it  came  at  last,  but  too 
late  to  be  of  much  avail.  When  he  returned  to  work,  he 
still  had  to  bear  the  whole  burden. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

LIFE    IN    BIRMINGHAM 

Bicentenary  controversy — An  unwise  friend — Work  at  Carr's  Lane — An  active 
church — Contact  with  the  congregation — The  Prince  of  Wales's  Wedding : 
the  throne  and  the  people — A  night  in  the  House  of  Commons :  the 
Irish  Church — Holiday  at  Heidelberg — "  The  Jewish  Temple  and  the 
Christian  Church "  :  its  characteristics — Missionary  Sermon  at  Surrey 
Chapel  :  "  The  Living  God  the  Saviour  of  all  men  " — Lecture  at  Exeter 
Hall :  "  From  Doubt  to  Faith  " — Positive  teaching — The  importance  of 
theology — Personal  appearance  :  a  bearded  minister — Mr.  Callaway's 
reminiscences — Dangers  of  ministerial  isolation  —  Scheme  for  "Quiet 
Days  " — Graduates'  Club. 

The  success  of  the  Bicentenary  lecture,  so  closely  followed 
by  the  Melbourne  invitation,  materially  affected  Dale's 
public  position  :  it  gave  him  prominence  and  weight.  He 
was  recognised  as  a  skilful  and  eloquent  controversialist  ; 
demands  for  speeches  or  lectures  at  once  began  to  pour 
in  upon  him. 

He  continued  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  Bicentenary 
celebrations,  lecturing  at  Chester,  where  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Bardsley  replied  to  him,  and  at  Kidderminster,  where  he 
followed  Dr.  Charles  Wordsworth,  the  Bishop  of  St. 
Andrews.  In  London  he  delivered  one  of  a  course  of 
lectures  at  Willis's  Rooms,  taking  for  his  subject 
"  Nonconformity  in  1662  and  1862."  He  spoke  also  at 
a  great  meeting  in  St.  James's  Hall,  and  at  many  similar 
demonstrations  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  When 
the  "  May  meetings  "  came  round  in  the  following  spring, 
he  found  himself  greatly  in  request,  and  during  the  month 
he  pleaded  the  cause  of  mission  work  among  the  heathen, 
on  the  Continent,  and  at  home.     At  the  autumnal  session 


LIFE  IN  BIRMINGHAM  1S7 

of  the  Congregational  Union  in  Liverpool,  he  vigorously 
supported  a  proposal  to  organise  women's  work  in  the 
Church,  and  to  give  it  formal  and  official  recognition — 
amounting  practically  to  the  institution  of  deaconesses  as 
established  some  years  later  at  Carr's  Lane. 

But  work  of  this  kind,  however  important  and 
necessary,  was  not  Dale's  chief  concern.  His  first  duty 
was  to  the  church  at  Carr's  Lane  ;  the  people  to  whom 
he  had  been  called  to  minister  were  his  first  care. 
Hitherto  his  position  had  never  been  free  from  anxiety  : 
he  had  not  felt  himself  altogether  secure.  In  spite  of  the 
affection  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  and  the  loyal 
support  that  he  had  received  from  the  church  as  a  whole, 
he  had  always  been  conscious  that  there  were  some  who 
looked  upon  his  teaching  with  suspicion,  and  whose 
confidence  he  had  failed  to  win.  His  own  temperament 
led  him  to  exaggerate  the  extent  of  this  hostility  and 
distrust ;  and  it  was  not  till  disaffection  had  come  out 
into  the  open  and  had  brought  matters  to  an  issue,  that 
he  was  emboldened  to  banish  all  such  misgivings.  The 
personal  controversy  that  had  so  deeply  distressed  him 
was  not  yet  closed,  although  the  arbitrators  had  given 
their  award.  But  the  discordant  elements  were  no 
longer  inside  the  church,  and  were  powerless  to  disturb 
its  peace  ;  and  to  whatever  private  annoyance  he  himself 
might  be  subjected,  his  influence  and  efficiency  in  his 
pastoral  work  could  not  be  seriously  impaired.  At 
intervals  during  the  next  three  or  four  years,  efforts  were 
made  to  renew  the  strife  ;  but  he  stood  his  ground  firmly, 
and  would  not  allow  himself  to  be  dragged  into  any 
further  dispute.  Only  one  incident  in  this  painful 
history  need  be  noted.  A  working  man  employed  in  a 
printer's  office  sent  him  a  copy  of  a  hostile  circular 
intended  for  distribution.  Dale,  while  grateful  to  the 
man  for  his  friendly  intention,  felt  bound  to  tell  him 
plainly  that  such  conduct  was  a  serious  breach  of 
faith,  and  carefully  abstained  from  taking  any  action  in 
self-defence  until  the  document  had  become  public 
property. 


i88  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

TO    MR.  

\ZthJune  1862. 
The  kindness  of  your  motive  in  sending  me  a  copy  of  the 
circular  I  quite  appreciate ;  but  I  cannot  lose  a  moment  in 
expressing  my  very  strong  disapprobation  of  the  act.  You  have 
really  committed  what  all  honourable  men  must  condemn  as  a 
serious  breach  of  trust.  Whatever  information  comes  to  you  as 
a  printer,  you  are  as  much  bound  in  honour  to  regard  as  sacred 
as  a  Cabinet  Minister  is  bound  to  regard  as  sacred  the  secrets 
which  come  to  him  in  his  official  capacity,  or  a  lawyer  the 
confidence  of  his  clients.  Let  me  beg  of  you  to  permit  no 
motive,  however  serious,  to  betray  you  into  an  act  like  this  again. 
A  working  man  has  the  opportunity  in  some  circumstances  of 
exhibiting  as  high  a  sense  of  honour  as  a  Peer  of  the  realm. 
These  considerations,  I  can  well  imagine,  have  not  occurred  to 
you  before  ;  let  me  entreat  you  henceforth  to  give  them  their 
utmost  weight. 

The  aim  and  intention  of  his  pulpit  work  during  the 
months  that  followed  are  exceptionally  clear.  Enthusiasm 
was  running  high  ;  the  church  was  full  of  vigour  and 
enterprise  ;  there  was  talk  of  large  structural  alterations 
to  make  the  building  more  commodious  and  attractive. 
He  rejoiced  in  the  warmth  and  buoyancy  of  feeling,  and 
in  all  the  signs  of  external  prosperity  ;  but  at  the  same 
time  he  was  anxious  that  the  ardour  thus  awakened 
should  not  degenerate  into  a  merely  personal  devotion, 
and  that  the  affection  stirred  by  the  possibility  of  separa- 
tion should  be  lifted  to  higher  objects.  It  seemed  to  him 
that  he  was  starting  afresh  in  his  ministry ;  and  the 
thought  that  many  who  week  after  week  had  listened  to 
his  preaching,  had  hitherto  listened  in  vain,  filled  him 
with  intense  solicitude  not  without  hope  that  past  failure 
might  now  be  retrieved.  For  many  months  he  avoided 
purely  theological  questions  ;  he  threw  his  whole  strength 
into  the  work  of  the  evangelist,  abandoning  for  the  time 
the  task  of  the  teacher.  His  one  concern  was  to  induce 
the  indifferent,  the  careless,  those  who  doubted,  those  who 
denied,  to  break  with  their  past  and  to  accept  the  salva- 
tion  offered   them    in    Christ.      Sunday   after    Sunday  he 


LIFE  IN  BIRMINGHAM  189 

pleaded  with  an  intensity  of  earnestness  ;  the  appeal  was 
sustained  and  prolonged  through  weeks  and  months. 

He  was  anxious  too  that  the  church  in  all  its  members 
should  recognise  its  responsibilities  and  should  be  active 
in  service.  A  profounder  reverence  for  the  preacher's 
office  no  one  could  have  cherished  ;  but  the  tendency  to 
limit  the  functions  of  the  Church  to  the  diffusion  of 
religious  knowledge  and  the  cultivation  of  religious 
emotion,  he  regarded  with  unmitigated  hostility.  To  him 
the  Church  implied  the  abiding  presence  of  Christ, 
working  in  its  members  for  their  perfecting,  and  working 
through  them  for  the  redemption  of  others.  At  Carr's 
Lane  the  numbers  were  far  too  large  to  allow  scope  for  all 
within  the  limits  of  its  organised  activity  ;  many  were 
engaged  elsewhere  in  every  variety  of  service.  But  up  to 
this  time  no  systematic  inquiry  had  been  made,  and  it 
was  not  known  how  many  were  so  employed.  It  was, 
therefore,  with  devout  thankfulness  that  he  was  assured, 
after  careful  investigation,  that  comparatively  few  of  those 
in  connection  with  the  church  were  left  unaccounted  for. 
He  did  not  assume  that  all  were  at  work  who  might  have 
been,  or  that  every  worker  was  doing  his  best  ;  but  he 
was  satisfied  that  the  spirit  of  the  church  was  sound,  and 
that  it  was  in  little  danger  of  lapsing  into  indolence  and 
sloth. 

At  the  same  time  he  sought  to  strengthen  the  influ- 
ence of  the  pulpit  by  closer  personal  relations  with  the 
members  of  his  congregation.  Systematic  visitation,  as 
he  learnt  by  experience,  was  impossible  ;  but  he  did  his 
best  to  reach  as  many  as  he  could,  and  to  ensure  that 
those  in  sickness  or  in  sorrow  should  not  be  neglected. 
For  himself  personal  contact  with  his  people  was  a 
necessity ;  if  other  ministers  could  do  without  it,  he 
could  not.  He  was  not  selfish  ;  but  he  was  apt  to  be 
self-absorbed,  engrossed  by  his  own  thoughts,  and  so 
abstracted  as  to  be  heedless  of  those  whom  he  met  and  of 
what  was  going  on  around  him  :  he  often  gave  offence  un- 
wittingly. His  nature  was  not  sympathetic.  The  faculty 
so  freely  bestowed  on  some  he  had  to  cultivate  sedulously 


igo  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

and  patiently,  as  one  of  the  moral  virtues.  And  even 
when  he  felt  deeply,  he  found  it  hard  to  express  his 
feeling.  He  has  recorded  one  of  his  early  experiences 
which  he  never  forgot. 

Soon  after  I  became  a  minister,  and  while  I  was  still  a  very 
young  man,  a  great  loss  fell  on  a  family  in  my  congregation.  The 
husband  died  a  year  or  two  after  marriage.  I  went  to  see  the 
widow.  Her  anguish  was  of  that  silent,  self- restrained  sort 
which  it  is  always  most  terrible  to  witness.  .  .  .  Her  grief  was 
dumb.  I  was  oppressed  by  it ;  I  could  say  nothing.  The 
sorrow  seemed  beyond  the  reach  of  comfort;  and  after  sitting 
for  a  few  minutes  I  rose  in  some  agitation  and  went  away 
without  saying  a  word.  After  I  had  left  the  house,  and  when 
I  had  recovered  self-possession,  I  felt  humiliated  and  distressed 
that  I  had  not  spoken  ;  I  thought  that  perhaps  it  would  have 
been  better  not  to  have  gone  at  all.  I  do  not  feel  so  now. 
Sometimes  the  only  consolation  we  can  offer  our  friends  is  to 
let  them  know  that  we  feel  that  their  sorrow  is  too  great  for  any 
consolation  of  ours.1 

He  was  conscious  of  his  defect,  and  set  himself  to 
overcome  it,  not  as  a  mere  infirmity  but  as  a  fault.  He 
became  sympathetic  by  sympathising.  And  as  it  not  un- 
frequently  happens,  the  faculty  so  acquired  proved  the 
stronger  and  the  richer  for  the  effort  and  the  trouble 
it  had  cost  in  the  winning.  Yet  even  to  the  last  he 
found  it  difficult  to  speak,  and  it  was  in  his  letters  that 
he  was  best  able  to  give  that  "  touch  of  the  heart "  to 
which  the  sad  and  the  suffering  most  readily  respond. 

To  those  who  knew  him  as  he  was  in  later  years,  and 
who  in  the  time  of  their  trouble  experienced  his  power  to 
comfort  and  to  cheer,  it  may  seem  incredible  that  this 
grace  should  have  been  the  outcome  of  discipline  and 
self-mastery.  But  the  fact  is  indisputable ;  and  in  the 
earnestness  with  which  he  was  wont  to  dwell  upon  the 
necessity  of  sympathy,  not  merely  as  an  adornment  but 
as  a  virtue  essential  to  the  Christian  character,  he  re- 
vealed his  own  experience  in  endeavour  and  achievement. 

The  Bicentenary  commemoration  was  followed  by  a 
period  devoid  of  incident;  but  early  in  the   year    1863 

1   The  Laws  of  Christ  for  Common  Life,  pp.  133,  134. 


LIFE  IN  BIRMINGHAM  191 

came  the  Prince  of  Wales's  marriage.  Opinion  in  Aged  33. 
Birmingham  was  divided  as  to  the  method  of  celebration. 
The  Town  Council  determined  to  make  no  grant  out 
of  the  rates,  but  to  leave  all  expenses  to  be  met  by 
voluntary  contributions.  At  a  representative  meeting  of 
citizens  Dale  took  the  lead  in  combating  this  decision. 
The  town,  he  urged,  should  at  least  defray  the  cost  of 
decorating  the  streets  and  of  illuminating  public  buildings  ; 
such  a  course  was  reasonable  in  itself,  and  also  had  the 
merit  of  compelling  some  persons  to  contribute  who 
would  otherwise  shirk  their  duty.  Dr.  Miller  and  others 
supported  the  appeal,  and  carried  the  meeting  with  them, 
but  the  Council  would  not  move  from  their  position. 

To  the  public  celebration  Dale  attached  immense 
importance.  On  the  wedding  day,  before  the  festivities 
began,  he  addressed  the  school  children  of  Carr's  Lane, 
who  with  their  friends  crowded  the  building ;  on  the  pre- 
ceding Sunday  he  preached  on  Loyalty  to  the  Throne  and 
on  the  Sacredness  of  Marriage.  It  is  easy  to  see  what 
was  in  his  mind.  He  believed  that  the  nation,  like  the 
family,  is  a  divine  institution  ;  and  that  it  had  come  into 
being,  not  by  any  human  contract,  nor  by  chance,  but 
by  the  will  of  God,  and  for  the  development  and  discipline 
of  character.  This  truth,  he  felt,  was  too  much  ignored  ; 
he  desired  to  secure  its  fuller  recognition,  and  for  the  mass 
of  men  such  a  festival  as  this,  if  properly  used,  would  do 
more  to  impress  the  sense  of  national  unity  upon  their 
minds  than  any  amount  of  abstract  reasoning.  He  was 
anxious,  too,  that  Birmingham  should  be  known  not  only 
as  a  centre  of  freedom  but  as  a  centre  of  loyalty  also. 
Both  in  speech  and  in  sermon  he  struck  the  same  note. 

It  is  plain  that  our  loyalty  to  the  throne  has  suffered  no 
injury  from  the  extension  of  political  rights  and  from  the  in- 
creasing power  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes  in  the  State.  I 
trust  that  for  .  many  generations  at  least  we  shall  not  come  to 
think  of  our  monarchs  simply  as  the  chief  magistrates  and 
the  mere  representatives  of  the  executive  government.  That 
veneration  and  love  which  we  have  been  accustomed  to  feel  for 
oui  sovereigns,  however  it  may  be  scoffed  at  by  a  shallow 
philosophy,    is   one    of  the  most  indispensable  bulwarks  of  our 


192  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

national  security.  The  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings, 
monstrous  in  itself,  was  chiefly  to  be  feared  because  among  a 
free  people  it  was  certain  to  provoke  hostility  even  to  a  sober 
and  restrained  loyalty.  The  disappearance  of  that  insane  and 
injurious  principle  has  delivered  the  manly  and  rational  loyalty 
of  the  nation  from  the  greatest  of  perils.  But  in  whatever 
country  the  spirit  of  independence  is  strongest,  in  whatever 
country  personal  and  political  freedom  are  most  perfect  and  com- 
plete, there  it  is  necessary  that  the  authority  of  the  central 
government  should  be  greatest  :  moral  influence  should  replace 
the  rigour  of  laws  ;  reverence  for  rulers  should  replace  the  fear  of 
their  vengeance  ;  or  else  the  passion  for  liberty  is  likely  to  de- 
generate into  a  fanatical  impatience  of  necessary  control,  and  the 
excesses  of  freedom  will  prepare  the  way  first  for  anarchy  and 
then  for  despotism.  Nor  is  it  enough,  considering  the  constitu- 
tion of  human  nature  and  the  present  condition  of  our  people, 
that  there  should  be  reverence  for  the  law  and  attachment  to  the 
State.  These  are  abstract  things  and  need  the  support  of  visible 
symbols  and  public  representatives.  It  is  necessary  not  only 
that  the  judgment  of  the  people  should  be  convinced  of  the  ex- 
pediency of  maintaining  order,  but  that  their  affections  should  be 
firmly  attached  to  the  supreme  power  in  the  State.  Devotion  to 
a  Person  is  a  deeper  and  more  powerful  passion  than  respect  for 
the  constitution  and  the  law  ;  and  every  new  demonstration  of 
the  unabated  fervour  of  English  loyalty  is  a  new  proof  that 
through  whatever  storms  the  country  may  have  to  pass,  the 
foundations  of  public  order  and  tranquillity  are  still  secure. 

At  the  end  of  June,  Dale  left  home  for  his  summer 
holiday.  His  plan  was  to  spend  it  alone  at  Heidelberg, 
studying  German,  in  the  hope  that  a  few  weeks  of  steady 
work  would  enable  him  to  read  theological  books  with  a 
fair  amount  of  facility.  He  passed  through  London  on 
his  way,  and  spent  a  night  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
where  he  heard  Mr.  Gladstone  for  the  first  time.  The 
business  of  the  day  was  a  motion  by  Mr.  Dillwyn  for  the 
disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church,  but  before  this  came 
on,  there  was  a  short  debate  on  our  relations  with 
America. 

To  his  Wife 

London,  ^oth  June  1863. 
I  waited  some  few  minutes  in  the  lobby  of  the  House,  as 
neither  Mr.  Bright,  nor  Mr.  Scholefield,   nor  Sir    Morton    Peto 


LIFE  IN  BIRMINGHAM 


193 


happened  to  be  in.  However,  I  very  soon  caught  Mr.  Bright, 
and  he  took  me — not  into  the  ordinary  gallery,  nor  even  into  the 
Speaker's  gallery,  but  to  the  bar  of  the  House, — the  place  where 
members  of  the  House  of  Lords  and  other  distinguished  strangers 
commonly  sit.  He  sat  down  and  chatted  with  me  for  a  few 
minutes,  and  was  very  pleasant,  though  evidently  sore  about  the 
present  stagnation  of  political  life.  In  the  course  of  the  evening 
I  heard  Gladstone,  who  spoke  very  much  as  I  expected.  He  has 
infinite  fluency,  a  very  pleasant  tenor  voice,  speaks  with  faultless 
accuracy,  and  is  wonderfully  fertile  in  his  thoughts ;  but  I  don't 
feel  that  he  could  impress  me  as  Bright  sometimes  does.  I  also 
heard  Roundell  Palmer — the  man  who  edited  that  book  of  hymns 
I  have,  The  Book  of  Praise ;  he  spoke  admirably ;  and  Disraeli, 
Layard,  Fitzgerald,  and  Cobden,  besides  some  small  fry, — all 
this  before  the  great  debate  came  on. 

Grant  Duff  opened  the  ball  on  the  Irish  Church  in  a 
thoroughly  voluntary  speech ;  but  he  had  evidently  written  it 
and  tried  to  learn  it,  and  as  evidently  had  not  succeeded.  An 
intense  Papist  also  spoke — chiefly  pitching  into  Sir  Robert  Peel l 
for  going  to  that  meeting  on  behalf  of  Irish  Church  Missions. 
Sir  Robert  Peel  had  spoken  before  this,  and  it  was  certainly 
vastly  amusing.  He  is  evidently  a  great  pet  in  the  House,  whom 
he  amuses  as  the  gambols  of  a  playful  mastiff  might  amuse  any- 
body not  afraid  of  him.  He  can't  speak  a  sentence  of  tolerable 
English ;  but  there's  a  naivete  about  him,  and  at  times  a  rough 
boyish  wit,  which  evidently  delight  the  House.  The  fun  was 
brightened  last  night  by  the  exceeding  absurdity  of  his  being  the 
champion  of  the  Irish  Church,  or  of  any  Church  whatsoever,  and 
by  the  still  greater  absurdity  of  his  maintaining  with  a  show  of 
honest  indignation  that  he  was  not  going  to  be  prevented  carrying 
out  his  personal  convictions  (that  is,  in  supporting  Irish  missions) 
because  he  was  in  office ;  he  would  a  great  deal  rather  go  and  sit 
below  the  gangway.  The  House  laughed,  and  cheered  his  self- 
denial  and  evangelical  zeal. 

The  best  speech  of  the  evening  was  that  by  Sir  Hugh  Cairns, 
who  spoke  for  an  hour  or  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  made  awful 
havoc  of  Bernal  Osborne's  facts.  ...  On  the  whole,  I  was  in 
luck.  The  great  advantage  of  the  place  where  I  sat  was,  that  in 
addition  to  seeing  all  the  members,  and  hearing  them  perfectly,  I 
could  go  in  and  out.  .  .  .  The  House  did  not  break  up  till  half-past 
two,  and  I  got  here  a  little  after  three.  The  walk  was  a  very 
pleasant  one,  as  it  was  a  most  beautiful  morning. 

1  Son  of  the  Conservative  statesman  ;  at  that  time  Chief  Secretary  for 
Ireland. 

O 


194  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

From  London  he  took  boat  to  Rotterdam.  The  first 
part  of  the  voyage  was  familiar,  and  recalled  the  days  of 
his  boyhood,  when  he  made  long  excursions  down  the  river 
with  his  father  and  mother  ;  but  with  the  approach  to  the 
opposite  coast  in  the  early  dawn,  he  found  himself,  he  said, 
in  a  new  and  a  strange  world — water  below  and  water 
above  ;  for  the  morning  mist  streaming  up  on  all  sides, 
and  shining  like  silver  in  the  growing  light,  made  it  difficult 
to  discern  where  the  sea  ended  and  the  sky  began  ;  and 
trees  and  houses  and  windmills  seemed  to  rise  straight 
out  of  a  limitless  lake. 

From  Rotterdam  he  made  his  way  up  the  Rhine  by 
Cologne  to  Konigswinter,  where  he  thought  that  he  would 
spend  a  quiet  Sunday.  The  guide-books  described  it  as 
a  village  of  1500  inhabitants,  but  had  given  no  warning  of 
the  crowds  of  excursionists  that  pour  into  it  from  all  sides 
on  a  fine  Sunday  during  the  summer  months  ;  and  so  far 
as  peace  and  quiet  were  concerned,  he  found  that  he  might 
as  well  have  been  at  Greenwich  or  Gravesend.  However, 
he  succeeded  in  escaping  from  the  turmoil ;  walked  up  to 
the  summit  of  the  Drachenfels,  and  sat  there  for  an  hour 
and  a  half,  reading  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  think- 
ing of  his  own  people  at  home.  Early  on  the  Tuesday  he 
reached  Heidelberg,  where  he  spent  the  next  six  weeks. 

For  the  first  few  days  he  took  up  his  quarters  in  an 
hotel  ;  but  finding  that  the  life  did  not  suit  him,  and  that 
the  solitude  was  too  great,  he  then  arranged  to  board  with 
Dr.  Hofman,  his  German  teacher.  The  plan  was  not  very 
successful.  Several  other  persons — some  of  them  English 
— were  staying  in  the  house,  and  he  was  not  compelled 
to  speak  German.  He  read  resolutely  and  steadily,  and 
made  progress  ;  but  he  soon  discovered  that  German — 
even  theological  German — is  "  a  very  difficult  language  "  ; 
and  the  linguistic  facility  of  some  of  the  household  did 
not  reconcile  him  to  his  own  shortcomings. 

To  his  Wife 

Heidelberg,  zirdjuly  1863. 
You  would  be  amused  at   our  supper-table.       Nearly  every 
night  some  new  friends   of  the  Hofmans    come  in — Russians, 


LIFE  IN  BIRMINGHAM  195 

French,  Germans,  English :  it  is  a  regular  Tower  of  Babel ;  but 
Mr.  Hofman  speaks  to  them  in  their  own  languages,  and  seems 
as  much  at  home  in  one  language  as  in  another. 

You  remember  I  told  you  of  a  small  prodigy  in  the  linguistic 
line ;  I  dropped  upon  another  this  afternoon.  I  was  sitting  at 
the  end  of  the  garden,  smoking  my  pipe,  when  a  girl  of  twelve, 
who  is  one  of  the  numerous  people  staying  in  the  house,  came 
up ;  she  spoke  to  me  in  capital  English,  and  we  had  a  long  talk. 
She  has  almost  forgotten  her  Russian — her  native  language  is 
German — she  also  talks  French ;  and  though  she  never  had  more 
than  three  months'  lessons  in  English,  she  has  contrived  to  pick 
up  the  language  wonderfully  from  playmates  and  relatives  who 
speak  it ;  she  has  a  capital  accent,  and  reads  English  books  with 
much  greater  pleasure  than  German.  She  is  just  commencing 
Italian — by  herself — and  finds  it,  she  says,  very  easy.  The 
children  here  seem  perfect  little  Polyglots. 

Although  he  was  reading  for  five  or  six  hours  a  day, 
he  contrived  to  see  something  of  the  surrounding  country, 
with  its  lovely  combination  of  hill  and  wood  and  river. 
He  was  fortunate  in  his  first  impressions. 

To  his  Wife 

Heidelberg,  13th  July  1863. 

I  read  till  five ;  then  had  tea ;  and  read  again  till  seven  ;  then 
started  out  up  the  Neckar  on  the  right  bank.  I  had  no  con- 
ception the  river  was  so  beautiful.  The  hills  on  each  side  are,  I 
think,  as  high  as  Loughrigg ; l  they  come  quite  close  to  the 
river,  and  are  covered  with  vines  and  woods  to  their  very 
summits.  I  walked  about  two  miles  and  a  half,  and  was 
thinking  how  much  you  would  have  enjoyed  it.  The  castle 
to-night  looked  superb.  When  I  got  the  first  sight  of  it,  the 
deep  shadow  of  the  hill  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  fell  a 
little  below  it,  leaving  the  castle  and  the  upper  half  of  the  hill,  on 
which  it  stands,  in  a  perfect  flood  of  glory.  This  continued  for 
at  least  half  an  hour,  the  shadow  creeping  up  very  gradually. 

23rd July  1863. 

The  beauty  of  the  walk  would  make  you  perfectly  wild.  This 
afternoon  I  crossed  the  Neckar  and  went  two  or  three  miles 
westward.  The  country  all  along  was  a  perfect  Eden — the  ripe 
corn  coming  right  to  the  road  without  any  hedge ;  every  peasant's 

1  Overlooking  Rydal  and  Grasmere. 


i96  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

cottage  with  its  vines ;  vineyards  too  on  one  side  of  the  road 
here  and  there,  and  covering  the  hills  on  the  right ;  and  on  the 
left,  the  fertile  plain  stretching  away  northwards.  I  passed 
through  two  most  picturesque  villages.  The  whole  thing  is  so 
perfectly  new,  and  so  transcendently  beautiful,  that  on  a  fine 
evening  like  this  it  looks  more  like  dreamland  than  reality. 

I  am  afraid  that  after  a  little  while  I  shall  find  it  rather  too 
dull ;  and  if  I  did  not  work  pretty  close  all  the  morning,  it  would 
be  intolerable.  But  I  hope  the  time  for  quiet  thought  will  do  me 
good  in  every  way.  Preaching  constantly  enfeebles  rather  than 
strengthens,  I  fear,  the  real  power  of  the  religious  affections  and 
the  authority  of  the  conscience  and  the  Divine  Law ;  and  it  is  a 
wretched  thing  to  be  always  conscious  that  even  one's  own 
conceptions  of  what  life  ought  to  be  are  not  attained.  More 
quiet  for  thought  and  for  communion  with  God  is  indispensable, 
and  I  hope  to  turn  this  lonely  life  to  good  account  in  that  way. 

The  holiday  may  not  have  answered  all  his  expecta- 
tions. He  certainly  had  not  mastered  the  language  to 
the  extent  that  he  hoped  ;  he  could  read  it,  but  he  read 
with  effort  and  difficulty.  And  as  the  weeks  went  by, 
the  prolonged  separation  from  wife  and  children  grew 
less  and  less  endurable.  He  had,  as  he  said,  got  out  of 
the  way  of  living  alone,  with  only  strangers  about  him  ; 
and  he  never  repeated  the  experiment.  But  when  the 
time  came,  he  returned  to  his  work  with  fresh  vigour  of 
mind  and  spirit,  and  not  with  acquiescence  only,  but  with 
an  eagerness  of  delight.  This  was  always  his  mood 
when  he  came  back  to  Birmingham  after  a  holiday. 

At  this  moment  when  I  raise  my  eyes,  the  Lake  of  Lucerne 
with  its  guardian  mountains  is  before  me — the  noblest  scenery, 
as  some  think,  in  all  Europe ;  but  I  declare  that  there  is  nothing 
in  this  magnificent  view  which  makes  me  feel  half  the  thrill  I 
have  sometimes  felt  when  I  have  looked  down  on  the  smoky 
streets  of  Birmingham  from  the  railway,  as  I  have  returned  to 
my  work  among  you  after  a  holiday.  The  thought  of  having  to 
do,  more  or  less  directly,  with  all  that  mass  of  human  thought 
and  action,  which  is  covered  with  the  ceaseless  smoke  which 
hangs  over  us, — the  thought  that  you  and  I  together  may,  with 
God's  help,  save  multitudes — sends  the  blood  through  one's  veins 
with  an  exultation  and  glow  which  the  most  magnificent  aspects 
of  the  material  universe  cannot  create. 


LIFE  IN  BIRMINGHAM  197 

After  returning  home,  Dale  took  up  his  work  with 
both  hands.  He  began  a  series  of  expository  sermons 
on  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  afterwards  published 
under  the  title — The  Jewish  Temple  and  the  Christian 
Church.  When  the  sermons  were  ready  for  publication — 
his  first  venture  in  the  field  of  theology — he  awaited  the 
result  with  some  anxiety,  but  he  was  soon  reassured. 
The  book  received  a  hearty  welcome,  not  only  from 
friendly  critics,  like  Dr.  Allon,  but  from  less  partial 
readers  also.  The  earliest  commendation  came  from  Dr. 
Ellicott,  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester  and  Bristol,  who  pro- 
nounced the  work  to  have  been  done  "  carefully  and 
heartily."  His  good  opinion  was  specially  welcome  ;  for 
Dale  had  the  strongest  admiration  for  the  precision  of  his 
scholarship  and  the  stability  of  his  critical  judgment. 
Other  similar  tributes  soon  followed  ;  and  the  volume, 
though  it  has  never  achieved  popularity,  passed  through 
nine  editions,  and  still  holds  its  own  more  than  thirty 
years  after  its  first  publication.  A  few  words  as  to  its 
character  and  methods  may  not  be  out  of  place. 

The  book  was  not  intended  for  scholars ;  it  was 
written  by  a  busy  man  for  busy  people.  The  writer 
makes  no  claim  to  original  research  —  though  Dr. 
Ginsburg,  a  rabbinical  scholar  of  repute,  had  helped  him 
in  revision.  He  had  carefully  studied,  weighed,  and 
tested  the  researches  of  the  foremost  critics.  But  in  his 
own  exposition  he  discards  processes  and  gives  results, 
save  in  a  few  instances  where  it  was  possible  to  present 
the  case  in  such  a  form  as  to  make  it  plain  to  ordinary 
intelligence.  For  example,  he  discusses  the  authorship  of 
the  epistle,  setting  forth  the  various  theories  that  have 
prevailed,  and  the  arguments  on  which  each  theory  rests, 
though  without  coming  to  any  definite  conclusion  ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  he  does  not  attempt  to  examine  in 
detail  the  chain  of  quotations  from  the  Jewish  Scriptures, 
by  which  the  author  illustrates  the  supremacy  of  the  Son 
over  the  angels  ;  there  he  gives  results — and  results  only. 
The  discourses  were  delivered  Sunday  by  Sunday  at  the 
ordinary  service.     A  verse  by  verse  analysis  was  therefore 


19S  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

impracticable  ;  it  would  have  made  no  impression  at  the 
moment ;  it  would  soon  have  been  forgotten  ;  it  would 
not  have  given  the  kind  of  help  that  such  an  audience 
needed.  His  purpose  was  to  deal  with  the  epistle  in 
large  masses,  not  in  detail ;  to  trace  the  general  move- 
ment of  thought  and  feeling  in  the  writer's  mind  ;  to  fix 
the  great  landmarks,  and  to  attempt  nothing  more.  It 
was  not  his  method  —  to  borrow  an  illustration  now 
almost  classical — it  was  not  his  method  to  work  round 
the  coast,  exploring  bays  and  harbours,  and  even  running 
up  the  rivers  to  see  where  they  led  to  ;  he  sails  from 
point  to  point,  through  deep  water.  But  at  the  close,  he 
leaves  us  with  a  distinct  idea  of  the  author's  line  of 
thought,  of  the  standpoint  from  which  he  speaks,  of  the 
authority  and  the  motives  to  which  he  appeals  ;  and  the 
conception  is  the  clearer  because  it  is  not  overloaded  with 
a  mass  of  detail. 

The  book  is  the  work  of  a  busy  man  ;  and  for  that 
very  reason  the  exposition  comes  close  to  practical  life 
and  its  daily  needs.  The  principles  involved  in  the 
argument  are  never  treated  as  if  their  interest  were 
merely  historical;  the  spiritual  truths  on  which  the  author 
of  the  epistle  insists  are  translated  into  the  speech  of  our 
own  day.  The  academic  tone  and  temper  are  entirely 
absent;  there  is  no  remoteness  in  his  teaching.  And 
although  he  does  not  avoid  the  religious  and  ecclesiastical 
controversies  of  the  time,  he  does  not  go  in  search  of  a 
quarrel. 

Before  the  task  was  completed,  he  had  to  meet 
ged  34,  engagements  of  another  kind.  In  the  spring  of  1864 
he  was  invited  to  preach  the  annual  sermon  at  Surrey 
Chapel  before  the  Directors  of  the  London  Missionary 
Society.  The  office  has  been  discharged  by  a  succession 
of  eminent  preachers  ;  its  traditions  are  illustrious  ;  and 
even  now,  when  such  engagements  have  multiplied,  it  has 
not  lost  its  distinction.  For  a  young  minister,  not  yet 
five-and-thirty,  to  be  selected  for  such  an  occasion  was  a 
signal  honour. 

The    sermon — "The  Living   God  the  Saviour  of  all 


LIFE  IN  BIRMINGHAM  199 

Men  " — that  Dale  preached  on  1 1  th  May  was  described 
by  Dean  Alford  in  the  Contemporary  Review  as  "  one  of 
the  noblest  that  we  have  ever  read." l  And  though 
thought  has  moved  and  taste  has  changed  since  then,  the 
discourse  still  remains  impressive  in  its  loftiness  and 
power.  It  is  far  too  long — the  audience  found  it  so  at 
the  time.  The  preacher  followed  a  perilous  precedent. 
Mr.  James,  on  a  similar  occasion,  broke  off  at  the  end  of 
an  hour  through  sheer  exhaustion,  and  rested  for  a  few 
minutes  while  the  congregation  sang  a  hymn  ;  oranges 
were  thrown  into  the  pulpit  to  refresh  him,  and  he  then 
started  again  and  "  thundered  on  for  another  hour." 2 
The  gravity  of  some  present,  one  would  think,  even  in  a 
simpler  age  than  ours,  must  have  been  sorely  tried.  On 
the  present  occasion  no  such  relief  was  needed  or  given. 
For  two  hours  the  preacher  swept  along  with  unflagging 
energy  ;  and  when  at  last  the  discourse  drew  to  its  end, 
he  had  still  vigour  enough  in  reserve  to  rise  from  the 
high  level  on  which  he  had  been  moving  to  an  im- 
passioned close. 

In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  he  lectured  to  young 
men  at  the  Exeter  Hall.  Among  the  other  lecturers  in 
the  same  course  were  the  Dean  of  Chester,  Dr.  Howson  ; 
Dr.  John  Cairns  ;  Dr.  Miller  ;  the  Rev.  W.  M.  Punshon  ; 
and  Dr.  Magee,  afterwards  famous  as  the  Bishop  of 
Peterborough.  Dale's  lecture — "  From  Doubt  to  Faith  " 
— had  for  its  subject  the  evidences  of  Christianity.  It 
proposed  to  answer  the  question — What  solid  reason  is 
there  for  believing  the  Christian  story  ?  In  the  earlier 
portion,  pursuing  a  line  of  argument  that  he  developed 
more  fully  in  "  The  Living  Christ  and  the  Four  Gospels," 
he  endeavoured  to  show  that  the  gospel  story  as  known 
in  the  first  century  was  in  substance,  if  not  in  detail,  such 
as  it  has  come  down  to  us,  and  that  the  miraculous 
elements  in  it  could  not  have  been  devised  and  inter- 
polated by  later  superstition.  In  the  concluding  portion 
of  the  lecture  he  dealt  with  the  objections  of  Hume  and 

1    Contemporary  Review,  July  1866,  p.  350. 
2  Life  of  John  Angell  James,  p.  144. 


200  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Renan  and  other  hostile  critics  to  the  credibility  of 
miracles,  and  with  the  expedients  by  which  they  have 
endeavoured  to  discredit  and  to  destroy  all  that  is  super- 
human in  the  New  Testament  narrative. 

A  detailed  analysis  either  of  the  lecture,  the  missionary 
sermon,  or  of  other  similar  discourses,  would  be  tedious. 
But  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  refer  to  some  of  the  character- 
istics that  they  reveal.  There  are  some  men  whose 
thought  seems  to  spring  entirely  from  within  themselves. 
Their  minds  stand  apart  and  aloof  from  the  interests  and 
excitements  of  their  day.  The  forces  which  mould  even 
where  they  do  not  master  leave  them  untouched.  In 
their  intellectual  life  they  are  like — 

A  lonely  mountain  tarn, 
Unvisited  by  any  streams. 

Dale's  mind  was  not  of  this  type.  His  sermons  reflect 
the  conflict  and  turmoil  of  the  time.  He  deals  with  the 
new  ideas  which  had  now  passed  out  of  the  study  into  the 
street.  He  discusses  all  that  was  then  filling  men's  minds 
— physical  science  with  its  discoveries  and  its  dreams, 
criticism  impetuous  in  destruction,  the  High  Church 
movement  again  advancing  after  a  brief  recoil ;  antagon- 
istic forces,  but  all  making  for  change  and  unrest.  He 
felt  the  shock  of  each  ;  and  as  one  called  to  watch  for 
the  souls  of  men,  in  discharge  of  his  duty  he  endeavoured 
to  prepare  his  people  to  withstand  the  assaults  to  which 
their  faith  would  be  exposed.  Neither  for  them  nor  for 
himself  would  he  ignore  the  conflict  or  evade  the  issue. 
He  was  ready  to  defend  the  frontiers  of  the  spiritual 
kingdom  against  the  encroachments  of  science,  to  discuss 
the  sufficiency  of  a  philosophic  system  that  begins  and 
ends  in  the  region  of  matter,  to  meet  criticism  with  its 
own  weapons,  to  examine  the  assumptions  of  Romanists 
and  Romanisers  in  the  light  of  Scripture  and  of  history. 
But  he  had  little  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  the  ordinary 
methods  of  controversy  to  repel  such  attacks.  Even  for 
the    purposes   of   defence    he    urged    the    importance   of 


LIFE  IN  BIRMINGHAM  201 

cultivating    nobler    and    loftier    conceptions   of   religious 
truth. 

It  is  surely  a  melancholy  sign  of  the  spirit  of  these  times  that, 
while  much  public  curiosity  and  interest  are  excited  by  questions 
purely  ecclesiastical,  and  by  controversies  which  involve  some  of 
the  elementary  and  preliminary  inquiries  connected  with  divine 
revelation,  there  are  so  few  men  of  great  powers  who  address 
themselves  laboriously  to  the  deeper  and  grander  truths  of  the 
Christian  faith.  The  race  of  theologians  seems  for  the  present 
almost  extinct.  We  look  in  vain  for  the  genius  and  scholarship 
which  should  instruct  our  own  generation  in  those  doctrines 
which  are  most  characteristic  of  apostolical  Christianity.  I 
doubt  the  policy  of  devoting  all  our  strength  to  repel  the  assaults 
of  unbelievers ;  we  should  more  certainly  win  the  judgments  and 
impress  the  hearts  of  men,  if  we  gave  at  least  equal  pains  to  the 
elaboration  of  the  positive  teaching  of  Christ  and  His  Spirit.  It 
will  be  almost  in  vain  that  you  demonstrate  the  historical  truth 
of  the  gospel  history ;  in  vain  even  that  you  prove  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  unless  you  proceed  to  show 
adequate  cause  for  His  Incarnation,  for  the  sorrows  of  His  life, 
and  the  shame  and  agony  of  His  death.  But  to  illustrate  and 
unfold  the  glorious  mystery  of  His  Atonement,  to  present  to  the 
mind  and  conscience  of  our  contemporaries  any  worthy  exhibition 
of  its  moral  significance,  is  a  task  requiring  powers  of  another 
order  than  are  engaged  at  present  in  religious  controversy. 

The  strain  was  severe.  Month  after  month  he  was 
taxing  his  strength  to  the  extreme  limit  of  endurance. 
Even  when  he  was  away  from  work,  he  did  not  find  it 
easy  to  rest.  A  letter  to  Dr.  Allon,  already  one  of  his 
closest  and  dearest  friends,  reflects  his  own  experience. 


To  the  Rev.  Henry  Allon 

23^  August  1 864. 

I  congratulate  you  on  the  discovery  of  a  new  talent.  That 
God  had  given  you  many  gifts  I  knew,  but  did  not  know  that  He 
had  given  you  a  genius  for  idleness,  and  yet  that  too  is  necessary 
for  the  man  teres  et  rotundus ;  but  I  fear  that  you  haven't  it  in 
sufficient  measure  for  you  ever  to  be  able  to  lay  claim  to  the 
second  epithet. 

What  a  relief  to  Mrs.  Allon  to  have  you  really  idle  for  a  fort- 
night !     It  must  be  like  the  stoppage  of  a  cotton-mill  to  the  man 


202  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

who  lives  at  the  works.  And  yet  I  cannot  help  thinking  that 
even  in  your  rest  there  are  uncomfortable  indications  of  your 
restless  energy ;  you  know  how  a  locomotive  rests,  until  the  fire 
is  finally  raked  out ;  it  simply  blows  off  steam  and  demonstrates 
its  fierce  vehemence  almost  as  much  when  standing  still  as  when 
sweeping  along  at  the  rate  of  sixty  miles  an  hour.  Your  fire,  I 
hope,  will  be  a  long  time  before  it  is  "  raked,"  and  meanwhile 
even  "blowing  off"  is  better  than  always  pulling  the  express. 

Writing  to  his  father  about  the  same  time,  he  says  : — 

I  keep  tolerably  well,  but  somehow  seem  to  be  unable  to  get 
the  spring  and  vigour  I  want  for  my  work,  and  am  afraid  I  shall 
not  be  right  until  I  can  get  a  few  days  away  from  home.  I  was 
preaching  in  Manchester  on  Thursday,  and  speaking  in  the  Free 
Trade  Hall  on  Tuesday  ;  the  change  seemed  to  do  me  good  at 
the  time  but  soon  passed  off. 

But  in  spite  of  temporary  weakness  and  prostration,  he 
was  gaining  strength.  His  constitution  was  becoming 
more  robust ;  the  nervous  depression  from  which  he  had 
suffered  so  much  and  so  often  in  the  earlier  years  of  his 
ministry  was  passing  away.  His  outward  appearance 
also  was  beginning  to  change.  He  was  already  con- 
spicuous by  the  foreign  appearance  of  his  swarthy  com- 
plexion and  his  lustrous  eyes.  Abroad,  he  often  found  it 
hard  to  make  people  believe  that  he  was  an  Englishman  ; 
and  at  home  a  crowd  once  gathered  on  the  platform  at 
Rugby  round  the  windows  of  the  railway  carriage, 
persuaded  that  the  dark  man  in  the  red  fez  and  his 
younger  companion  were  members  of  the  Egyptian 
embassy  then  in  England.  One  of  the  many  stories  told 
about  him — Dale  fathered  it  on  his  friend,  Dr.  Allon — was 
on  its  rounds  for  years,  always  turning  up  in  some  new 
place  and  in  some  fresh  setting.  This  was  its  original 
form  :  "An  old  lady  who  for  many  years  had  refused  to 
subscribe  to  Foreign  Missions,  heard  Dale  preach  at  Surrey 
Chapel  and  at  once  became  a  regular  contributor.  When 
asked  why,  she  said  that  she  had  never  thought  much  of 
missions  before  ;  but  when  she  saw  what  the  grace  of  God 
had  done  for  that  poor  Hindoo,  she  could  refuse  to  sub- 
scribe no  longer." 


LIFE  IN  BIRMINGHAM  203 

But  conspicuous  as  he  was  at  that  time,  no  one  would 
have  associated  their  thought  of  him  with  the  broad- 
shouldered  massive  figure  of  later  years.  In  i860  he 
was  still  thin  and  slight,  5  feet  10  in  stature,  and  showing 
every  inch  of  it ;  clean-shaven,  but  with  "  long  black  hair  Aged 
that  hung  over  his  cheeks  and  ears  like  a  mane,"  some-  31'4, 
what  careless  in  dress,  though  still  conforming  to  the 
conventions  of  ministerial  attire.  But  in  the  course  of  a 
year  or  two  he  began  to  fill  out.  His  hair  was  cut  short 
and  brushed  straight  back  from  the  forehead.  He 
let  his  beard  grow,  and  then,  after  some  hesitation,  his 
moustache.  Many  of  the  older  people  were  scandalised 
but  silent ;  some  wrote  to  the  newspapers  in  protest.  The 
moustache  was  declared  to  invest  ministers  "  with  an  air 
of  levity  and  worldliness."  A  letter  of  approval  purported 
to  come  from  the  shade  of  a  Wesleyan  minister,  the  Rev. 
H.  D.  Lowe,  who  in  1828  had  his  beard  cut  off  by  order 
of  the  Wesleyan  Conference.      It  ran  as  follows  : — 

Reverend  and  bearded  Sir — It  rejoiced  my  shade  to  see  you 
not  only  addressing  Methodists,  but  sitting  amongst  many  of  the 
identical  men  who  required  that  cruel  sacrifice  of  me,  and  that 
you  were  unrebuked  when  you  even  spoke  of  dreaming  of  be- 
longing to  the  "  Legal  Hundred,"  bearded  though  you  are. 

The  white  tie  was  discarded  at  the  same  time.  He 
appeared  in  gray,  and  in  lighter  colours,  instead  of 
black.  During  one  winter  he  frequently  wore  a  pair  of 
leggings,  which  the  volunteers  had  then  made  fashionable. 

This  was  not  his  only  breach  with  convention.  Before 
1862  he  had  not  been  a  smoker.  But  the  habit  once 
acquired,  he  found  in  it  a  great  relief.  His  pipe  was  an 
offence  to  some  of  the  older  ministers.  Mr.  Callaway 
describes  an  encounter  with  one  of  the  most  eminent — 
the  Rev.  James  Parsons  of  York  : — 

Mr.  Parsons  being  at  my  ordination,  Mr.  Dale  asked  him, 
Mr.  Vince,  and  me  to  dinner.  Before  dinner,  Mr.  Parsons, 
Mr.  Dale,  and  I  went  up  into  the  study.  Mr.  Dale  got  his  pipe. 
"  I  think,"  said  he  to  Mr.  Parsons,  "  if  I  had  smoked,  I  should 
have  escaped  my  illness  last  year."     "What?"  said  Mr.  Parsons. 


204  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

"  I  think  if  I  had  smoked,  I  should  have  escaped  my  illness  last 
year."  "  Nonsense,"  said  Mr.  Parsons,  with  most  contemptuous 
emphasis,  and  ended  the  matter.1 

This  larger  freedom  in  external  things  that  Dale 
allowed  himself  did  not  imply  any  abatement  of  earnest- 
ness and  zeal.  In  some  ways  he  was  stricter  with  himself 
than  before,  more  solicitous  for  the  efficiency  of  his  work. 
Mr.  Callaway,  a  friend  who  knew  his  mind  then  better 
than  any  one  else,  records  more  than  one  instance  of  this.2 

On  Monday  morning  we  were  talking  of  preaching  as  usual. 
He  said  he  was  very  much  troubled  about  his  own.  He  seemed 
not  to  improve,  he  said,  and  was  sensible  of  great  want  of 
effectiveness.  I  could  not  see  why  he  should  think  so.  He  was 
not  altered  in  his  opinion,  but  appeared  low-spirited  about  it. 

One  morning  about  this  time  Mr.  Dale  said  he  had  not  slept 
much  last  night.  He  was  not  very  well,  and  had  read  McAll's 
sermon  on  "  The  Unfaithful  Minister  "  before  going  to  bed,  which 
was  too  much  for  him — kept  him  awake.  He  got  the  book  and 
made  me  read  the  latter  part  of  the  sermon  aloud,  commenting 
as  I  went  along.  He  said  the  minister  to  whom  the  sermon  was 
delivered  as  a  "  Charge  "  fainted  under  it. 

He  was  acutely  conscious  of  the  solitariness  of 
ministerial  life,  and  of  its  injurious  effect  upon  spiritual 
health.  In  his  own  experience  he  found  that  it  inclined 
him  to  "  regard  religion  merely  as  a  study  and  to  deprive 
it  of  all  liveliness."  To  counteract  this  evil  influence,  he 
drew  up  an  elaborate  scheme  for  ministers'  meetings, 
similar  in  some  respects  to  the  system  of  "  Quiet  Days  " 
as  now  in   use.      He  proposed  that  the  members  of  the 

1  Mr.  James  too  felt  strongly  about  the  matter.  "  I  forgot  to  ask  if  you 
smoked.  If  you  have  contracted  this  habit,  I  beseech  you  to  break  it.  To 
me  it  appears  of  so  much  importance  that  it  would  tend  to  disturb  our  inter- 
course if  you  were  addicted  to  this  habit.  .  .  .  You  can  have  but  little  idea 
with  what  disgust  and  loathing  it  is  regarded  by  many  of  our  people"  (Life 
of  John  Angell  James,  p.  461). 

2  For  two  or  three  years  Callaway  came  to  his  house  every  Monday  morning 
to  read  the  Greek  Testament,  and  in  the  talk  that  always  followed  Dale  spoke 
to  him  with  a  great  absence  of  reserve  about  his  own  spiritual  conflicts  and 
difficulties.  Callaway  kept  notes  of  some  of  these  conversations,  which  have 
been  freely  used.  For  a  fuller  account  of  the  relations  between  the  two,  see 
Recollections  by  R.  W.  Dale  in  the  Life  of  IV.  F.  Callaway,  by  Eric  A. 
Lawrence,  pp.  271-286. 


LIFE  IN  BIRMINGHAM  205 

association — who  were  not  to  be  too  numerous — should 
meet  annually  at  some  farmhouse  or  such  like  place,  at  a 
time  when  the  country  is  uninviting — say  February — 
under  the  direction  of  a  president  invested  for  the 
occasion  with  absolute  authority.  The  meeting  was  to 
last  for  a  week,  with  set  times  for  rising,  meals,  meditation, 
exercise,  and  conversation,  not  less  than  two  hours  a  day 
being  given  to  prayer.  In  the  evening,  it  was  suggested, 
a  paper  should  be  read  and  submitted  for  discussion.  The 
rules,  practices,  and  membership  of  the  association  were 
to  be  regarded  as  secret. 

The  plan  was  never  carried  out  in  its  entirety  ;  but  a 
less  ambitious  arrangement  was  adopted  for  a  day's  meeting 
at  regular  intervals.  Dale  welcomed  the  suggestion,  says 
Mr.  Callaway,  in  default  of  anything  better,  and  "went 
earnestly  into  it  with  a  silent  solemnity  unusual  in  him 
to  my  thinking."  To  him  this  contact  with  other  men 
engaged  in  the  same  work  was  a  great  resource  and 
refreshment ;  and  he  never  failed  to  enforce  upon  others 
the  necessity  of  maintaining  intimate  relations  with  their 
ministerial  brethren.  In  more  than  one  case  of  which  he 
had  personal  knowledge,  he  attributed  failure  in  the 
pastorate  to  disregard  of  this  duty.  For  himself,  he 
took  every  opportunity  of  tightening  the  ties  that  bound 
him  to  his  fellow-workers  :  no  slight  cause  could  keep  him 
away  from  the  meetings  of  such  an  association. 

For  many  years  he  was  a  regular  attendant  also  at  a 
club  established  in  the  town  for  university  graduates.  It 
brought  together  men  of  varied  opinions  and  callings  ; 
and  helped  to  keep  them  together  when  political  and 
ecclesiastical  conflict  was  most  keen.  And  even  if  the  talk 
was  not  always  strictly  relevant  to  the  subject  set  down  for 
discussion,  it  was  often  helpful  in  promoting  comprehen- 
sion and  sympathy.  The  club  in  its  beginning  had 
several  members  of  eminent  distinction — among  them 
Dr.  Badham,  Canon  Evans,  and  Dr.  Boyle,  now  the 
Dean  of  Salisbury,  who,  as  the  following  letter  shows,  did 
not  allow  the  ties  of  friendship  to  be  broken  by  his 
removal  from  the  Midlands. 


LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 


From  the  Dean  of  Salisbury 

Deanery,  Salisbury,  S/A  Nov.  1895. 
I  grieve  to  say  that  the  very  interesting  letter  I  enclose  is  the 
only  one  I  now  possess  of  your  father's.  We  had  a  most  friendly 
correspondence  at  one  time  on  the  subject  of  ministerial  orders, 
but  at  his  wish  I  did  not  keep  them.  I  often  wish  I  had 
had  his  leave  to  preserve  them.  They  were  full  of  interest, 
and  he  wrote  to  me  with  perfect  frankness.  At  last  he  said 
in  one  of  them,  "You  believe  in  a  delegation  of  power  to 
ministers.  I  believe  in  that  also,  but  yours  is  to  come  from 
authority  of  your  chief  pastors,  mine  from  the  general  body  of 
the  faithful."  He  used  to  rally  me  sometimes  on  my  love  for 
F.  D.  Maurice,  and  yet  on  one  journey  we  had  together  he  said, 
"  Do  you  know,  I  am  coming  to  think  much  as  you  and  F.  D.  M. 
about  baptism." 

These  were  almost  the  only  social  distractions  that  he 
allowed  himself.  The  hours  of  the  day  were  rigorously 
husbanded  for  public  work  and  private  study.  If  he 
could  meet  the  demands  of  immediate  duty,  he  was 
content,  even  though  he  had  to  abandon  many  schemes 
on  which  his  heart  was  set.  "  I  should  be  perfectly  happy," 
he  wrote,  "  if  there  were  forty-eight  hours  in  the  day,  and 
I  could  do  without  sleeping."  It  was  a  laborious  and 
lonely  life. 


CHAPTER    IX 

LIFE    IN    BIRMINGHAM THEOLOGY    AND    LITERATURE 

A  child's  death — Town  Hall  services — "Anglicanism  and  Romanism" — Dr. 
Oldknow — Writes  on  the  Lord's  Supper — British  Quarterly  articles  on 
the  Atonement — The  theory  of  the  articles  and  the  theory  of  his  lectures  : 
similarities  and  differences — "Discourses  on  Special  Occasions"  —  Dean 
Alford's  review — Magazine  articles — Lacordaire — "Week-day  Sermons" 
— Compiles  a  hymn-book — Defects  of  modern  hymns — Mr.  T.  H.  Gill's 
hymns — What  a  hymn  should  be. 

In  the  spring  of  1865  it  was  decided  to  carry  out  exten-  Aged  35. 
sive  alterations  at  Carr's  Lane.  That  the  Sunday  services 
might  not  be  interrupted,  the  Town  Hall  was  engaged  for 
several  weeks.  Dale  arranged  to  take  his  holiday  before 
the  strain  began,  and  with  his  wife  and  children  went  to 
Pensarn,  a  little  village  on  the  Welsh  coast,  a  mile  or  two 
from  Abergele,  where  the  Irish  Mail  was  burnt  not  very 
long  after.  There  he  spent  a  quiet  month,  resting,  and 
meditating  the  sermons  that  he  would  have  to  preach  on  his 
return.  Just  as  the  holiday  was  coming  to  a  close,  scarlet 
fever  broke  out  in  the  household.  The  eldest  girl  could 
not  be  moved ;  the  second — Alice,  then  six  years  old — 
was  taken  home  before  any  symptoms  of  disease  had  as 
yet  appeared.  But  in  a  few  days  she  also  sickened,  and 
the  fever  in  her  case  assumed  a  virulent  form.  From  the 
first  there  was  but  little  hope,  and  within  a  week  the 
struggle  was  over. 

To  his  Wife 

z^thjune  1865. 
You  know  the  tidings  which  this  letter  brings  as  soon  as  you 
open  it.     Our  darling  Alice — so  bright,  so  loving — has  heard 


208  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  voice  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  has  gone  to  be  with  Him.  All 
day  long  the  possibility  of  this  coming  to  pass  has  seemed  to 
me  a  most  unspeakable  and  cutting  grief;  my  heart  has  been 
torn  as  I  looked  on  her,  but  now  it  is  all  over ;  though  it  hangs 
heavily  on  me,  I  can  think  thankfully  of  her  freedom  from  suffer- 
ing and  from  the  possibility  of  sin.  Mr.  Bindley  and  Mr.  Berry 1 
and  I  knelt  down  together  an  hour  before  her  death,  and  I 
prayed  as  well  as  I  could  that  God,  in  His  tender  pity,  would 
spare  her  to  us ;  but  even  then  I  could  say  that  I  would  rather 
He  took  her  to  Himself  at  once  than  that  she  should  grow  up 
and  not  be  a  good  Christian  woman.  It  is  hard  to  think  she 
could  have  become  anything  else,  but  now  we  know  the  darling 
is  safe.  .  .  .  God  give  us  grace  to  bring  up  the  other  children 
so  that  they  may  all  follow  her  to  glory.  This  is  our  first  death ; 
— our  hearts  must  cling  to  each  other  more  than  ever. 

The  letter  that  carried  the  news  to  Pensarn  rather 
hides  than  reveals  his  anguish.  The  stroke  cut  down 
into  the  very  depths  of  his  heart.  Alice  was  the  brightest 
and  the  most  demonstrative  of  the  children  ;  she  was 
buoyant  and  winsome,  with  a  gladness  that  bubbled  over, 
a  frankness  and  candour  that  defied  reserve.  Her  death 
darkened  his  whole  life.  For  years  after  he  could  not 
trust  himself  to  speak  of  her.  His  sorrow  found  no  relief 
in  words.  Broken  sentences  of  passionate  appeal  left 
among  his  papers — a  note  on  a  sermon  often  used  before 
but  never  used  again,  "  the  last  sermon  that  my  darling 
Alice  heard" — and  an  allusion  here  and  there  in  the 
utterances  of  after  years,  show  that  the  vacant  chamber  in 
the  heart  was  never  filled.  At  the  funeral,  after  days  of 
relentless  self-restraint,  he  broke  down  utterly  and  irre- 
trievably, and  childish  memory  still  recalls  the  intolerable 
agony  of  a  strong  man,  and  the  pitiless  blue  of  the  summer 
sky  above  the  open  grave. 

The  child  was  buried  on  a  Wednesday  ;  the  services 
in  the  Town  Hall  began  on  the  following  Sunday,  and 
were  to  last  for  seven  weeks.  To  face  such  a  congrega- 
tion so  soon  after  his  bereavement  strained  both  strength 
and  nerve,  but  Dale  determined  to  make  the  effort,  con- 
scious that  work  would  brace  him  as  nothing  else  could, 

1  The  family  doctors  ;  both  were  deacons  of  Carr's  Lane. 


THEOLOGY  AND  LITERATURE  209 

and  with  the  conviction,  as  he  said,  that  "  it  is  always 
better  to  walk  in  the  path  of  duty,  though  with  trembling 
steps,  than  to  lie  down  on  the  earth  and  moan." 

Dale  had  already  passed  out  of  the  stage  in  which  he 
needed  advertisement  or  introduction  among  his  fellow- 
townsmen,  but  these  services  brought  many  to  hear  him 
who  would  never  have  heard  him  elsewhere.  The  Town 
Hall  was  neutral  ground.  Loyal  Churchmen  could  go 
there  without  scruple  or  self-reproach.  Others  who  were 
never  seen  in  any  place  of  worship  felt  that  their  presence 
in  such  a  building  committed  them  to  nothing ;  they 
came — and  came  again.  And  working-men  and  women, 
who  abhor  pews  and  any  system  of  allotted  seats,  felt  at 
home  on  the  familiar  benches  where  they  were  wont  to 
listen  to  great  orators  or  to  the  queens  of  song.  All 
creeds  and  all  classes  were  represented  in  the  congrega- 
tions that  gathered  there  Sunday  after  Sunday  for  nearly 
two  months,  and  the  influence  of  the  preaching  went  forth 
in  all  directions.  Many  years  later,  Cardinal  Newman, 
lamenting  his  own  isolation  from  the  people  among  whom 
he  lived,  and  the  failure  of  others  to  reach  them,  referred 
with  thankfulness  to  the  hold  that  Dale  had  upon  the 
town,  and  to  the  force  with  which  he  preached  the  gospel. 
These  services  helped  in  no  slight  measure  to  invest  him 
with  the  power  which  time  extended  and  enlarged. 

He  had  prepared  himself  to  deal  with  the  fundamental 
truths  of  the  Christian  faith — not  indeed  without  some 
intermission  and  relief,  but  to  the  entire  exclusion  of  what 
would  be  generally  described  as  "  popular  "  subjects. 

In  the  treatment,  as  in  the  choice  of  his  subjects,  he 
aimed  high.  While  leaving  his  eloquence  full  play,  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  make  large  demands  on  the  intellect  ; 
and  the  sermons  were  long  as  well  as  elaborate.  But  the 
crowds  did  not  lessen  as  the  weeks  went  by  ;  the  interest 
was  sustained  ;  nor  was  the  attraction  wholly  or  even 
mainly  due  to  the  magnificence  of  the  spectacle,  and  to  the 
thrilling  effect  of  the  music. 

The  first  sermon — on   "  Worship  " — was  suggested  by 
the  unusual  conditions  under  which  they  met  as  a  con 
P 


210  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

gregation.  At  succeeding  services  he  preached  on  the 
Incarnation,  Our  Lord's  Death,  the  Atonement,  Justifica- 
tion by  Faith,  the  Loneliness  of  the  Soul,  Individual  Re- 
sponsibility, and  Judgment  to  Come  ;  on  the  last  Sunday 
evening  he  preached  on  Morality  and  Religion.  His 
closing  words  were  a  solemn  appeal  to  those  who  had 
heard  him  there,  but  would  never  hear  him  again. 

In  the  sermons  I  have  already  delivered  in  this  place  I  have 
stated  fully  the  great  and  characteristic  truths  of  the  Christian 
Revelation,  and  urged  you  to  repent  of  sin  and  trust  in  the  mercy 
of  God,  as  revealed  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  for  forgiveness, 
for  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  for  eternal  life ;  but  now 
once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  in  the  presence  of  Him  who 
became  man  for  us  sinners  and  our  salvation,  died  the  Just  for 
the  unjust,  rose  again  to  be  the  Prince  and  the  Saviour  of  man 
to  the  end  of  time,  I  implore  you  not  to  neglect  those  critical 
duties  which  determine  your  present  relationship  to  God  and 
your  future  destiny.  Many  of  you,  I  know,  will  never  come  to 
hear  me  preach  again ;  this,  this  is  my  final  message  to  you — 
God  became  man  and  died  on  the  cross  that  He  might  rescue 
you  and  me  from  sin  and  wretchedness ;  to  be  ungrateful  for 
His  love,  to  reject  His  mercy,  is  wilfully  to  put  away  from  you  a 
life  of  communion  with  God  on  this  side  of  death,  and  immor- 
tality and  holiness  and  glory  in  the  world  to  come. 

Aged  36  After  returning  to  Carr's  Lane,  his  mind  began  to 
work  with  new  energy  upon  a  set  of  subjects  to  which  he 
was  strongly  drawn — the  nature  and  office  of  the  Church, 
the  theory  of  the  Atonement,  and  the  purpose  and  char- 
acter of  the  Lord's  Supper.  On  none  of  these  subjects 
had  he  yet  reached  his  final  conclusions,  but  the  direction 
in  which  he  was  moving  now  began  to  appear.  The 
editorship  of  the  British  Quarterly  Review  had  recently 
passed  into  the  hands  of  his  friend  Dr.  Allon — on  whom  the 
burden  chiefly  rested — and  Dr.  Reynolds,  the  Principal  of 
Cheshunt  College.  They  welcomed  him  as  a  contributor, 
and  in  the  second  number  of  the  Review  in  1866  he  wrote 
on  "  Anglicanism  and  Romanism,"  discussing  at  great 
length  the  controversy  in  which  Dr.  Pusey  and  Cardinal 
Manning  were  then  engaged,  with  special  reference  to 
Pusey's   Eirenicon  —  a    book,   he    said,    "  which   has   the 


THEOLOGY  AND  LITERATURE  211 

double  merit  of  being  an  effective  warning  to  all  Non- 
conformists against  entering  the  Church  of  England,  and 
to  all  Protestants  against  entering  the  Church  of  Rome." 
Along  these  two  lines  he  developed  his  argument.1 

Manning  had  set  himself  to  provoke  a  conflict,  fasten- 
ing upon  a  statement  of  Pusey's  that  many  devout  Roman 
Catholics  rejoiced  in  "  all  the  workings  of  God  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  the  Church  of  England,"  and  regarded  it  as  "  the 
great  bulwark  against  infidelity  in  this  land."  He  re- 
fused to  recognise  the  English  Church  as  any  part  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  or  in  any  divine  and  true  sense  as  a 
Church  at  all.  A  bulwark  against  infidelity  ?  It  is  "  the 
original  source  of  the  present  spiritual  anarchy "  ;  it  not 
only  "  propagates  unbelief,"  but  does  so  "  by  principle,  and 
in  the  essence  of  its  whole  system  "  ;  so  far  from  obstruct- 
ing infidelity,  "  it  has  floated  before  it  " — in  such  terms  did 
Manning  denounce  the  communion  that  he  had  forsaken. 
And  then — well  knowing  where  to  fix  the  dart — he 
explains  that,  while  recognising  the  working  of  grace  in 
the  English  Church,  "  we  as  joyfully  recognise  the  work- 
ing of  the  Holy  Spirit  among  Dissenters  of  every  kind  "  ; 
and  he  contrasts  unfavourably  with  the  piety  of  Dissent 
the  piety  of  Anglicanism,  "  which  has  ever  been  more  dim 
and  distant  from  the  central  light  of  souls."  It  was  to 
this  attack — so  unmeasured  in  its  arrogance  that  it  would 
have  stirred  the  passion  of  most  men — that  Pusey  replied 
in  "  The  Truth  and  Office  of  the  English  Church  " — "  a 
message  of  peace  " — in  which  he  set  himself  to  show  that 
the  two  Churches  had  more  in  common  than  the  Romanist 
allowed,  and  also  what  were  the  real  hindrances  that  held 
them  apart.  Other  disputants — Newman,  Frederick 
Oakeley,  and  T.  W.  Allies — were  soon  drawn  into  the 
battle. 

In  his  review  Dale  traverses  the  whole  field  of  con- 
troversy. He  enforces  Pusey's  case  against  Rome  ;  he 
turns  Pusey's  concessions  to  Rome  against  himself. 
Examining  in  detail  the  extent  of  agreement  between 
Anglicanism   and    Romanism,   he   criticises    and    corrects 

1  The  British  Quarterly  Review,  April  1866,  pp.  281-338. 


212  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Pusey's  too  friendly  estimate.  He  shows  that  the  two 
Churches  differ  in  their  conception  of  Justification,  and  in 
the  number  of  the  Sacraments  that  they  respectively  re- 
cognise, and  to  some  extent  at  least  in  their  doctrine  of 
the  Real  Presence  and  the  Eucharistic  Sacrifice,  though 
he  admits  that  it  is  difficult  to  say  how  far  the  formu- 
laries of  the  English  Church  permit  an  honest  clergyman 
to  approach  the  Romish  theory.  Pusey's  own  teaching 
as  to  the  Real  Presence  he  confesses  that  he  has  never 
yet  been  able  to  construe  intellectually.  The  true  Roman 
theory  of  the  Sacrament,  and  the  true  Protestant  theory, 
he  found  intelligible  ;  but  the  Anglo-Catholic  theory,  he 
says,  "  has  defied  every  attempt  we  have  made  to  appre- 
hend it."  His  own  teaching  on  the  same  subject  was 
condemned  in  similar  terms  by  hostile  critics  in  after 
years. 

In  discussing  the  impediments  that  Pusey  felt  to  stand 
in  the  way  of  reunion  —  impediments  arising  for  the 
most  part  not  out  of  authoritative  doctrine,  but  from  the 
practical  system  taught  with  a  quasi  authority,  such  as 
the  infallibility  of  the  Pope  and  the  worship  of  the 
Virgin — he  maintains  Pusey's  case  against  his  adversaries, 
reinforcing  his  arguments  and  supplementing  his  evidence. 
His  personal  estimate  of  Newman  and  of  Manning  is 
conspicuous.  It  is  with  a  touch  of  scorn  that  he  tests  the 
sinews  of  a  logic  which  he  had  already  described  as  "  thin, 
wiry,  and  powerless,"  and  that  he  overthrows  Manning's 
exegesis  of  a  passage  in  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  John 
(ii.-  20-27),  which  the  Cardinal  had  manipulated  to 
prove  the  infallibility  of  his  church  and  the  immuta- 
bility of  its  doctrine.  It  is  in  a  very  different  spirit  that 
he  repels  Newman's  attempt  to  show  that  the  exaggerated 
homage  rendered  by  some  to  the  Virgin  does  not  fairly 
represent  the  teaching  and  the  thought  of  Rome,  and  to 
repudiate  for  his  own  part  the  distorted  "  devotion  "  while 
still  clinging  to  the  "  truth."  He  accepts  the  disclaimer 
— for  Newman  and  for  others  of  like  mould  ;  he  will  not 
charge  every  member  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
with  offering  precisely  the  same  adoration  to  Mary  as  to 


THEOLOGY  AND  LITERATURE  213 

Christ ;  but  the  doctrine  of  the  Virgin,  however  harmless 
in  elect  souls  through  the  Divine  grace,  must  be  among 
the  commonalty  of  Christendom  "  a  most  fatal  poison." 

In  a  time  of  reaction  from  traditional  hostility  to 
Rome,  when  unreasoning  prejudice  had  softened  into 
sentimental  regret,  and  when  the  errors  and  superstitions 
and  crimes  of  the  Papacy  were  too  lightly  forgotten,  he 
regards  Pusey's  exposure  of  the  "  practical  system  "  of  the 
Roman  Church  as  a  substantial  service  to  the  cause  of 
true  Protestantism  ;  no  other  man  could  have  done  the 
work  so  effectively.  But  at  the  same  time,  he  asserts, 
Pusey  had  injured  his  own  party  by  drawing  attention 
to  the  method  in  which  he  and  his  followers  interpreted 
the  formularies  of  the  English  Church.  The  Tractarian 
movement  had  not  spent  itself;  it  had  but  passed  from 
its  early  home  into  the  land  at  large,  to  spread  in  great 
cities  and  in  country  parishes,  to  leaven  our  literature,  to 
penetrate  and  to  modify  popular  thought  and  feeling 
through  their  entire  range,  holding  its  own  in  spite  of 
repression,  ridicule,  and  reason.  Its  strength  had  been 
underestimated  by  Nonconformists  as  well  as  by  others, 
and  the  Protestant  faith  of  the  country  appeared  to  him 
seriously  imperilled.  But  even  in  the  heat  of  argument  it 
may  be  seen  how  closely  he  is  drawn  in  spirit  to  those 
against  whose  theology  he  is  contending. 

For  ourselves,  we  cordially  recognise  the  high  and  noble 
religious  qualities  which  have  been  from  the  first  the  true  life  of 
the  movement.  In  a  restless,  superficial,  and  worldly  age,  they 
have  recalled  the  deeper  devotion  of  the  saints  of  former  times. 
They  have  produced  not  only  laborious  scholars,  but  a  vast 
number  of  zealous  parish  priests.  They  have  built  churches, 
established  schools,  and  striven  earnestly  to  rescue  the  outcaste 
of  our  modern  civilisation  from  wretchedness  and  sin.  Hanging 
on  the  skirts  of  the  party,  there  is  a  "mixed  multitude,"  like 
that  which  went  up  with  the  elect  nation  out  of  Egypt ;  men 
who  are  strangers  to  the  true  genius  of  the  cause  to  which  they 
have  committed  themselves,  and  are  incapable  of  understanding 
the  higher  teaching  of  their  own  leaders — men  who  care  more 
for  decorated  altar-cloths  and  lighted  candles,  symbolic  vestments 
and  picturesque  prostrations,  priestly  mystery  and  the  wondering 


2i4  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

admiration  of  silly  women,  than  for  the  traditions  of  ancient 
saintliness,  and  the  dreams  of  a  united  Christendom,  which 
thrill  and  awe  the  souls  of  their  chiefs.  Judged  by  this  effeminate 
and  ignoble  crowd,  the  Anglo-Catholic  party  would  deserve  only 
contempt ;  judged  by  the  higher  and  loftier  spirits,  from  whose 
fervour  and  energy  it  sprung,  it  claims  far  different  treatment. 

And  as  in  heart  he  is  one  with  the  men  of  faith  and 
fervour,  so  too  he  insists  on  the  Unity  of  Christendom, 
and  repudiates  the  title  of  Separatist ;  though  he  cares 
nothing  for  union  without  unity.  The  confederation  of 
the  Roman,  Greek,  and  Anglican  Churches  would  be  a 
calamity  and  no  blessing  :  "  the  irrepressible  impulses  of 
the  Christian  heart  are  not  destined  to  be  satisfied  by  the 
creation  of  a  visible  spiritual  empire,  whose  power  would 
be  fatal  to  the  freedom  and  energy  of  the  intellectual  and 
moral  life  of  mankind."  Already  the  Church  is  one  in 
worship,  in  morals,  in  the  deepest  elements  of  the  spiritual 
life,  and  even  in  the  great  outlines  of  its  creed.  It  is  to 
the  power  of  the  Spirit  within  that  we  must  trust  to 
prevent  all  schism  in  the  mystical  Body  of  Christ,  not  to 
organisation,  not  to  law. 

In  the  following  reminiscence  Dale  gives  some  account  of 
the  way  in  which  he  wrote  ;  it  helps  to  explain  how  it  is 
that  the  article,  though  controversial,  is  not  contentious  : — 

While  writing  it,  I  talked  it  over  with  Dr.  Oldknow,  who  was 
at  that  time  Vicar  of  Holy  Trinity,  Bordesley.  He  was  among 
the  highest  of  High  Churchmen,  a  Tractarian  before  the  Tracts, 
and  he  had  a  wonderful  collection  of  pamphlets  on  the  Tractarian 
controversy.  He  lent  me  a  copy  of  a  letter  of  Mr.  Dalgairns  to 
the  Univers  which  I  referred  to  in  my  article.  I  had  often 
heard  of  it,  but  had  never  been  able  to  get  sight  of  it.  He  told 
me  that  he  picked  it  up  on  a  second-hand  book-stall  in  Padua. 
I  had  a  great  respect  for  him,  and  we  often  discussed,  in  the 
friendliest  spirit,  the  ecclesiastical  differences  by  which  we  were 
so  widely  separated. 

The  episode  is  characteristic.  It  was  his  habit  to 
make  the  acquaintance  of  those  from  whom  he  differed, 
and  the  basis  of  intimacy  was  not  suppression  of  opinion, 
but  free  and  frank  discussion.  He  desired  not  merely  to 
understand    the    arguments    of    an    opponent    whom    he 


THEOLOGY  AND  LITERATURE  215 

respected,  and  to  give  them  their  due  weight,  but  to  see 
his  system  of  thought,  so  far  as  might  be,  from  within, 
and  as  it  presented  itself  to  the  mind  of  one  who  lived  in 
it  and  by  it.  There  were,  however,  some  notable  ex- 
ceptions— some  men  of  fine  character  whom  he  never 
understood.  Dean  Stanley  was  one  of  them.  He 
admired  Stanley's  literary  art,  but  was  positively  repelled 
by  his  personality,  and  perplexed  by  his  colour-blindness 
in  the  domain  of  theology — by  his  absolute  incapacity,  as 
it  seemed,  to  apprehend  the  most  striking  distinctions  and 
shades  of  religious  truth.  He  made  more  than  one 
attempt  in  later  life  to  get  the  better  of  this  antipathy, 
regarding  it  as  a  sign  of  defective  sympathy,  but  the 
effort  was  in  vain. 

The  treatment  of  the  Lord's  Supper  in  the  British 
Quarterly  article  showed  clearly  enough  that  Dale  did  not 
accept  Zwingli's  theory  as  an  adequate  representation  of 
the  nature  and  purpose  of  the  Sacrament.  In  a  series  of 
papers  contributed  to  the  Evangelical  Magazine  shortly 
afterwards,1  he  expressly  stated  that  the  opinion  then,  and 
probably  now,  prevalent  in  most  Nonconformist  churches 
— that  the  Lord's  Supper  is  a  commemorative  institution, 
and  nothing  more — entirely  failed  in  his  view  to  exhaust 
the  meaning  of  the  Ordinance.  But  in  these  papers,  while 
he  does  not  wholly  avoid  the  discussion  of  theories,  he 
does  not  contend  for  any  special  opinion.  Even  the 
Zwinglian  doctrine  is  not  assailed  with  any  vigour  ;  it  is 
dismissed  in  half  a  dozen  lines.  He  is  content  to  con- 
centrate attention  on  the  institution  itself  with  all  its 
wealth  of  spiritual  association  and  experience.  He  felt 
that  if  he  could  bring  others  to  look  upon  the  Sacrament 
in  the  light  that  he  did,  and  to  invest  it  with  the  same 
sanctity,  the  teaching  of  Zwingli  would  drop  away  from 
them  of  its  own  accord,  as  the  withered  leaves  that  winter 
has  left  fair  with  the  new  life  stirred  by  the  spring.  But 
for  the  time  it  seemed  enough  to  assert  that  we  come  to 
the  Ordinance,  not  for  self-examination,  but  to  hold  com- 
munion   with    Christ    who    instituted    it  ;    and    that    the 

1  Evangelical  Magazine,  January-December  1867. 


216  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

symbolism  of  the  Ordinance  represents  a  permanent 
relation  between  Christ  and  those  who  trust  in  Him — a 
perpetual  participation  in  the  Divine  Life,  so  that  He 
becomes  the  life  of  our  life,  the  sinew  of  our  strength, 
the  inexhaustible  fountain  of  our  joy.  The  conception  is 
practically  Calvin's,  but  as  yet  it  is  not  worked  out  with 
the  fulness  that  it  afterwards  assumed  in  the  essay  in 
Ecclesia}  and  in  Dale's  maturer  teaching  on  the  subject. 

Two  articles  on  the  Atonement  published  in  the 
British  Quarterly  during  the  same  period,2  one  on  the 
"  moral  "  theory — a  "  polemical  and  negative  "  review,  as 
Dale  described  it — and  another  on  the  "  expiatory  "  theory, 
more  closely  anticipated  his  subsequent  lectures  on  the 
same  subject,  both  in  the  criticism  directed  against  the 
teaching  of  Dr.  Bushnell  and  Dr.  John  Young,  and  also 
in  the  positive  statement  of  his  own  position.  The  same 
weapons  are  used  on  both  occasions  to  assail  Dr.  Bushnell's 
assertion  that  the  Scriptures  "  exhibit  no  trace  of  expiation," 
and  Dr.  Young's  conception  of  spiritual  laws  as  self-acting, 
self-defending  forces — "  that  exact,  and  continue  to  exact, 
so  long  as  the  evil  remains,  the  amount  of  penalty,  visible 
and  invisible,  to  the  veriest  jot  and  tittle  which  the  deed 
of  violation  demands."  There  is  the  same  careful  distinc- 
tion between  the  fact  of  the  Atonement  and  the  theory  of 
it — the  fact  stated  by  Christ  Himself,  the  theory  framed 
by  philosophy.  The  analysis  of  the  evidence  for  the  fact 
contained  in  the  New  Testament,  though  curtailed  in  the 
articles,  forecasts  in  method  and  even  in  detail  the  larger 
plan.  Other  elements  are  common  both  to  the  articles 
and  the  lectures,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  trace  the  resem- 
blance. The  differences,  however,  altogether  apart  from 
scale  and  scope,  are  not  unimportant.  In  the  British 
Quarterly  articles  the  theory  is  summed  up  in  four 
propositions  : — 

1  Ecclesia :  Church  Problems  considered  in  a  series  of  Essays,  edited  by 
H.  R.  Reynolds,  D.D.,  1870:  "The  Doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence  and 
the  Lord's  Supper,"  by  R.  W.  Dale,  pp.  315-390. 

2  British  Quaiierly  Review  :  "  The  Moral  Theory  of  the  Atonement," 
October  1866,  pp.  410-452  ;  "  The  Expiatory  Theory  of  the  Atonement," 
October  1867,  pp.  463-504. 


THEOLOGY  AND  LITERATURE  217 

(1)  It  is  an  Eternal  and  absolute  law  that  sin  deserves  punish- 
ment. (2)  It  is  the  function  of  God  as  the  Creator  and  Moral 
Ruler  of  the  Universe  to  recognise  this  law.  (3)  The  moral 
significance  of  Punishment  inflicted  on  the  sinful  lies  in  its  being 
the  voluntary  recognition  by  God  Himself  of  the  ill-desert  of  sin. 
(4)  The  surrender  by  the  Eternal  Father  of  the  only  begotten 
Son  to  penal  suffering,  and  the  Son's  voluntary  endurance  of  that 
suffering,  constitute  a  Divine  recognition  of  the  ill-deserts  of  sin 
far  transcending  in  moral  sublimity  the  infliction  of  punishment 
on  the  guilty.1 

In  these  propositions,  it  will  be  noticed,  the  relation  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  the  human  race — a  truth  on 
which  great  stress  is  laid  in  the  lectures — is  not  considered ; 
in  fact,  the  only  allusion  to  it  is  contained  in  a  single 
sentence  of  a  single  paragraph. 

The  punishment  of  sin  is  a  Divine  act ;  and  if  sin  is  not 
punished,  some  other  Divine  act  of  at  least  equal  moral  intensity 
must  take  its  place.  Not  the  Dignity  of  Christ,  but  His  Position 
as  the  Moral  Ruler  of  our  race,  invests  His  agony  and  death  with 
all  their  Atoning  efficacy.  For  God  to  have  inflicted  the  penalty 
of  sin  on  any  innocent  creature,  instead  of  being  an  act  of 
homage  to  the  Law,  would  have  been  a  violation  of  its  essential 
spirit.     He  chose  to  suffer  rather  than  to  punish.2 

In  the  book  the  sentence  in  italics  is  developed  into 
an  entire  lecture. 

Another  variation  challenges  notice.  The  relation  of 
God  to  the  Law  of  Righteousness,  if  similarly  conceived, 
is  differently  expressed.  In  the  British  Qtiarterly,  Dale 
is  so  eager  to  assert  the  principle  that  moral  obligations 
are  not  derived  from  the  Will  of  God,  but  are  independent, 
necessary,  and  eternal,  that  his  language  may  be  taken  to 
imply  that  God  Himself  no  less  than  the  creature  is 
subject  to  the  Law.  He  endorses  Mill's  declaration,  and 
quotes  Cudworth  in  support  of  it,  that — "  the  only  view  of 
the  connection  between  religion  and  morality  which  does 
not  annihilate  the  very  idea  of  the  latter,  is  that  which 

1  British  Quarterly  Review,  "  The  Expiatory  Theory  of  the  Atonement," 
October  1867,  pp.  502,  503. 

2  Ibid.  p.  502. 


218  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

considers  the  Deity  as  not  making,  but  recognising  and 
sanctioning,  moral  obligation." *  "  So  far  from  the 
commands  of  God  originating  moral  obligation,  '  duty  '  is 
inconceivable  if  moral  obligation  does  not  exist  ante- 
cedently to  the  Divine  commands."  2  And  again — "  It  is 
God's  glory,  not  that  His  Will  originated  the  Moral  Law, 
but  that  His  Will  has  uniformly  honoured  and  asserted  its 
authority."  3  The  "  Divine  penalty  which  follows  sin  "  is 
described  as  "  an  act  of  Divine  homage  to  the  eternal  law 
that  the  wrong-doer  deserves  to  suffer." 4  Such  language 
— not  without  reason — was  construed  as  attributing  to 
Law  an  objective  existence  independent  of  God,  and  as 
placing  God  in  subjection  beneath  it.  So  conceived,  the 
relation  of  God  to  Law  involved  a  dualism.5  Dale 
admitted  this  criticism  to  be  just,  and  in  the  lectures  he 
avoided  all  danger  of  misconception.  Or,  if  his  earlier 
language  was  really  used  in  the  sense  attributed  to  it,  he 
modified  his  position — to  the  dudgeon  of  the  collectors 
who  had  pinned  him  and  placed  him  in  a  special  compart- 
ment in  their  theological  cabinet. 

What  then  is  the  relation  between  God  and  the  eternal 
Law  of  Righteousness  ?  Are  we  to  conceive  of  that  Law  as 
independent  and  supreme,  claiming  allegiance  from  the  Creator 
as  well  as  from  His  creatures  ?  Is  God  Himself  subject  to 
its  authority,  even  as  we  are  ?  Is  there  a  throne,  even  an 
ideal  throne,  loftier  and  more  august  than  His  ?  a  sceptre,  even 
an  ideal  sceptre,  by  which  even  He  is  governed,  and  which  from 
eternity  to  eternity  He  obeys  ? 

Such  an  hypothesis  is  instinctively  rejected  as  untenable. 
God  is  not  distinct  from  the  Law  but  identical  with  it. 

The  relation  between  God  and  the  eternal  Law  of  Righteous- 
ness is,  therefore,  unique.  He  is  not,  as  we  are,  bound  by  its 
authority ;  in  Him  its  authority  is  actively  asserted.  To  describe 
Him  as  doing  homage  to  it — although  a  phrase  which  it  may 
sometimes  be  almost  necessary  to  employ — is  by  implication  to 

1  J.  S.  Mill,  Dissertations,  vol.  i.  p.  125. 

2  British  Quarterly  Review,  October  1867,  p.  486. 

3  Ibid.  p.  488.  4  Ibid.  p.  489. 

6  D.  W.  Simon,  The  Redemption  of  Man,  pp.  12  foil. 


THEOLOGY  AND  LITERATURE  219 

strip  Him  of  His  moral  sovereignty  :  the  homage  which  is  due 
to  the  law  is  due  to  Him.  The  law  does  not  claim  Him  as  the 
most  illustrious  and  glorious  of  its  subjects ;  it  is  supreme  in  His 
supremacy.  His  relation  to  the  law  is  not  a  relation  of  subjection 
but  of  identity.  ...  In  God  the  law  is  alive  ;  it  reigns  on  His 
throne,  sways  His  sceptre,  is  crowned  with  His  glory.1 

A  letter  to  Dr.  A I  Ion  shows  that  Dale  attached  special 
importance  to  the  second  of  the  two  articles.  He  begins 
with  some  advice  intended  to  anticipate  and  disarm 
editorial  criticism. 


To  the  Rev.  Henry  Allon 

2Ttk  August  1867. 

Don't  abuse  the  writing.  It  is  better  than  you  often  get,  and 
much  better  than  you  deserve.  Don't  abuse  the  length.  If 
you  knew  of  the  innocent  paragraphs  which  have  been  murdered 
for  no  fault  of  their  own  !  It  won't  make  even  now  more  than 
36  or  37  pages,  and  you  said  32. 

I  have  writen  this  article  with  much  more  solicitude  than  I 
felt  about  either  of  the  other  two,  and  it  is  the  fruit  of  much 
more  reading  and  thought.  I  cannot  but  hope  that  it  may  do 
something  to  help  some  of  our  men  who  are  drifting.  If  you 
like  this,  you  must  let  me  do  a  couple  of  sheets  next  year  on 
Justification. 

As  yet  he  was  hardly  known,  except  as  a  contro- 
versialist, beyond  the  limits  of  Nonconformity ;  but  these 
articles  and  a  collection  of  sermons — "  Discourses  on 
Special  Occasions" — published  in  the  spring  of  1866,  Aged  36. 
spread  his  reputation  in  other  directions.  The  book  met 
with  a  piece  of  singular  good  fortune.  It  was  one  of  four 
reviewed  in  the  Contemporary  by  the  editor,  Dean  Alford, 
under  the  title  of  "  Recent  Nonconformist  Sermons."  In 
his  article  the  Dean  took  occasion  to  draw  attention  to 
the  character  of  Nonconformist  preaching,  illustrating  his 
criticism  by  long  extracts  from  the  volumes  before  him, 
protesting  at  the  same  time  against  the  unmerited  neglect 
that  Nonconformity  and  its  work  had  experienced  from 

1    The  Atonement,  pp.  370,  372. 


220  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

his  fellow  churchmen.  To  Dale's  book  he  gave  the  highest 
place.      "  It  contains,"  he  said, 

Some  of  the  finest  specimens  of  modern  preaching.  His 
earnest  downright  practical  Christian  morality  is  carried  into  the 
hearts  and  consciences  of  his  hearers  by  words  at  the  same  time 
plain  and  yet  weighty  and  rhetorical.  He  knows  well  how  to 
embody  that  which  is  beautiful  in  glowing  description,  without 
anywhere  running  into  exaggeration,  or  overstepping  the  bounds 
of  pure  taste. l 

It  was  a  generous  tribute  ;  and  it  meant  more  then  that 
it  would  mean  now.  Nor  did  the  Dean  stop  short  at 
praising  ;  he  invited  Dale  to  write  for  the  Contemporary, 
offering  him  a  wider  audience  than  he  could  otherwise 
have  reached.  The  same  introduction  opened  the  doors 
of  the  other  periodicals  also  published  by  Mr.  Strahan, 
Good  Words  and  the  Sunday  Magazine,  then  edited  by 
Norman  Macleod  and  Dr.  Guthrie  respectively.  It  was  a 
great  lift,  for  such  opportunities  were  comparatively  few 
in  those  days  ;  and  Alford's  kindness  was  one  of  the  lasting 
memories  of  life. 
Aged  38.  Dale's  first  contribution  to  the  Contemporary — it  held 
the  place  of  honour  in  the  May  number  of  1868 — was  an 
article  on  Lacordaire,  shaped,  if  not  written,  during  a  flying 
visit  to  Paris  in  the  previous  winter.  It  has  been  said 
that  the  best  way  of  mastering  a  new  subject  is  to  lecture 
on  it ;  and  though  this  was  not  Dale's  method,  it  is  clear 
that  when  he  wrote  on  Lacordaire  his  knowledge  of  the 
French  pulpit  was  less  intimate  than  it  afterwards  became. 
The  article  is  almost  entirely  a  study  of  method.  The  criti- 
cism is  practical  rather  than  literary.  There  is  no  breadth 
of  outlook — no  attempt  to  appreciate  resemblances  or 
distinctions  between  Lacordaire  and  his  rivals  in  fame. 
For  such  a  task  he  was  not  yet  equipped.  In  after 
years,  when  enriched  by  study  and  ripened  by  experi- 
ence, he  sometimes  spoke  of  writing  a  series  of  such 
studies, — studies  of  Bossuet  and  Bourdaloue,  Massillon, 
Gratry,    and    Ravignan,    and     other     masters     of  sacred 

1  "  Recent  Nonconformist  Sermons,"  Contemporary  Review,  July  1866. 


THEOLOGY  AND  LITERATURE  221 

eloquence  ;  but  this  was  one   of  many  plans  that  never 
came  to  fulfilment. 

In  the  papers  contributed  to  Good  Words  and  the 
Sunday  Magazine,  several  of  which  were  collected  in  his 
Weekday  Sermons,  Dale  broke  new  ground  ;  they  were  his 
first  distinct  utterance  as  an  ethical  teacher  outside  his  own 
pulpit.  He  had  already  been  brought  to  recognise  the 
necessity  of  an  ethical  revival.  The  religious  life  of  many 
Christians  he  knew  to  be  impoverished  by  imperfect  con- 
ceptions of  moral  duty,  and  enfeebled  by  disregard  of  duty 
that  they  recognised.  He  could  admit  no  divorce  between 
creed  and  conduct.  He  regarded  as  one  of  the  chief 
defects  of  the  Evangelical  Revival  its  failure  to  afford 
a  lofty  ideal  of  practical  righteousness,  and  a  healthy 
vigorous  moral  training.1  And  such  failures  and  short- 
comings, while  injurious  to  spiritual  strength  and  soundness, 
armed  unbelief  with  the  deadliest  of  weapons. 

If  Christian  men  are  not  actually  controlled  in  their  common 
life  by  all  that  they  profess  to  believe ;  if  their  worship  has  no 
effect  upon  their  common  work,  they  are  contributing  more 
powerfully  to  the  temporary  triumph  of  scepticism  than  the 
writers  who  are  most  hostile  to  religious  truth.  The  wonderful 
story  of  the  Incarnation, — it  is  we  who  are  making  it  incredible, 
if  we  are  not  manifestly  trying  to  live  a  nobler  life  than  those 
who  deny  it.  The  authority  of  God, — it  is  we  who  are  teaching 
men  that  there  is  nothing  in  it,  if  we  are  not  afraid  to  sin  against 
Him. 

His  choice  of  subjects,  and  his  treatment  of  them,  was 
representative  rather  than  systematic.  It  was  not  in  his 
plan  to  write  a  treatise  on  ethics  ;  but  taking  elements  of 
character  and  aspects  of  life,  as  they  occurred  to  his 
mind,  he  endeavoured  to  show  their  relation  to  the 
supreme  law  of  life,  asserting  the  sovereignty  of  Christ — 
as  a  real  and  not  a  titular  supremacy — over  the  whole 
range  of  human  interest  and  activity.  Sometimes  he  had 
to  correct  the  obliquities  of  the  moral  balance  ;  sometimes 
to  lay  bare  and  to  recut  a  truth  obliterated  by  convention 

1   The  Evangelical  Retival,  p.  48. 


222  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

or  neglect ;  more  often  to  interpret  the  significance  of 
things  regarded  as  trivial  and  of  little  weight.  He 
insisted  then,  as  he  insisted  afterwards,  on  "  the  use  of  the 
understanding  in  keeping  God's  law  "  ;  in  "  Talebearing  " 
and  "  Unwholesome  Words "  he  dwelt  on  the  perils  of 
speech  ;  he  had  something  to  say  about  "  Cheerfulness  " 
as  a  duty,  and  something  about  "  Anger  "  as  a  sin  ;  about 
"  The  kindly  treatment  of  other  men's  imperfections "  ; 
about  "  The  discipline  of  the  body,"  "  The  perils  and  uses 
of  rich  men  "  ;  about  "  Amusements,"  "  Summer  holidays," 
and  "  Christmas  parties."  He  came  to  close  quarters  with 
the  common  problems  of  common  life. 

In  depth  and  in  force,  indeed,  these  earlier  utterances 
cannot  compare  with  the  work  of  later  years  ;  and  when, 
as  often  happened,  he  said  again  to  a  younger  generation 
what  he  had  said  before — for  he  was  never  afraid  of 
repeating  himself — there  were  touches  and  changes  that 
made  it  all  seem  new.  But  the  principles  and  the 
qualities  that  came  to  be  associated  with  his  moral 
teaching  may  easily  be  recognised,  and  his  system  of 
ethical  thought,  in  its  broad  outlines,  is  already  there. 
The  conception  of  morality  as  a  positive  force,  leading  to 
action  rather  than  abstention  ;  the  delight  in  robust  and 
strenuous  virtue,  in  the  glow  of  life  as  against  the  gray, 
and  his  repugnance  to  the  neutral  tints  of  character ;  the 
preference  for  whatever  braces  human  nature  to  manliness, 
and  for  all  that  cultivates  simplicity,  purpose,  and  con- 
stancy in  the  religious  life,  —  all  these  elements  are 
unmistakably  predominant. 

The  bent  of  his  nature  is  shown  in  another  piece  of 
work  which  he  took  in  hand  about  this  time.  He  knew 
well  that  a  hymn — especially  when  it  has  grown  familiar 
by  use — affects  the  mass  of  men  far  more  deeply  than  a 
sermon,  and  that  a  true  Christian  manliness  will  not  be 
achieved  while  the  mind  pulls  one  way  and  the  emotions 
pull  another.  Dissatisfied  with  the  collections  of  hymns 
then  existing,  he  determined  to  compile  a  volume  for 
himself,  which  should  represent  the  characteristic  type  of 
English  piety,  as  he  conceived  it,  and  should  preserve  the 


THEOLOGY  AND  LITERATURE  223 

national  strain  of  faith  and  feeling :   it  was  to  be  essen- 
tially the  "  English  Hymn  Book." 

The  task  was  one  in  which  he  found  genuine  enjoy- 
ment. The  labour  of  search  and  selection  was  not 
irksome.  The  enterprise  brought  him  into  pleasant 
relations  with  many  men  of  different  Churches,  whom  he 
rejoiced  to  meet  on  the  ground  of  common  sympathy. 
Among  living  hymn-writers,  Mr.  Thomas  Hornblower 
Gill  attracted  him  by  far  the  most  strongly.  He  found 
his  Golden  Chain  of  Praise  a  very  mine  of  wealth  ;  and 
the  author  allowed  him  to  draw  on  it  freely.  The  first  of 
the  following  letters  was  written  on  receipt  of  Mr.  Gill's 
book. 

To  Mr.  T.  H.  Gill 

27th  January  1869. 
I  had  resolved  to  write  to  you  because  I  wanted  to  thank 
you  for  the  book  with  all  my  heart.  For  several  years  I  have 
felt  the  want  of  new  hymns  very  strongly.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  present  year  I  exchanged  some  letters  with  Gerald  Moultrie, 
who  happened  to  have  seen  a  note  of  mine  in  which  modern 
hymns  were  rather  roughly  criticised,  and  who  wrote  to  me  to  learn 
more  fully  what  my  views  were  on  hymnology  in  general.  The 
complaint  I  make  is  that  the  hymns  which  have  been  written 
for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  have  no  faith,  or  hope,  or  joy 
in  them ;  they  are  all  tears  and  sighs ;  they  might  have  been 
written  by  people  who  never  heard  of  the  liberty  with  which 
Christ  has  made  His  people  free.  Moreover,  they  are  singularly 
restricted  in  their  subjects.  They  are  mostly  about  Heaven,  or 
about  the  human  side  of  our  Lord's  character  and  life,  and  in 
both  cases  are  miserably  sentimental.  They  are  women's  hymns 
rather  than  men's  hymns  ;  and  they  are  the  hymns  of  very  weak 
hysterical  women  too.  Those  about  our  Lord  are  written  in 
the  style  in  which  Romanists  write  about  their  saints ;  there  is 
hardly  ever  any  vision  of  the  glory  and  majesty  which  shine 
through  all  His  sufferings  and  shame.  They  excite  pity  for 
Christ  rather  than  reverence.  Indeed  they  might  have  been 
written  by  men,  or  rather  by  women,  who  had  never  heard 
that  He  was  risen  from  the  dead.  I  think  I  told  Mr.  Moultrie 
that  I  hardly  knew  of  any  better  service  that  could  be  rendered 
to  the  Church  just  now  than  writing  a  score  of  hymns  inspired 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Te  Deu?n.  Your  book  contains — as  it 
seems  to    me — at  least  a  score  of  hymns,  and    I    think  con- 


224  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

siderably  more,  in  which  that  spirit  breathes  and  burns.  I 
wanted,  therefore,  to  write  and  thank  you.  But  this  was  not  all. 
For  some  time  I  have  been  dreaming  of  making  a  collection  of 
hymns  for  the  use  of  my  own  people,  and  have  been  discouraged 
chiefly  by  the  difficulty  of  finding  the  kind  I  want.  Your  book 
is  a  perfect  treasure,  and  I  wanted  to  ask  you  how  many  your 
generosity  would  permit  me  to  use  in  the  event  of  my  being 
able  to  carry  out  my  purpose. 

I  have  gone  on  ticking  off  one  after  another,  till  I  am  afraid 
to  count  how  many  I  covet. 

May  I  be  forgiven  if  I  add  that  I  should  have  ticked  oft 
considerably  more  but  for  the  dissonance  I  am  conscious  of 
between  the  idea  of  a  "  Lover "  and  the  idea  both  of  Christ 
in  relation  to  His  Church  and  of  the  Church  in  relation  to  Him  ? 

I  don't  know  that  I  can  fully  explain  my  feeling,  but  you  may 
perhaps  understand  it  if  I  say  that — 

(i)  I  hesitate  to  call  Christ  the  Lover  of  His  Church,  because 
a  lover  regards  the  woman  to  whom  he  is  devoted  with  a  rever- 
ential affection  such  as  Christ  can  hardly  feel  for  His  Church, 
even  when  contemplated,  as  the  Platonists  would  say,  in  its  Idea. 
A  lover  feels  that  he  is  of  the  earth  and  that  the  object  of  his 
devotion  is  divine.  I  cannot  think  of  a  lover  as  being  simply  one 
who  loves,  but  as  being  one  whose  love  is  of  a  certain  type. 

(2)  On  the  other  hand,  I  cannot  think  of  the  Church  as 
the  lover  of  Christ ;  because  the  relation  of  man  to  woman  in 
its  most  ideal  form  is  not  the  relation  of  the  soul  to  its  Redeemer. 
The  lover,  whatever  his  consciousness  of  inferiority,  has  the 
consciousness  of  superior  strength  :  he  protects  while  he  adores. 
You  may  suggest  that  in  Scripture  we  have  the  symbol  of  the 
relations  between  husband  and  wife  constantly  used  to  represent 
the  relation  between  God  and  ourselves;  this  may  be  alleged 
in  support  of  the  habit  of  calling  Christ  our  Lover,  not  in  sup- 
port of  calling  ourselves  His  lovers;  and  yet  it  hardly  holds. 
The  associations — and  these  are  everything  in  poetry — con- 
nected with  the  word  husband  are  altogether  dissimilar  from 
those  connected  with  the  word  lover.  Now  I  cannot  get  rid  of 
those  latter  when  I  find  Christ  called  a  lover.  A  lover  is  more 
than  one  who  loves.  Will  you  excuse  this  dissertation  ?  I  did 
not  mean  to  get  into  it  when  I  began  to  write. 

As  the  work  went  on,  difficulties  arose.  In  some  of 
his  friend's  finest  hymns  there  were  phrases  and  expres- 
sions which  Dale  felt  to  be  awkward,  and  in  some  cases 
unnatural  or  worse  ;  an  editor — so  it  seemed  to  him — 
without  trespassing  beyond   his   province,  might  omit  or 


THEOLOGY  AND  LITERATURE  225 

amend.  Such  a  claim  the  living  poet  was  bound  to  resist 
— the  dead  were  helpless  ;  and  Mr.  Gill  protested  with 
vigour.  The  question  was  fought  out  at  length,  with 
concessions  on  both  sides.  The  letter  in  which  Dale 
states  his  theory  of  editorial  duties  or  rights — call  them 
which  we  will  —  is  incomplete,  but  it  is  easy  to  supply 
what  is  missing. 

To  Mr.  T.  H.  Gill 

[An  editor  may  and  should  amend  not  only  the  obvious  errors 
of  the  press,  but  also  words  and  phrases]  which  are  flaws  in 
the  perfectness  of  the  work,  inaccuracies  which  are  indis- 
putably the  result  of  imperfect  acquaintance  with  the  idiom, 
of  the  language.  Again,  accidental  associations  with  a  word 
sometimes  invest  it  with  a  glory  to  one  man  which  it  cannot 
have  to  any  one  else  in  the  world,  and  it  seems  to  me  a  per- 
versity to  say  that  because  it  has  somehow  become  touched 
with  a  grace  and  a  splendour  for  himself  which  no  one  else 
recognises,  and  which  no  one  else  can  ever  recognise,  the  word 
is  therefore  the  truest  expression  of  his  thought.  It  does  not 
express  the  thought  at  all ;  and  another  man  may  see  where  the 
failure  lies  and  by  a  slight  change  may  secure  for  the  thought 
the  voice  and  music  which  it  had  never  had  before.  Can  you 
not  imagine — to  take  an  extreme  case — that  a  word  which  a 
father  has  heard  from  the  lips  of  a  child  he  has  lost  may  have 
for  him  a  beauty  and  tenderness  which  no  one  besides  may  see 
in  it?  The  father  might  say,  that  for  his  own  sake — for  the 
sake  of  the  associations  with  it — he  wants  that  word  to  stand  in 
his  most  finished  and  perfect  piece  of  work ;  and  if  this  is  the 
ground  on  which  he  keeps  it  there,  his  position  is  intelligible, 
But  if  he  says,  the  word  is  the  exactest  expression  of  my  thought, 
the  reply  is  obvious :  to  you  it  may  be  indissolubly  associated 
with  the  thought,  but  to  others  it  is  bare  of  everything  that 
invests  it  with  significance  and  power.  I  need  not  apply  my 
illustration. 

But  if  your  principle  were  sound,  I  should  contest  its  pertin- 
ence. 

A  hymn  is  to  be  the  expression  of  what  a  congregation  feels, 
or,  if  you  like,  of  what  it  ought  to  feel.  It  may  well  happen 
that  you  may  utter  your  thought  in  the  most  admirable  manner 
in  which  it  can  be  uttered,  and  that,  when  I  am  asked  to  utter 
it,  I  may  say,  and  say  with  justice,  "  I  can't  utter  it  just  so." 
We  must  speak  as  well  as  hear  in  our  own  tongue  the  wonderful 
Q 


226  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

works  of  God.  One  man  may  be  able  to  express  his  very 
deepest  thought  of  God's  tenderness  in  the  old  Hebrew  way, 
and  may  sing  "  His  bowels  melt  with  love  " ;  but  the  Hebrew 
way  is  not  mine :  it  may  be  just  as  good  as  the  English  way — it 
may  be  better ;  but  to  me  it  is  an  impossible  way.  I  can  speak 
of  God's  heart — though  in  the  nature  of  things  there  is  no  more 
reason  why  I  should  speak  of  God's  "heart"  than  of  His  "bowels"; 
and  the  time  may  come — or  perhaps  in  other  countries  the  time 
has  come  already — when  the  "  heart "  may  be  as  offensive  to 
many  people  as  "  bowels  "  are  to  me ;  however  this  may  be,  I 
can  speak  of  the  one,  not  of  the  other.  Now  I  feel  that  it 
would  be  simply — well,  I  don't  want  to  use  a  hard  word,  and  so 
I  will  say — irrational,  not  to  change  "  bowels  "  into  something 
else  if  it  occurred  in  a  hymn  which  on  the  whole  is  a  noble 
expression  of  reverence  and  love  and  trust.  What  I  mean  is, 
that  the  best  in  itself  may  be  the  impossible  to  ninety-nine  men 
out  of  a  hundred.  When  a  poet  writes  a  hymn,  he  writes  some- 
thing for  other  people  to  sing  as  well  as  himself:  he  must  write 
German  for  Germans,  Arabic  for  Arabs,  and  the  kind  of  English 
possible  to  ordinary  English  people  if  he  writes  for  them.  When 
by  any  accident  there  is  a  word  or  phrase  in  his  hymn  which  to 
ordinary  English  people  is  as  unnatural  or  unintelligible  as 
Chinese  to  an  Irishman — I  am  not  now  intending  to  say  that 
you  ever  get  as  far  astray  as  this  extravagant  comparison  implies 
— I  think  that  a  man  who  could  no  more  write  a  hymn  than  he 
could  fly,  may  mend  it.  I  can  manage  to  translate  an  ode  of 
Horace's  though  I  could  never  have  written  one ;  and,  by  the  way, 
your  principles  would,  as  it  seems  to  me,  forbid  translations 
altogether,  and  require  us  to  sing  David's  Psalms  in  Hebrew. 

The  following  letters  explain  themselves  : — 
To  Mr.  T.  H.  Gill 

6th  May  1S69. 
My  Hymn  Book  project  has  been  seriously  threatened.  Some 
of  my  friends  are  very  anxious  for  me  to  take  the  Chair  of 
Dogmatic  Theology  and  Philosophy  at  Spring  Hill.  This  would 
involve  the  giving  up  of  Carr's  Lane,  and,  with  no  congregation 
of  my  own,  it  would  be  a  great  risk  to  publish  a  hymn  book. 
Plowever,  I  hope  the  danger  is  past. 

1st  Nove?nbcr  1880. 

I  wish  you  understood  music ;  if  you  did,  I  am  sure  that  in 
your  next  edition  you  would  make  some  slight  modification.     It 


THEOLOGY  AND  LITERATURE  227 

would  be  useless  to  renew  our  old  controversy  about  some 
antique  expressions  which  I  think  mar  the  perfection  of  your 
verses  occasionally ;  but  the  laws  of  verse  written  for  singing  are 
so  definite  that  I  am  sure  you  would  make  an  occasional  change 
if  you  considered  them.  A  poet  may  vary  his  accented  syllables 
and  so  add  to  the  beauty  of  his  lines ;  but  a  true  lyrist  remem- 
bers that  musical  accent  is  imperious  and  recognises  its  authority. 
Occasionally  you  allow  a  strong  musical  accent  to  fall  on  such  a 
word  as  "the,"  which  is  practically  no  word  at  all,  and  you  cannot 
imagine  what  a  shock  this  gives.  I  care  so  much  for  your  hymns, 
and  believe  that  they  have  so  much  in  them  to  ennoble  the 
religious  life  of  our  churches,  that  I  am  troubled  by  everything 
that  checks  their  use. 

And  let  me  add  a  menace  !  You  may  assume  it  as  absolutely 
certain  that  if  you  do  not  do  homage  to  musical  necessities  in 
your  lifetime,  innumerable  editors  will  mangle  you  after  your 
death.  Men  will  sing  your  hymns  and  will  change  them  at 
their  own  fancy  to  make  them  "singable."  Will  not  this  frighten 
you? 

3 1  j?  January  188 1. 

Experience  is  wasted  on  me.  I  kept  your  letter  hoping  to 
write  a  long  answer ;  and  now,  having  already  written  just  twelve 
letters  this  morning,  it  is  quite  certain  that  a  long  letter  is 
impossible.  I  think  I  must  have  failed — indeed  I  am  sure  I 
failed — to  make  my  meaning  clear  in  my  last.  I  never  chal- 
lenged the  music  of  the  verses,  but  their  adaptation  to  music. 
What  reads  perfectly  may  sing  badly.  The  illustration  I  selected 
you  missed  through  my  bad  hand -writing.  It  was  from  the 
verse — 

I  would  not  with  swift-winged  zeal 
On  the  world's  errands  go,  etc. 

When  this  verse  is  read  there  is  no  need  to  let  the  accent  fall 
on  the :  the  two  first  syllables  are  read  short ;  but  when  they  are 
sung,  the  accent  strikes  with  full  force  on  the  article,  and  the 
effect  is,  I  need  not  say,  very  unfortunate.  I  think  that  your 
hymns  have  the  genuine  lyrical  passion  in  them,  and  all  I 
suggest  is,  that  it  is  a  thousand  pities  that  you  should  not,  in 
revising  them,  make  such  changes  in  them  as  will  remove  the 
occasional  difficulty  in  the  way  of  singing  them. 

You  are  right  and  wrong  in  saying  that  no  superficial  faults 
ever  hurt  anything  really  good:  right,  for  the  "faults,"  if  I  may 
presume  to  call  them  so,  do  not  interfere  with  the  private  read- 
ing and  enjoyment  of  the  hymns  ;  wrong,  for  they  do  interfere, 
more  or  less,  with  their  being  sung.     For  myself,  I  feel  that  to 


22S  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

give  people  hymns  to  sing  is  one  of  the  noblest  services  which  a 
man  can  render  to  the  Church.  The  hymns  of  yours  which  we  are 
constantly  singing  have,  I  believe,  greatly  contributed  to  the  force 
and  joy  of  the  church  at  Carr's  Lane ;  and  it  is  a  real  trouble 
to  me  that  we  cannot  sing  more  of  them,  and  that  occasionally 
in  those  we  do  sing  there  comes  a  line  which  will  not  run 
pleasantly  with  any  possible  tune ;  or  a  word  which  practically 
belongs  to  a  foreign  language,  so  far  as  very  many  of  those  are 
concerned  who  enter  most  fully  into  the  thought  and  passion  of 
even  your  best  achievements.  Now,  my  dear  fellow,  I  have  got 
it  off  my  conscience.  I  have  been  "faithful,"  as  people  say,  and 
that  means  "unpleasant."     Bear  with  me  for  I  love  you. 

After  many  interruptions  and  long  delay  the  book  was 
finished  and  came  into  use  at  Carr's  Lane.  It  bears 
obvious  traces  of  the  conditions  under  which  it  was  pro- 
duced, and  of  the  editor's  methods.  There  are  changes 
that  cannot  easily  be  justified  from  the  literary  point  of 
view,  and  the  lines  that  have  been  modified  are  not  sever- 
ally indicated.  In  too  many  cases  the  hymn  as  printed 
has  been  taken  from  some  other  collection  without  com- 
parison with  the  original.  In  short,  it  is  the  work  of  an 
over-busy  man  devoid  of  the  lyric  strain  ;  serviceable  for 
its  special  purpose,  and  interesting  as  a  monument  of 
character,  but  wanting  in  finish  and  in  art. 


CHAPTER    X 

THE    CHAIRMANSHIP    OF    THE    UNION 

The  Congregational  Union — Dale  elected  Chairman — Addresses  from  the 
Chair:  "  Christ  and  the  Controversies  of  Christendom";  "The  Holy 
Spirit  in  relation  to  the  Ministry,  the  Worship,  and  the  Work  of  the 
Church" — The  title  "Reverend" — Death  of  his  father — Union  Sermon 
at  Swansea  :  "  The  Communion  of  Saints  " — The  Presence  of  Christ  in 
the  Church— The  basis  of  Congregationalism. 

The  Congregational  system  is  not  sufficiently  organic  to 
admit  any  amplitude  of  official  distinctions  ;  indeed, 
strictly  speaking,  it  has  no  official  distinctions  at  all.  A 
Congregational  church  is  independent — free  from  external 
control,  admitting  its  own  members,  electing  its  own 
pastor,  enforcing  its  own  rule  of  discipline.  Even  the 
colleges  for  the  education  of  the  ministry  are  subject  to 
no  central  authority ;  each  has  its  special  constituency 
and  its  separate  committee.  The  only  denominational 
recognition  of  eminence  and  service  is  afforded  by  the 
Congregational  Union,  which  stands  in  a  somewhat  peculiar 
relation  to  the  churches  included  in  it.  Its  origin  is 
comparatively  recent,  dating  back  only  as  far  as  the  year 
1 8  3 1  ;  so  that  it  cannot  be  regarded  as  in  any  way 
essential  to  the  genius  of  Congregationalism.  The  Union 
is  a  voluntary  association  :  no  Congregational  church  is 
bound  to  join  it.  It  possesses  no  such  powers  as  belong 
to  the  General  Assembly  of  Presbyterianism  or  to  the 
Wesleyan  Conference.  It  has  no  title  to  legislate  for 
Congregationalism  as  a  whole  :  its  constitution  expressly 
provides  that  it  shall  not  serve  as  a  court  of  appeal.  Its 
functions    are   humbler  and   more   restricted — to   provide 


230  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

opportunity  for  consultation,  to  strengthen  fraternal  rela- 
tions between  the  churches  of  its  own  order,  and  to 
facilitate  such  combined  action  as  may  occasionally  be 
deemed  advisable.  Destitute  of  constitutional  prerogative, 
it  claims  no  authority  in  matters  of  faith.  The  unanimous 
vote  of  its  members  could  not  depose  the  pastor  of  the 
humblest  village  church ;  neither  could  it  require  sub- 
scription to  any  dogma  from  a  solitary  believer.  Two 
years  after  its  formation,  and  once  again  in  1878,  the 
Union  by  "  declaration "  or  resolution  has  stated  in 
general  terms  the  theological  position  of  its  members  ; 
but  the  distinction  between  such  a  Confession  and  a 
Creed  has  always  been  kept  in  view,  and  a  Confession  of 
Faith  has  never  been  turned  by  the  application  of  force 
or  constraint  into  what  the  Savoy  Declaration  describes  as 
"  exactions  and  impositions  of  Faith." 

Modern  as  it  is,  however,  and  in  spite  of  all  limitations, 
the  institution  has  been  of  service,  and  it  has  taken  firm 
root :  very  few  Congregational  churches  are  outside  it.  Its 
discussions  have  helped  to  mould  the  thought  of  the 
churches  ;  their  policy  in  many  directions  has  been  guided 
by  its  decisions.  The  Chairmanship — an  annual  appoint- 
ment— is  the  highest  honour  that  the  Union  can  confer, 
and  the  office  of  preacher  at  the  autumnal  session  is  also 
invested  with  special  distinction.  Dale  was  elected  to 
the  Chair  for  the  year  1869,  and  preached  the  sermon  at 
Swansea  in  1871 — reversing  the  usual  order.  He  must 
have  been  almost  the  youngest  Chairman  that  the  Union 
has  had,  and  the  choice  of  a  man  not  yet  forty  was  a 
tribute  of  no  common  respect. 

These  three  utterances — the  two  addresses  from  the 
Chair  at  the  spring  and  autumn  sessions,  and  the  sermon 
— may  well  stand  together,  as  representing  the  substance 
of  his  teaching  at  that  time  ;  they  also  mark  a  period  of 
transition  in  his  theological  thought,  during  which  the 
centre  of  interest  began  to  shift  from  one  great  truth  to 
another.  One  of  his  later  letters  recalls  the  rapture  that 
came  to  him  with  "  the  discovery  that  Christ  was  alive  "  ; 
for  weeks,  he  says,  he  could  think  of  nothing  else,  could 


THE  CHAIRMANSHIP  OF  THE  UNION  231 

preach  about  nothing  else.  The  first  fervour  abated,  but 
to  the  end  of  his  ministry  the  thought  of  the  Living  Christ 
remained  dominant  over  him,  and  in  the  first  of  his  two 
addresses  from  the  Chair  its  influence  was  visibly  supreme. 

When  he  spoke  the  whole  outlook  was  dark  and 
stormy.  Discontent  was  gathering  its  forces  for  an  Aged  39. 
onslaught  on  the  social  and  political  order.  Rome  was 
beginning  to  reassert  its  claims  with  unwonted  vigour  and 
assurance ;  English  Protestantism  was  assailed  from 
within  as  well  as  from  without.  The  revolt  of  criticism 
against  the  authority  of  revelation  had  culminated  in  a 
contemptuous  rejection  of  the  supernatural  element  in 
religion.  It  was  a  time  of  conflict  and  unrest,  and  he 
chose  for  his  theme  "  Christ  and  the  Controversies  of 
Christendom." 

While  acknowledging  that  the  problems  of  the  day 
should  not  be  ignored,  and  that  opponents  on  occasion 
must  be  met  in  open  conflict — confronted  on  their  own 
ground  and  combated  with  their  own  weapons  —  he 
asserted  that  by  "  preaching  Christ "  the  Christian  ministry 
would  best  discharge  its  duty  to  this  dark  and  troubled 
age.  The  world  had  not  grown  weary  of  Him  yet ;  the 
eagerness  with  which  it  had  welcomed  Renan's  Vie  de 
Jesus — notwithstanding  its  fantastic  distortion — and  the 
solemn  scrutiny  of  Ecce  Homo,  placed  this  beyond  doubt. 
But  it  was  of  Christ  Himself  that  men  must  speak  ; 
description  of  scenery,  discussion  of  subsidiary  details, 
the  amplification  of  isolated  precepts  or  of  fragmentary 
thoughts,  would  be  of  no  effect.  The  actual  story  of  His 
Life  and  Death,  the  presentation  of  His  Personality,  the 
interpretation  of  His  Character, — on  these  and  on  no 
inferior  forces  must  the  Church  rely  in  its  struggle  with 
unbelief.  Christ  must  be  suffered  to  speak  for  Himself — 
to  bear  witness  of  Himself.  In  the  struggle  with  unbelief, 
and  in  allthe  controversies  to  which  the  Church  is  com- 
mitted, this  will  prove  the  surest  method.  Neither  in 
morals  nor  in  religion  are  our  convictions  determined  by 
intellectual  processes  alone.  Our  conception  of  duty  rests 
on  foundations  less  precarious  than  proofs  which  appeal 


232  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

to  the  mind.  Men  believe  in  God,  not  because  His  exist- 
ence has  been  demonstrated  to  them,  but  because  they 
cannot  help  believing  ;  "  their  faith  is  the  act,  not  of  the 
logical  understanding,  but  of  the  Higher  Reason." 

If  this  be  so,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  a  Divine 
revelation  will  appeal  immediately  to  the  same  regal  faculty 
of  our  nature  ?  When  God  is  silent,  the  soul  is  sure  that  He  is 
near  ;  when  He  speaks,  will  it  not  recognise  His  voice  ?  When 
God  is  invisible,  the  soul  affirms  His  majesty  and  glory ;  when 
He  personally  appears,  will  it  not  instinctively  adore  ?  Of  all 
the  innumerable  saints  who  have  trusted  in  Christ  for  salvation, 
how  many  could  have  given  a  demonstration  of  the  reasonable- 
ness of  their  faith?  They  believed,  not  because  they  were 
critics  and  scholars,  but  because  to  all  the  higher  faculties  of 
their  nature  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  was  irresistible. 
They  did  not  ask  for  proof;  proof  was  unnecessary.  "We  have 
seen  Him  ourselves" — to  see  Him  was  enough — "and  know 
that  this  is  indeed  the  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world."1 

Similarly  the  revelation  of  the  Person  of  Christ  will 
crush  and  expel  the  prejudice  against  the  miraculous.  It 
is  not  by  argument  that  the  mass  of  men  have  been  led 
to  reject  the  miraculous.  They  have  been  led  to  do  so  by 
a  general  tendency  of  thought,  not  by  any  specific  process 
of  reasoning.  Historical  evidence,  however  strong,  will 
not  touch  men.  Their  reluctance  to  admit  the  possibility 
of  miracles  does  not  depend  on  evidence,  and  no  evidence 
can  remove  it.  The  one  way  of  dealing  with  such  minds 
is  so  to  "  preach  Christ,  that  the  strong  bias  against 
miracles  in  general  shall  be  overborne  and  subdued  by  a 
passionate  longing  to  believe  in  Him." 

So  again  with  the  philosophy  of  Comte,  which  abandons 
as  insoluble  all  inquiries  relating  to  the  invisible  and  eternal. 
Men  are  Positivists,  not  because  Comte  has  demon- 
strated that  the  philosophy  of  the  past  deals  with  problems 
lying  beyond  the  range  of  human  faculties,  but  because 
they  have  lost  heart  and  courage  for  such  explorations. 
How  can  this  indifference  be  dispelled  and  this  self- 
abasement  remedied  ? 

1   Christ  and  the  Controversies  of  Christendom,  p.  15. 


THE  CHAIRMANSHIP  OF  THE  UNION  233 

If,  as  M.  Comte  admirably  says,  the  loftiest  aim  of  all  the 
sciences  is  not  to  minister  to  the  arts  of  life,  but  to  satisfy  the 
fundamental  necessity  of  the  intellect  to  know  the  laws  of 
phenomena,  we  must  try  to  quicken  and  to  intensify  that  nobler 
necessity  which  has  impelled  men  in  all  countries  and  in  all  ages 
to  pursue  with  restless  and  agonising  earnestness  a  still  deeper 
knowledge.  We  must  try  to  unchain  the  thoughts  which  were 
wont  to  wander  through  eternity,  but  which  are  now  imprisoned 
within  the  narrow  walls  of  the  physical  sciences.  We  must  dis- 
cover how  the  higher  nature  of  man  can  be  roused  from  that 
fatal  sleep  which  has  made  him  indifferent  to  his  origin,  to  his 
present  relations  to  the  invisible  world,  and  to  his  destiny  beyond 
the  grave.  The  moral  and  spiritual  faculties  must  be  appealed 
to.  The  conscience  must  be  awakened.  The  heart  must  be 
touched.  And  I  know  not  how  we  can  do  this  so  well  as  by 
telling  the  story  of  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.1 

The  same  method  was  prescribed  in  the  controversy 
with  Rome.  Keenly  alive  to  the  importance  of  the  ques- 
tions at  issue  between  Roman  Catholicism  and  Protest- 
antism, Dale  was  not  one  of  those  who  can  see  nothing 
but  superstition  and  corruption  in  that  ancient  church  ;  to 
slight  or  to  scorn  it  he  regarded  as  possible  only  to 
ignorance  or  presumption.  He  knew  how  much  might  be 
said — how  much  had  been  said — on  either  side  of  the 
case,  and  he  had  escaped  from  the  delusion  that  the  prin- 
ciples of  Protestantism  must  necessarily  carry  conviction 
to  the  heart  of  any  fair-minded  Romanist.  Reason  alone 
and  unaided  would  never  prevail.  Elaborate  arguments 
directed  to  prove  the  great  doctrine  of  Justification  by 
Faith,  experience  had  shown,  would  have  little  efficacy  ; 
habit  and  use  would  soon  efface  the  impression  of  the 
moment.  If  the  truth  were  ever  to  be  apprehended  by 
those  who  now  rejected  it,  that  could  be  only  through  a  new 
and  vivid  realisation  of  all  that  was  involved  in  the  Death 
on  the  Cross.  That  had  transformed  Luther ;  it  might 
transform  others  also.  In  the  same  way  he  approached 
the  controversies  that  surround  the  Priesthood  and  the 
Eucharist.  To  combat  false  doctrine  with  mere  negations 
was  futile ;  in  what  way,  he  asked  himself,  does  the  teaching 

1   Christ  and  the  Controversies  of  Christendom,  pp.  18,  19. 


234  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

of  Rome  respond  to  the  demands  of  human  nature?     What 
are  the  instincts,  the  emotions  to  which  it  appeals  ? 

The  Priesthood  owes  its  power  to  the  fact  that  men 
will  always  trust  a  living  priest  rather  than  a  "  method  of 
salvation,"  or  a  set  of  theological  propositions  printed  in 
a  book.  Transubstantiation,  too,  brings  the  believer  to  a 
Person,  not  to  a  ceremony.  In  the  Eucharist  he  is 
assured  that  Christ  is  personally  present ;  and  it  is  the  per- 
sonal presence  of  its  Redeemer  for  which  the  soul  craves. 

The  real  strength  of  the  theory  of  Transubstantiation  and  the 
theory  of  the  Real  Presence  lies  in  the  impression  of  multitudes 
of  men,  that  if  they  surrender  their  faith  in  the  awful  mystery  of 
the  Eucharist,  Christ  will  seem  no  longer  near  to  them.  If  He 
is  not  present  in  a  supernatural  way  on  the  altar,  they  think  that 
they  must  lose  Him  altogether;  and  they  are  accustomed  to 
speak  about  our  own  service  as  a  mere  "commemoration  of  an 
absent  Lord."  The  exigencies  of  the  spirit  are  more  imperious 
than  the  exigencies  of  the  intellect.  No  logic  can  master  the 
craving  of  the  soul  for  Christ.  We  must  satisfy  the  craving,  or 
the  error  will  not  be  renounced.  We  must  preach  Christ — the 
living  Christ — till  men  shall  feel  that  He  is  so  near  to  them  that 
the  intervention  of  the  priest  is  an  impertinence  and  an  affront. 
We  must  preach  Christ — the  living  Christ — till  men  shall  feel 
that  He  is  near  to  them  always  and  everywhere,  and  that  His 
alleged  union  with  the  consecrated  elements  is  rather  a  hind- 
rance than  a  help  to  faith.1 

The  same  principle  received  a  further  application  in 
ecclesiastical  controversy.  In  discussing  questions  of 
church  order  and  government,  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  Christian  Churches  exist  by  the  will  of  Christ ;  that 
they  are  not  "  the  artificial  creations  of  human  sagacity 
or  political  laws  "  ;  that  the  Spirit  of  Christ  dwells  in  their 
true  members  ;  that  He  is  their  living  Ruler  and  Head. 

Christ,  the  living  Christ,  is  the  Ruler  and  Head  of  the 
Church.  There  is  scarcely  an  argument  which  is  urged  in 
support  of  national  ecclesiastical  establishments  which  is  not 
paralysed  by  that  solitary  truth.  Nearly  every  plea  for  a  State 
Church  derives  its  force  from  the  disposition  of  men  to  think  of 
the  Church  as  being  nothing  more  than  a  great  human  organisa- 
tion for  maintaining  Christian  learning  and  propagating  religious 
1   Christ  and  the  Controversies  of  Christendom,  pp.  26,  27. 


THE  CHAIRMANSHIP  OF  THE  UNION  235 

truth,  or  for  civilising  mankind  and  improving  the  morality  of 
nations.  Let  Christ  be  revealed  as  the  actual  King  of  the 
Church,  and  nearly  all  the  arguments  for  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ments are  answered.  Try  whether  it  is  possible  to  state  the  case 
to  Him. 

Will  any  one  venture  to  say  to  Christ,  There  is  not  love 
enough  in  the  hearts  of  Thy  friends  to  bear  the  expenses  of 
maintaining  Thy  worship  and  of  preaching  Thy  Gospel ;  the  cost 
is  heavy ;  they  will  not,  or  they  cannot  bear  it ;  but  we  will  use 
our  political  power  to  compel  the  unwilling  to  take  their  share 
of  the  burden  ?  Yet  this  is  one  of  the  chief  arguments  for  a 
national  establishment. 

Or  will  any  one  say  to  Christ,  Thy  servants  in  whom  Thy 
Spirit  dwells  are  fanatical  and  unjust ;  if  the  government  of  the 
Church  is  left  to  them,  they  will  be  guilty  of  tyranny,  and  no 
freedom  will  be  left  for  those  to  whom  Thou  art  revealing  Truth 
which  Thy  Church  has  not  yet  received  or  understood ;  it  will 
be  better  to  remit  all  questions  concerning  the  character  and 
doctrine  of  the  pastors  of  Thy  Church  to  men,  who,  though  they 
may  not  be  taught  of  Thee,  are  familiar  with  human  laws,  and 
who,  though  they  may  have  no  love  for  Thyself,  love  justice  and 
liberty  better  than  Thy  most  ardent  friends  ;  whether  Judas  shall 
continue  an  Apostle  is  likely  to  be  determined  unjustly  by  his 
brethren ;  it  will  be  safer  to  consult  Pilate  or  to  appeal  to 
Caesar  ?  Yet  this  is  one  of  the  chief  arguments  for  a  national 
establishment. 

Arguments  which  are  gravely  urged  by  statesmen  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  no  man  would  be  profane  enough  to 
address  to  Christ.  Address  them  to  Him,  and  they  require  no 
reply.1 

Pursuing  the  same  line  of  treatment,  he  went  on  to  deal 
with  the  social  problems — the  estrangement  of  class  from 
class,  the  antagonism  between  labour  and  capital,  the 
ignorance,  the  poverty,  and  the  vice  that  we  have  received 
in  entail  from  the  past.  To  follow  out  the  argument  in 
detail  would  be  superfluous,  but  one  point  should  be 
noticed  :  an  emphatic  declaration  that  the  time  had  come 
to  establish,  a  national  system  of  education  was  received 
by  the  majority  of  the  audience  with  great  enthusiasm. 

Every  morning  and  every  night  our  people  pray  "  Thy  will 
be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."     Let  us  make  them  under- 

1   Christ  and  the  Controversies  of  Christendom,  pp.  36,  37. 


236  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

stand  that  it  is  not  Christ's  Will  that  thousands  of  English  chil- 
dren should  grow  up  without  the  most  elementary  rudiments  of 
education ;  and,  since  this  is  a  region  in  which  the  Will  of  Christ 
may  be  enforced  by  human  law,  let  us  ask  them  in  His  name  to 
throw  around  every  child  that  is  born  into  the  country  an  in- 
violable protection  against  the  carelessness  or  stupidity,  or 
covetousness  or  necessity  of  its  parents,  and  defend,  so  far  as  we 
can,  with  all  the  authority  and  power  of  the  State,  the  child's 
right  to  receive  the  education  which  the  Will  of  Christ  requires 
to  be  given  to  it.1 

For  most  men  the  night  before  the  address  is  more 
trying  than  the  morning  of  its  delivery  :  such,  at  any  rate, 
was  Dale's  experience  ;  the  presence  of  the  assembly  and 
the  associations  of  the  meeting-place  stimulate  and  sustain. 
But  in  his  case  the  strain  was  relieved  by  the  kindly 
thought  of  Dr.  Allon,  whose  guest  he  was  during  the  week. 
Allon  had  purposely  kept  the  evening  free  that  he  might 
hear  the  address  read  aloud  in  his  own  study,  and  might 
help  with  criticism  or  suggestion.  It  was  an  act  of  char- 
acteristic sympathy,  and  the  self-possession  and  ease  with 
which  Dale  discharged  his  task  next  day — after  the  first 
sentence  his  voice  never  faltered — were  largely  due  to  the 
generous  encouragement  of  his  friend. 

The  address  at  the  autumnal  session  held  at  Wolver- 
hampton, on  "  The  Holy  Spirit  in  relation  to  the  Ministry, 
the  Worship,  and  the  Work  of  the  Church,"  was  on 
different  lines.2  It  was  a  protest  against  undue  reliance 
on  mechanical  methods  for  spiritual  ends,  and  a  plea  for  a 
larger  freedom  of  spiritual  energy.  Dealing  with  definite 
questions  by  which  the  Congregational  churches  were  then 
agitated  or  divided,  as  it  excited  strong  enthusiasm  so  it 
also  provoked  some  vigorous  criticism. 

Much  was  misinterpreted,  misconstrued.  Some,  for  the 
second  time,  detected  Romish  proclivities  in  an  expression 
of  admiration  for  the  courage  with  which  the  CEcumenical 
Council,  lately  convened,  was  preparing  to  confront  the 
revolt  of  Europe  and  to  reassert  the   supremacy  of  the 

1  Christ  and  the  Controversies  of  Christendom,  p.  44. 

2  The  Holy  Spirit  in  relation  to  the  Ministry,  the  Worship,  and  the  Work 
of  the  Church.     London,  1869. 


THE  CHAIRMANSHIP  OF  THE  UNION  237 

Church  throughout  the  entire  domain  of  thought  and  know- 
ledge ;  "  moral  grandeur,"  in  any  shape  or  form,  they 
refused  to  attribute  to  a  system  which  they  both  hated  and 
feared.  Other  portions  of  the  address  encountered  more 
serious  disapproval.  In  discussing  the  relation  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  the  Work  of  the  Church,  Dale  drew  a  broad 
distinction  between  the  "  restless  activity "  by  which  our 
age  is  characterised,  and  the  spirit  of  early  Christianity. 
The  modern  Church  scatters  its  labourers  and  its  litera- 
ture broadcast  through  the  world.  While  it  maintains  a 
vast  organisation  of  official  workers,  it  strenuously  asserts 
the  necessity  of  individual  effort,  demanding  that  every 
Christian  man  shall  take  his  part  in  the  great  enterprise 
of  seeking  and  saving  the  lost.  The  duty  is  confessed 
even  when  it  is  not  discharged.  And  yet  in  the  New 
Testament  it  is  difficult  to  discover  any  direct  precept  in 
which  this  obligation  is  imposed  on  all  Christian  men. 
How  can  we  account  for  an  omission  that  cannot  be 
accidental  ?      How  explain  a  silence  so  startling  ? 

The  explanation  is  simple.  We  ought  to  do  our  utmost 
to  save  men  from  sin  and  eternal  death  ;  "  but  if  we  attempt 
to  save  them  only  because  we  ought,  we  shall  most  certainly 
fail."  Like  Christ  Himself,  when  He  came  down  to  earth 
to  redeem  our  race,  we  must  be  "  moved,  not  by  con- 
science, but  by  compassion."  It  is  as  true  in  relation  to 
Christian  work  as  to  the  Christian  life  that  "  we  are  not 
under  law,  but  under  grace."  The  authority  of  conscience, 
alone  and  unaided,  will  never  create  in  the  Church  the 
zeal  and  the  energy  necessary  for  the  salvation  of  the 
world.  "  We,  too,  whether  ministers  or  unofficial  members 
of  the  Church,  if  we  are  to  preach  the  gospel  as  Christ 
preached  it,  must  preach,  not  because  we  ought,  but 
because  we  must."  To  create  this  divine  passion,  "  Law 
is  powerless  ;  it  is  a  supernatural  gift." 

The  speaker's  intention  should  surely  have  been 
intelligible  to  all  ;  but  it  was  misapprehended  not  only  by 
some  of  those  who  listened,  but  by  some  who  read.  He 
was  represented — and  evidently  without  conscious  unfair- 
ness— as    denying    our    personal    responsibility    for    the 


238  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

salvation  of  others,  and    as  seeking  to  deaden  the  con- 
science to  a  supreme  duty. 

What  he  had  to  say  about  Worship  passed  without 
challenge — an  unusual  experience  ;  for  as  a  rule  contention 
most  readily  arises  out  of  matters  of  ritual  which  appeal 
to  all  than  out  of  doctrines  or  principles  which  are  grasped 
only  by  the  few.  The  principle  that  he  upheld  was  the 
spiritual  nature  of  the  great  acts  of  prayer  and  praise  :  in 
prayer  it  is  the  Spirit  that  "  helpeth  our  infirmities  "  ;  in 
thanksgiving  we  are  filled  with  "  the  joy  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 
But  even  in  our  rapture  and  our  reverence  it  is  necessary 
to  guard  against  a  spurious  and  unspiritual  emotion,  pro- 
duced by  inferior  and  merely  natural  agencies. 

The  problem  to  be  solved  by  those  who  are  interested  in  the 
aesthetics  of  public  worship  is  singularly  delicate.  They  have  to 
consider  how  they  can  secure  perfect  freedom  for  the  highest 
activities  of  our  spiritual  nature ;  but  they  must  not  attempt  to 
stimulate  and  intensify  these  activities.  Reverential  awe,  peaceful 
trust,  the  fervour  of  love,  the  exultation  of  hope,  can  be  created 
only  by  the  Holy  Ghost  j  all  that  Art  can  do  is  to  provide  for 
these  supernatural  affections  a  just  and  adequate  expression.  It 
may  provide  the  instrument  for  the  Divine  hand,  but  must  not 
attempt  itself  to  strike  the  chords.  Physical  restlessness  may  be 
soothed,  and  the  gloom  of  physical  depression  may  be  driven 
away  by  its  spell ;  it  may  cast  out  the  "  evil  spirit  "  which  some- 
times takes  possession  of  us ;  but  when  this  is  done,  it  must  leave 
the  soul  vacant  for  a  diviner  guest,  and  its  own  voice  must  not 
be  heard  in  the  temple.  The  true  solution  of  this  problem  will 
vary  with  the  varying  culture  of  the  Church  and  the  varying 
temperament  of  nations ;  but  I  am  Puritan  enough  to  believe 
that  the  higher  life  suffers  infinitely  less  from  those  forms  of 
service  in  which  there  is  neither  beauty,  nobleness,  nor  pathos, 
than  from  those  which  in  themselves  are  so  rich,  so  stately,  and 
so  pathetic  that  they  excite,  even  in  the  undevout,  emotions 
which  are  easily  mistaken  for  the  sorrows  of  a  supernatural 
penitence  and  the  triumph  of  a  supernatural  joy. l 

The  spirit  of  prayer,  no  less  than  the  spirit  of  thanks- 
giving, must  come  from  the  Holy  Ghost.  Changes  in  the 
arrangement  and  order  of  service  may  be  advisable  ;  but 
change  will  never  give  us  the  power  we  need. 

»    The  Holy  Spirit,  pp.  34,  35. 


THE  CHAIRMANSHIP  OF  THE  UNION  239 

When  we  have  abandoned  as  wearisome  that  "long  prayer" 
which  was  consecrated  by  the  usage  of  two  centuries,  it  is  not 
certain  that  our  shorter  prayers  will  be  offered  with  more  faith 
and  fervour ;  and  in  a  few  years  our  churches  and  congregations 
may  become  weary  of  them  too.  When  these  in  their  turn  are 
abandoned,  we  may  weave  into  beautiful  liturgies  the  words  in 
which  the  saints  of  other  ages  and  of  other  lands  confessed  sin, 
and  sought  Divine  light  and  strength  and  peace  for  themselves 
and  all  mankind ;  but  we  shall  find  that  the  words  of  saints  will 
not  always  inspire  saintly  devotion.  We  shall  never  be  able,  by 
any  artifices  of  liturgical  arrangement,  or  by  any  beauty  of 
devotional  thought,  to  charm  the  impenitent  into  a  sorrowful 
confession  of  sin,  or  the  undevout  into  reverential  worship. 

In  our  public  prayer  we  must  think  less  than  we  have  been 
accustomed  to  think  of  the  taste,  the  criticism,  the  impatience  of 
men  who  do  not  pray.  In  the  presence  of  the  awful  perils  from 
which  we  ask  to  be  redeemed,  of  the  infinite  blessings  we  desire 
to  obtain,  and  of  the  bright  perfections  we  adore,  we  must  not  be 
troubled  by  the  indifference  and  the  weariness  of  those  to  whom 
these  transcendent  terrors  and  glories  are  all  unreal.  When  we 
pray,  our  great  design  is  not  to  move  men,  but  to  move  God ; 
and  if  we  fail  to  do  that,  we  fail  altogether. l 

In  dealing  with  the  Ministry  of  the  Church  Dale  took  a 
line  that  must  have  been  quite  unexpected.  Dwelling  on 
the  supernatural  qualifications  required  for  an  effective 
ministry — qualifications  that  no  human  effort  can  secure, 
though  they  may  be  cultivated  and  developed — he  asserted 
that  while  the  Church  can  never  dispense  with  its  scholars 
and  thinkers,  it  is  inclined  to  attach  an  exaggerated  and 
almost  superstitious  importance  to  academic  training,  and 
that  to  pass  all  men,  however  diverse  in  earlier  training 
and  natural  gifts,  through  the  same  mill  is  irrational  and 
perverse.  Colleges,  he  said,  "  are  for  men  who  are  capable 
of  becoming  scholars";  but  are  the  supernatural  gifts 
required  for  the  ministry  never  imparted  to  those  who  are 
not  ?  May  not  the  divine  call  come  to  a  man  after  he 
is  married,  when  it  is  practically  impossible  for  him  to 
become  a  student  ? 

Among  us  is  the  certificate  of  a  college  committee  to  be 
invested  with  the  same  mysterious  importance  that  belongs  to 
1  The  Holy  Spirit,  pp.  37,  38. 


240  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

episcopal  ordination  in  some  other  Christian  Churches  ?  Is  it 
necessary  to  the  validity  of  our  orders  ?  Is  any  symbol  of 
inferiority  to  be  branded  on  the  men  who  do  not  happen  to 
possess  it?1 

While  pleading  for  larger  freedom  in  this  direction,  he 
also  desired  to  see  evangelists  rising  up  among  the  working 
classes,  familiar  with  the  daily  experience  of  those  to  whom 
they  appealed,  and  professional  men  or  men  of  business 
prepared  to  give  a  part  of  their  time  to  the  duties  of  the 
pastorate.  Many  of  these  found  leisure  to  undertake 
public  service  in  many  forms  ;  why  not  this  higher  service 
also,  when  they  possessed  the  requisite  gifts  ? 

It  is  one  of  the  evil  traditions  which  we  have  received  from 
ecclesiastical  communities,  founded  on  principles  which  are 
altogether  different  from  our  own,  that  no  man  can  become  a 
minister,  and  yet  "  abide  in  the  same  calling  wherein  he  was 
called."  It  seems  to  be  supposed  that  the  boast  of  the  great 
Apostle,  "  These  hands  have  ministered  to  my  necessities," 
would  be  the  shame  and  dishonour  of  a  modern  pastor.  It  is 
this  which  lies  at  the  root  of  many,  though  not  of  all,  the  evils 
against  which  we  are  maintaining  a  feeble  and  ineffectual  struggle 
by  ignominious  ministerial  charities,  and  by  schemes  for  the 
augmentation  of  ministerial  incomes.  It",  lies  at  the  root  of 
graver  evils.  It  restrains  the  free  action  of  the  Spirit  of  God ; 
the  fire  which  He  kindles  is  quenched ;  the  call  which  He  gives 
is  resisted ;  and  He  is  grieved  by  the  exclusion  from  the  highest 
forms  of  Christian  service  of  men  on  whom  He  has  conferred 
the  richest  grace  and  the  noblest  gifts.  We  "  make  void  "  the 
promises  of  God  and  our  own  faith  through  our  "traditions."2 

In  advocating  such  a  departure  from  the  common 
practice  of  Congregationalism,  he  did  not  assume  that 
this  method  would  ever  supplant  the  normal  system  of 
the  pastorate.  Had  it  been  possible,  he  would  not  have 
wished  it.  And  he  was  well  aware  that  while  few  men 
are  capable  of  combining  two  such  opposite  sets  of  duties, 
still  fewer  congregations  are  content  with  teaching  and 
oversight  that  engage  only  a  man's  leisure.  All  that  he 
sought  or  hoped  for  was  that  the  arrangement  might  be 
accepted  as  an  occasional  resource  in  the  case  of  weaker 

1    The  Holy  Spirit,  p.  20.  2  Ibid.  pp.  24,  25. 


THE  CHAIRMANSHIP  OF  THE  UNION  241 

churches.  His  appeal,  however,  was  construed  as  an 
attack  upon  the  ministerial  office.  He  was  accused  of  a 
tendency  to  "  Brethrenism,"  which  saps  the  authority  and 
overthrows  the  responsibility  of  the  pastorate  ;  of  seeking 
to  exalt  ignorance  and  fanaticism,  and  of  disparaging  the 
necessity  and  even  the  value  of  ministerial  education — a 
charge  singularly  inconsistent  with  his  zeal  for  Spring  Hill 
College  and  his  passion  for  theology. 

He  knew  that  he  had  been  treading  on  dangerous 
ground,  and  that  his  utterances  would  not  command  any- 
thing like  a  unanimous  assent.  In  his  closing  words  he 
acknowledged  that  he  had  criticised  very  freely  some 
of  the  traditions  of  Congregationalism,  and  some  of 
its  tendencies  which  he  regarded  as  injurious.  But  he 
offered  no  apology.  "  I  believe,"  he  said,  "  that  you  will 
never  tolerate  in  this  chair  a  man  who  shrinks  from  using 
the  prerogative  of  perfect  freedom  of  speech.  Without 
that  this  honourable  position  would  lose  all  its  worth,  and 
to  accept  the  distinction  would  be  to  submit  to  degrada- 
tion." The  words  went  home.  However  divided  in 
opinion,  the  assembly  recognised  the  candour  and  the 
courage  of  its  Chairman,  and  in  place  of  the  customary 
vote  of  thanks  it  was  decided  that  every  delegate  should  be 
supplied  with  a  copy  of  the  address,  that  it  might  be  read, 
in  whole  or  in  part,  to  the  church  that  he  represented  ; 
such  a  compliment  was  then,  probably,  without  precedent. 

In  much  of  what  he  said  about  the  ministry,  Dale 
must  have  had  a  particular  case  in  his  mind,  though  he 
did  not  allude  to  it.  Not  long  before,  he  had  taken  part 
in  the  opening  services  of  a  new  church  at  Saltley,  one  of 
the  outlying  districts  of  the  town.  Its  history  was  excep- 
tional. A  friend  of  his — Mr.  Ingall,  an  architect — had 
gathered  about  him  a  congregation  of  working  people  for 
whom  he  had  conducted  regular  worship  in  a  hired  room  ; 
then  they  had  built  a  place  of  worship  for  themselves  at 
their  own  cost,  and  Mr.  Ingall  had  become  their  pastor, 
while  still  continuing  in  his  profession.  Dale  was  keenly 
interested  in  the  experiment,  and  rejoiced  in  its  success. 
At  all  times  he  asserted  Mr.  Ingall's  right  to  recognition 
R 


242  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

as  a  minister,  and  vigorously  repelled  any  attempt  to  im- 
peach it.  St.  Paul  himself,  he  argued,  was  a  tent-maker : 
"  Why  should  the  construction  of  more  permanent  buildings 
interfere  with  the  validity  of  spiritual  acts,  when  the  con- 
struction of  goat's -hair  tents  left  the  apostolic  power 
altogether  untouched  ?  "  He  had  already  abandoned  the 
garb  of  his  profession — the  white  tie  and  the  conventional 
black  coat.  Now,  in  his  unwillingness  to  separate  his 
position  from  that  of  his  friend,  he  discarded  the  title 
of  "  Reverend,"  which  he  saw  would  inevitably  preserve  an 
artificial  distinction  between  the  ministers  of  one  type  and 
those  of  the  other.  The  title  itself  seemed  to  him  un- 
warrantable, as  claiming  exceptional  consideration  and 
authority  in  spiritual  things,  and  injurious,  as  implying  a 
double  standard  of  personal  sanctity  for  the  laity  and 
the  clergy.  Every  Christian  he  held  to  be  in  the  truest 
sense  a  priest  ;  all  were  on  the  same  footing  before  God, 
whatever  their  calling,  and  subject  to  the  same  law  of  per- 
fection. He  felt  strongly  about  the  matter,  and  his  feeling 
grew  stronger  with  years.  To  the  end  of  his  life  he  was 
never  with  his  own  consent  described  as  "  Reverend  "  ;  and 
he  took  some  pains  to  make  his  wish  known.  In  Birming- 
ham his  action  led  to  no  difficulty,  but  elsewhere  it  caused 
some  inconvenience  and  some  heartburning.  In  some 
quarters  it  was  regarded  as  a  piece  of  professional  dis- 
loyalty, compromising  the  claims  of  the  Nonconformist 
ministry  in  general  ;  in  others  as  a  "  harmless  eccentricity." 
Strangers  were  often  perplexed  how  they  should  address 
him,  or  describe  him,  without  apparent  discourtesy.  It 
was  not  till  the  University  of  Glasgow  made  him  a  Doctor 
of  Laws  that  the  problem  was  finally  and  satisfactorily 
solved.1 

Early  in  October  1869 — -a  few  days  before  the  Union 
meetings — Dale  lost  his  father.  The  personal  relations 
between  them  had  not  been  exceptionally  close  or  intimate, 
but  there  was  no  lack  of  genuine  affection  on  either  side  ; 

1  A  full  account  of  the  reasons  which  led  him  to  discard  the  title  of 
"Reverend"  may  be  found  in  the  Cofigregadonalist,  November  1874,  pp. 
666-672. 


THE  CHAIRMANSHIP  OF  THE  UNION  243 

and  it  is  clear  that  he  himself  was  deeply  moved  by  the 
bereavement.  In  a  letter  written  many  years  later  he 
records  what  he  felt. 


To  Mr.  E.  A.  Lawrence 

itfhjuly  1893. 

I  suppose  that  you  have  felt  what  I  remember  feeling  very 
vividly  when  my  own  father  died  about  twenty  years  ago.  I 
seemed  to  be  left  in  the  front  rank  with  only  death  before  me, 
and  what  lies  beyond.  Till  then,  it  seemed  that  there  was 
another  life  before  me,  and  that  my  turn  would  not  come  till  it 
had  disappeared.  The  deep  sense  of  this  passed  away,  of  course, 
as  the  years  came  and  went,  but  the  experience  was  a  considerable 
factor  in  life. 

During  the  interval  between  the  chairmanship  of  the  Aged  41. 
Union  and  the  sermon  at  Swansea  in  1 87 1,  Dale  had 
passed  under  the  dominion  of  a  new  phase  of  truth.  No 
revolution  had  occurred — no  dynasty  had  been  dethroned — 
in  his  spiritual  realm.  The  frontiers  of  his  thought  had 
been  advanced  ;  all  that  he  had  possessed — all  that  had 
possessed  him — still  remained  intact ;  but  he  had  moved 
on  into  new  territory,  and  there  was  his  energy  con- 
centrated. 

For  years  he  had  been  filled  with  the  idea  of  the  living 
Christ  ;  now  his  mind  was  fixed  on  the  relations  that 
exist  between  those  who  believe  in  Christ  to  one  another 
and  to  Him.  Congregationalism,  in  its  modern  develop- 
ments— so  it  seemed  to  him — had  drifted  far,  and  was 
drifting  still,  into  an  excessive  individualism.  It  had 
"  exaggerated  and  misinterpreted  the  great  Protestant 
principle  that  religion  is  an  affair  that  lies  altogether 
between  man  and  his  Maker."  It  had  forgotten  that 
"  isolation  is  not  the  law  of  the  religious  life."  The 
Church,  as  conceived  by  most  of  its  members,  had  well- 
nigh  degenerated  into  "an  organisation  for  keeping  improper 
persons  from  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  for  securing  the 
election  of  well-qualified  ministers  and  deacons."  Among 
those  who  gave  any  thought  at  all  to  the  matter  not  a 
few  regarded    the    Congregational    system    as    embodying 


244  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  democratic  principle  in  its  application  to  Church 
government,  and  defended  it  on  those  lines.  The  very 
idea  of  the  Church  as  a  Divine  institution,  endowed  with 
supernatural  powers  and  enriched  with  Divine  gifts,  had 
become  alien  to  the  thought  and  temper  of  the  time  ; 
upon  Congregationalism  as  a  whole  it  had  ceased  to  exert 
any  real  influence.  In  the  sermon  on  "  The  Communion 
of  Saints,"1  and  in  an  essay  on  "The  Idea  of  the 
Church,"  2  he  began  to  recall,  so  far  as  he  was  able,  the 
conceptions  of  a  nobler  age. 

Without  entering  into  subsidiary  details,  it  will  be 
enough  to  indicate  the  outline  of  his  teaching. 

In  the  first  place,  he  asserted  the  necessity  of  spiritual 
communion  for  the  vigour  and  depth  of  the  religious  life. 
"  Fellowship  with  other  Christian  men  is  almost  as 
necessary  to  us  as  fellowship  with  God  Himself."  The 
very  law  of  our  being  forbids  us  to  live  alone.  It  is  in 
union  with  others  that  spiritual  affections  are  quickened 
and  spiritual  energies  intensified.  The  Christian  Church 
affords  that  "  Communion  of  Saints,"  without  which 
sanctity  cannot  thrive. 

The  law  of  interdependence — of  human  solidarity — he 
enforced  with  a  wealth  of  illustration.  To  follow  the 
argument  through  all  its  windings  would  be  too  long  and 
laborious  a  task.  A  few  sentences,  taken  here  and  there, 
will  suggest  its  direction. 

Christian  Theology  has  steadily  refused  to  acknowledge  that 
there  can  be  any  real  separation  between  the  individual  and  the 
life  and  fortunes  of  the  race.  It  has  elaborated  the  doctrine  of 
Original  Sin  ;  it  has  maintained  the  corruption  of  human  nature; 
it  has  spoken  of  the  Federal  Relations  of  Adam  to  all  his 
descendants.  Nothing  can  be  more  technical,  artificial,  and 
unreal  than  many  of  the  forms  in  which  the  truth  has  been 
expressed.  Perhaps  any  expression  of  it  must  necessarily  involve 
the  most  startling  paradoxes.  But  every  theological  system  which 
has  had  any  life  in  it,  has  vigorously  asserted  the  mysterious  law 

1  The  Communion  of  Saints,  London,  1S71. 

2  Ecdesia :  a  Second  Series  of  Essays  on  Theological  and  Ecclesiastical 
Questions,  edited  by  H.  R.  Reynolds,  D.D.  :  "The  Idea  of  the  Church  in 
Relation  to  Modern  Congregationalism,"    by  R.  W.  Dale,  pp.  355-412. 


THE  CHAIRMANSHIP  OF  THE  UNION  245 

by  which  we  are  involved — to  put  it  in  an  extreme,  exaggerated, 
and  offensive  form — not  only  in  the  consequences  of  each  other's 
sins,  but  in  the  very  sinfulness  of  those  sins.1 

There  is  a  wonderful  unity  binding  the  human  race  together. 
We  have  a  common  and  not  merely  an  individual  life.  We  are 
not  merely  akin  to  each  other ;  we  are  one  with  each  other.  This 
is  partly  the  reason  why  it  was  necessary  for  God  to  become 
man — if  man  was  to  be  restored  to  God.  A  new  element  had 
to  be  introduced  into  the  common  life  of  the  race.  It  was 
necessary  that  one  of  ourselves  should  stand  in  the  very  glory  of 
God  before  we  could  come  out  of  the  darkness  into  the  light.2 

We  also  need  the  inspiration  which  is  derived  from  com- 
munion with  the  supernatural  strength  of  all  those  who,  through 
Christ,  have  passed  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  We  must 
not  be  solitary  fugitives  from  the  bondage  of  our  old  and  evil 
life,  but  must  have  the  triumphant  confidence  which  comes  from 
a  vivid  consciousness  that  we  belong  to  a  great  nation  which 
has  been  delivered  from  the  oppressor  by  mighty  signs  and 
wonders,  and  passed  through  the  very  depths  of  the  sea  into 
safety  and  freedom.  Our  faltering  faith  is  largely  the  result  of 
our  spiritual  isolation.3 

We  did  not  sin  alone;  we  are  not  to  be  saved  alone.  .  .  .  Now 
that  Redemption  has  been  wrought  for  us  by  God,  a  union  still 
more  intimate  and  vital  exists  between  all  regenerate  men,  and 
when  Redemption  is  perfected  that  union  will  be  consummated. 
Already  the  common  strength,  and  the  common  light,  and  the 
common  joy  of  the  Church  belong  to  every  Christian  man.  "We 
are  members  one  of  another."  But  as  yet  the  ideal  unity  is 
not  perfectly  realised.  The  prayer  of  our  Lord  is  the  true 
Apocalypse.  The  glory  of  the  Church  will  be  consummated 
when  that  wonderful  petition  of  His  receives  its  complete 
answer,  "  That  they  all  may  be  one ;  as  Thou,  Father,  art  in 
Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  Us."  4 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  Church,  indeed,  is  an 
institution,  divinely  established,  in  which  spirit  draws 
near  to  spirit,  and  in  which  brethren  in  Christ  recognise 
the  presence  and  the  power  of  the  same  Lord  ;  but  it  is 
much  more.  It  also  affords  the  closest  access  to  God, 
and  in  it  Christ  reveals  Himself  in  a  special  and  unique 
way  :   "  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in   My 

1  Ecdesia,  second  series,  pp.  364,  365. 

2   The  Communion  of  Saints,  p.  37.  3  Ibid.  pp.  38,  39. 

4  Ecdesia,  second  series,  p.  366. 


246  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

name,  there  am   I   in  the    midst   of  them."       What  was 
Christ's  meaning  when  He  said  this  ? 

The  words,  as  Dale  was  wont  to  insist,  are  more  than 
a  promise  ;  they  state  a  fact,  and  an  eternal  fact.  Our 
Lord  declares  that — 

"Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  "in  His  name, 
He  also  is  present ;  they  cannot  meet  without  having  Him  with 
them ;  whatever  this  special  Presence  of  His  may  be,  it  is  not 
contingent  on  His  fidelity  to  His  promise ;  He  does  not  say, 
"Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together,  there  will  I  be"  but 
"there  am  I'm.  the  midst  of  them."1 

The  addition  with  which  these  words  are  constantly 
quoted — "  There  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  that  to 
bless  them"  or,  as  varied  in  the  familiar  collect  of  the 
Anglican  liturgy,  "  a  prayer  of  St.  Chrysostom  " — "  Who 
dost  promise  that  when  two  or  three  are  gathered  in 
Thy  name,  Thou  wilt  grant  their  requests  " — lowers  their 
meaning  and  suppresses  the  truth  which  they  were  intended 
to  teach.      This  was  not  at  all  what  our  Lord  meant. 

He  had  just  said,  "  If  two  of  you  shall  agree  on  earth  as 
touching  anything  that  they  shall  ask.  it  shall  be  done  for  them 
of  My  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  He  promises  that  the  prayer 
in  which  "  two  or  three  "  unite  shall  be  answered — not  by  Him- 
self, but  by  the  Father.  The  ground  on  which  this  promise 
rests  is  that  when  His  disciples  are  gathered  together  in  His 
name,  He  is  one  of  the  assembly,  however  small  it  may  be ;  the 
prayer  in  which  they  unite  is  His  as  well  as  theirs ;  in  realising 
their  union  with  each  other,  they  realise  their  union  with 
Himself;  He  is  present,  not  to  answer  the  prayer,  but  to  unite 
in  it.2 

Not  because  of  an  artificial  and  unreal  imputation  of  the 
merits  of  Christ,  do  our  prayers  have  power  with  God;  but 
because  we  are  indeed  and  of  a  truth  in  Christ,  and  because 
Christ  is  in  us.  It  is  always  true  that  it  is  through  Him  that 
we  draw  near  to  God.  The  only  life  which  renders  fellowship 
with  God  possible,  is  the  life  which  is  in  us  as  members  of  the 
mystical  body  of  Christ.  But  the  special  presence  of  Christ  is 
with  us  when  we  are  met  together  in  His  name ;  and  when  He 
is  specially  with  us  we  are  nearest  to  God.     Then  whatever  we 

1  Ecclesia,  second  series,  p.  400.  2  Ibid.  pp.  400,  401. 


THE  CHAIRMANSHIP  OF  THE  UNION  247 

ask  shall  be  done  for  us.  The  prayers  we  offer  are  His  rather 
than  ours  ;  and  when  the  answers  come  we  may  venture  to  think 
of  Him  as  saying  to  the  Father,  "  Inasmuch  as  Thou  hast  done 
it  to  one  of  the  least  of  these  My  brethren,  Thou  hast  done  it 
unto  Me."1 

Those  were  the  years  of  his  strength,  and  he  proclaimed 
the  truth  that  possessed  him  with  an  indomitable  ardour 
and  a  rapturous  exultation.  He  declared  it  to  his  own 
people,  not  once  or  twice  only,  but  week  after  week  and 
month  after  month,  in  an  endless  variety  of  form,  now  as 
his  central  theme,  now  as  an  episode  or  interlude  of 
thought,  till  it  had  become  fixed  and  rooted  in  their 
minds.  And  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  wherever  he 
went  in  those  days,  this  was  the  message  that  he  bore  ; 
to  congregations  in  crowded  cities,  rich  in  wealth  and 
power  and  fame,  and  to  the  humblest  of  village  churches 
—  a  handful  of  peasants  meeting  in  an  obscure  room, 
weak,  poverty-stricken,  sometimes  oppressed.  To  revive 
in  the  Church  a  fuller  consciousness  of  its  mysterious 
dignity,  and  a  truer  conception  of  its  great  purpose  ;  to 
rekindle  the  faith  that  Christ  not  only  guides  His  Church 
and  watches  over  it,  but  is  actually  present  in  the  midst 
of  it — this  seemed  to  him  at  that  time  the  one  task  to 
which  he  had  been  set. 

Nor  were  pulpit  and  platform  the  only  places  in  which 
he  vindicated  his  faith  ;  in  private,  as  in  public,  he  asserted 
it  with  inflexible  conviction.  One  illustrative  incident 
he  himself  has  recorded.  He  was  spending  a  summer 
holiday  at  Grasmere,  and  had  walked  over  to  Patterdale 
to  spend  the  day  with  Dr.  Abbott,  the  headmaster  of  the 
City  of  London  School,  an  able  and  prominent  Broad 
Churchman.  In  the  early  evening  his  friend  started  with 
him  to  set  him  on  his  way  home,  still  intent  on  the 
questions,  religious  and  ecclesiastical,  which  they  had 
discussed  for  many  hours. 

We  were  walking  together  from  the  head  of  Ullswater  up 
towards  the  foot  of  Grisedale  Tarn,  and  he  asked  me,  with  an 

1    The  Communion  of  Saints,  p.  21. 


248  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

expression  of  astonishment  and  incredulity,  whether  I  really 
thought  that  if  the  shepherds  of  Patterdale — a  dozen  or  score  of 
them — determined  to  constitute  themselves  a  Congregational 
church,  it  was  possible  for  such  a  church  to  fulfil  the  purposes 
for  which  churches  exist.  To  such  a  question  there  could  be 
but  one  answer.  Great  natural  sagacity,  high  intellectual  culture, 
however  admirable,  are  not  essential:  "It  is  enough  if,  when  they 
meet,  they  really  meet  in  Christ's  name — but  no  man  can  say 
that  Jesus  is  the  Lord  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Christ's  presence  with  the  shepherds  of  Patterdale 
would  be  a  sufficient  reply  to  all  who  challenged  their 
competency  to  discharge  the  functions  of  church  govern- 
ment. Whatever  gifts  and  endowments  might  be  necessary 
for  the  development  of  religious  thought  and  life  in  their 
full  perfection,  the  Divine  presence  was  its  one  and  its 
only  essential  condition.      Ubi  CJiristus,  ibi  ecclesia. 


CHAPTER   XI 

POLITICAL    AND    PUBLIC    WORK 

The  duties  of  Christian  citizenship — Politics  and  the  pulpit— Liberalism  under 
Palmerston — Willing  to  fight  for  Freedom — The  American  war  :  his 
attitude— Defends  Scholefield — The  struggle  for  Reform — The  franchise 
a  safeguard  against  revolution  —  Accused  of  encouraging  violence — 
Lectures  to  the  new  electors  on  "The  Politics  of  the  Future"- — Takes 
part  in  a  contested  election — The  General  Election  1868 — The  Birmingham 
Liberal  Association — Position  in  public  life — "The  most  practical  thing 
in  the  world." 

Early  in  the  year  1 864  Mr.  Bright  visited  his  constituents 
at  Birmingham.  He  addressed  a  great  meeting  in  the 
Town  Hall  ;  and  it  was  also  arranged  that  he  should  be 
present  at  a  conversazione  held  in  his  honour.  The 
evening  came  ;  the  tables  were  spread  ;  the  room  was 
crowded.  But  there  had  been  one  oversight :  Mr.  Bright 
had  not  been  informed  that  a  speech  was  expected  from 
him  ;  and  when  so  taken  by  surprise  he  was  greatly  dis- 
concerted. He  would  not  disappoint  the  gathering,  but 
he  insisted  that  some  one  else  should  share  the  burden. 
Dale  was  pressed  into  the  service  ;  the  two  were  taken 
into  an  unoccupied  room,  and  were  allowed  half  an  hour 
to  prepare  for  their  task.  Bright,  though  he  had  much  to 
say,  found  it  difficult  to  put  his  thoughts  into  shape  so 
rapidly,  and  spent  much  of  the  time  in  asserting  that  a 
man  who  preached  two  sermons  or  more  in  every  week 
had  a  great  advantage  through  incessant  practice  in 
arranging  his  materials.  Dale,  in  his  remarks,  dealt 
almost  wholly  with  one  theme — the  duty  of  religious 
men  to  take  their  part  in  politics,  the  responsibilities  of 
Christian  citizenship. 


25c  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Of  all  secular  affairs,  politics,  rightly  considered,  are  amongst 
the  most  unworldly,  inasmuch  as  the  man  who  is  devoted  to 
political  life  ought  to  be  seeking  no  personal  and  private  good. 
The  true  political  spirit  is  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ  Jesus, 
who  "  looked  not  on  His  own  things,  but  also  on  the  things  of 
others." 

He  went  further :  political  activity  was  not  merely 
legitimate  ;  it  was  a  positive  and  an  imperative  duty. 

I  feel  a  grave  and  solemn  conviction,  which  deepens  year  by 
year,  that  in  a  country  like  this,  where  the  public  business  of  the 
state  is  the  private  duty  of  every  citizen,  those  who  decline  to  use 
their  political  power  are  guilty  of  treachery  both  to  God  and  to 


It  was  not  his  custom  to  preach  political  sermons. 
"  The  church,"  he  felt,  "  is  a  place  where  one  day's 
truce  ought  to  be  allowed  to  the  dissensions  and 
animosities  of  mankind  ; "  and  he  could  seldom  bring 
himself  to  discuss  questions  even  of  ecclesiastical  polity 
in  the  pulpit.  But  on  rare  occasions,  when  problems 
involving  grave  moral  or  religious  issues  occupied  the 
mind  of  the  nation,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  examine  the 
question  from  the  standpoint  of  a  minister  of  Christ. 
Silence  in  such  a  case  seemed  to  him  not  only  a  piece 
of  cowardice,  but  a  breach  of  plain  and  obvious  duty. 

I  have  never  been  quite  able  to  understand  the  principles  of 
those  Christian  ministers  who,  whenever  any  great  calamity  falls 
upon  the  country — cholera,  a  bad  harvest,  or  a  destructive  war 
— preach  to  their  people  about  the  righteousness  of  God  in 
punishing  us  for  our  national  offences,  implore  God's  pardon, 
entreat  Him  to  avert  His  judgments,  and  yet  think  that  there 
is  something  like  profanation  in  attempting  to  show  from  the 
pulpit  by  what  political  measures  our  legislation  might  be  made 
more  righteous  and  Christian,  or  by  what  principles  our  foreign 
policy  must  be  directed  if  we  desire  to  win  God's  approbation. 
To  tell  men  that  God  is  punishing  the  nation  for  its  sins  by 
sending  drought,  or  a  cattle-plague,  and  then  with  a  grave  face 
to  protest  that  it  would  secularise  and  degrade  the  pulpit  to 
point  out  what  those  sins  are, — to  affirm  confidently  that  the 
national  trouble  is  a  proof  of  the  Divine  anger,  and  then  to  say 
that  the  investigation  of  our  national  conduct  by  which   that 


POLITICAL  AND  PUBLIC  WORK  251 

anger  has  been  provoked  is  altogether  beyond  the  province  of 
the  Christian  minister,  strikes  me — to  say  the  least — as  some- 
what inconsistent. 

For  himself,  however,  he  was  not  eager  to  engage  in 
party  conflicts.  While  he  did  not  hesitate  to  attend  great 
meetings  called  to  discuss  the  questions  of  the  day,  and  to 
express  his  opinions  on  the  platform,  he  did  not  connect 
himself  with  any  political  organisation,  nor  did  he  meddle 
with  the  rough  work  of  election  contests.  To  do  so 
during  the  earlier  years  of  his  ministry,  even  after  he  had 
taken  his  place  as  a  leader  in  the  public  life  of  Birmingham, 
seemed  to  him  unnecessary  and  unwise.  But  he  never 
made  any  secret  of  his  convictions.  Both  in  domestic  and 
foreign  affairs  he  was  heartily  in  sympathy  with  the  Liberal 
party,  though  on  some  points  he  repudiated  the  creed  that 
was  then  in  favour  with  many  of  those  with  whom  he  was 
associated.  He  was  prepared  largely  to  extend  the  limits 
within  which  the  collective  action  of  the  State  should  replace 
individual  enterprise;  he  advocated  a  vigorous  policy  in  our 
dealings  with  other  nations.  Palmerston  was  not  his  ideal 
statesman.  He  was  often  offended  by  his  levity  in  evading 
problems  that  pressed  for  serious  attention,  by  his  in- 
difference to  principle,  by  his  inability  to  comprehend  the 
moral  issues  involved  in  the  questions  that  were  then 
beginning  to  stir  the  public  mind.  But  he  honoured  him 
as  the  friend  of  European  freedom,  and  felt  that  in  foreign 
affairs  Palmerston  instinctively  and  habitually  took  a 
high  position,  and  that  he  had  "  a  nobler  idea  of  the 
responsibilities  of  a  great  State  abroad  than  many  younger 
statesmen." 

Inheriting  the  traditions  of  those  stormy  years  during  which 
this  island  was  the  only  sanctuary  and  the  last  asylum  of  Free- 
dom, and  when  the  highest  interests  of  the  human  race  seemed 
suspended  on  our  supremacy  in  Europe,  he  may  have  been  too 
restless,  too  eager  in  attempting  to  preserve  by  any  means  the 
position  we  had  won  in  the  great  war.  But  surely — and  this  was 
the  point  on  which  he  differed  from  some  younger  men — our 
imperial  power  was  not  granted  us  by  the  providence  of  God 
merely  that  we  might  be  able  to  protect  our  commerce  in  remote 


252  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

seas,  and  by  the  display  of  our  vast  resources  extort  from  un- 
willing nations  new  facilities  for  increasing  our  already  almost 
boundless  wealth.  It  may  be  quite  true  that  if  a  country  is  not 
able  to  win  freedom  for  itself,  it  will  not  be  able  to  use  or  to 
preserve  it,  even  if  freedom  is  conferred  through  the  aid  of 
foreign  arms  ;  and  yet  wrongs  so  flagrant  may  be  committed  by  a 
despotic  and  irresponsible  government  as  not  only  to  provoke  the 
indignation  of  the  civilised  world  but  to  justify  peremptory  and 
forcible  intervention.  .  .  .  But  no  such  grounds  as  these  can 
sustain  the  policy  of  those  who  assert  that  even  when  the  inde- 
pendence and  the  very  existence  of  a  country  are  threatened  by 
the  ambition  and  selfishness  of  a  foreign  state,  we  have  no  right 
to  interfere  to  prevent  the  impending  catastrophe,  because  our 
own  interests  are  not  involved.  I  have  even  heard  that  one  ot 
the  most  distinguished  of  our  younger  politicians  is  unfavourable 
to  the  maintenance  of  the  squadron  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa, 
not  because  he  thinks  it  inefficient,  but  because  he  cannot  see 
what  national  interest  we  have  in  suppressing  the  slave-trade. 
This  is  only  a  legitimate  application  of  the  miserable,  ignoble, 
corrupting  principles  of  policy  which  appear  to  be  winning  a 
temporary  popularity — principles  professed,  unhappily,  by  some 
generous  men  who  look  back  with  disgust  upon  the  entangle- 
ments into  which  our  old  diplomacy  had  brought  us  with  some 
of  the  most  illiberal  continental  states ;  but  I  cannot  believe  that 
such  principles  as  these  will  have  any  permanent  hold  on  the 
mind  of  the  country.  We  may  sometimes  be  compelled  to  be  the 
indignant  and  inactive  witnesses  of  wrongs  that  we  cannot  pre- 
vent or  redress ;  but  with  nations,  as  with  individuals,  the  power 
to  confer  a  benefit  or  to  avert  an  injury  is  inseparably  associated 
with  the  duty  of  using  it.1 

From  this  standpoint,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  express 
his  sympathy  with  Garibaldi  and  the  Italian  patriots,  or 
with  those  who  were  attempting — a  hopeless  task — to 
secure  freedom  for  Poland.  He  could  not  attend  the 
town's-meeting  held  to  protest  against  the  cruelties  of 
Russian  tyranny,  and  to  demand  that  the  claims  of 
Poland  to  independence  should  be  supported  by  the 
British  Government,  but  the  letter  that  he  addressed  to 
the  chairman  of  the  meeting  shows  how  strongly  he  felt, 
and  how  far  he  was  ready  to  go  in  giving  effect  to  his 

1  From  a  sermon  preached  on  the  death  of  Lord  Palmerston,  22nd  October 
1865. 


POLITICAL  AND  PUBLIC  WORK  253 

convictions.      He  scouted  the  idea  that  we  should  trust  to 
"  moral  influence  "  only  : — 

By  all  means  let  us  try  that  first ;  but  while  we  maintain  a 
large  army  and  a  splendid  fleet  to  protect  our  own  shores,  I  trust 
that  we  shall  never  shrink  from  using  both  in  behalf  of  justice 
and  freedom  whenever  our  national  duty  and  our  national  honour 
require  us  to  afford  the  good  cause  material  as  well  as  moral 
support.  Unless  it  is  understood  that  Armstrong  guns  and  iron- 
plated  ships  are  at  the  back  of  our  diplomacy,  diplomacy  is  not 
likely,  I  fear,  to  be  very  successful — at  any  rate  with  Russia.1 

So  warlike  an  utterance  did  not  pass  without  protest ; 
one  of  the  controversialists  in  his  ardour  declared  that 
"  Ancient  history  records  no  saying  of  Nero,  Caligula,  or 
Herod  equal  to  it." 

For  the  most  part,  however,  before  the  year  1866, 
Dale  was  too  busily  occupied  in  other  duties  to  find  much 
time  for  politics,  and  political  interest  among  his  fellow- 
townsmen  was  just  then  at  a  low  ebb.  The  American 
War  was  running  its  course  ;  and  for  the  moment,  the 
question  of  Parliamentary  Reform  was  overshadowed  and 
held  in  abeyance.  Even  in  Birmingham,  notwithstanding 
Bright's  influence,  sympathy  was  to  some  extent  divided. 
In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  conflict,  Dale  was  not  among 
the  ardent  partisans  of  the  Federal  Government.  He  dis- 
trusted the  strength  of  the  Anti-slavery  spirit  in  the  North. 
When  Slidell  and  Mason,  the  Confederate  envoys,  were 
arrested  on  board  the  Trent,  under  the  British  flag,  he 
resented  and  denounced  so  signal  an  infringement  of  the 
law  of  nations.  Not  until  Lincoln  proclaimed  the  freedom 
of  the  slave,  did  he  heartily  and  unreservedly  take  sides 
with  the  Northern  States.  Even  then  he  emphatically 
condemned  the  habit  of  extolling  all  American  institutions 
to  the  disparagement  of  our  own.  At  the  same  time,  he 
rebuked  the  attempts  made  by  some  to  involve  us  in  the 
war,  and  their  reckless  violation  of  neutrality  in  building 
ships  and  supplying  guns. 

The  position  that  he  occupied  enabled  him  to  inter- 

1  26th  March  1863. 


254  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

vene  on  more  than  one  occasion  to  avert  disruption.  At 
one  of  the  annual  meetings  of  the  Borough  members  he 
defended  Mr.  Scholefield,  who  had  provoked  a  large  section 
of  his  constituents  by  joining  an  association  organised  to 
secure  official  recognition  of  the  Confederate  States.  A 
vote  of  censure  was  threatened.  Bright,  who  was  present, 
had  made  a  powerful  appeal,  in  which  indignation  against 
his  colleague  was  not  too  carefully  disguised.  Feeling  was 
exasperated,  a  split  seemed  inevitable.  Dale  was  put  up 
to  support  a  resolution  of  confidence  in  both  members, 
and  in  a  few  minutes  he  swung  the  audience  right  round. 
After  a  tribute  to  Bright  for  his  public  services,  he  grappled 
with  the  immediate  danger.  He  expressed  no  sympathy 
with  Mr.  Scholefield's  opinions,  but  urged  that  a  vote  of 
censure  could  serve  no  good  purpose.  Mr.  Scholefield 
was  in  no  danger  of  losing  his  seat  ;  their  political 
opponents  would  see  to  that.  At  the  same  time,  his 
action  could  lead  to  no  practical  result.  The  national 
policy  was  settled  :  the  course  was  fixed,  and  there  could 
be  no  swerving  from  it.  Then  came  a  sentence  that  was 
remembered  and  quoted  for  years  after  : — 

"  There  are  two  things  that  I  have  always  admired  in 
the  people  of  Birmingham  :  in  the  first  place,  they  can 
tolerate  differences  of  opinion  in  men  they  can  trust  ;  and 
in  the  second  place,  they  stand  by  their  old  friends  through 
fire  and  through  water."  l 

Up  to  this  point  there  had  been  cross  currents,  but 
now  the  whole  mass  moved  together.  The  opposition 
was  disarmed,  and  confidence  in  both  representatives  was 
carried  by  acclamation. 

As  the  struggle  for  Reform  drew  on,  he  began  to  take 
an  active  part  in  the  controversy.  Special  services  that 
he  had  been  holding  on  Sunday  afternoons  brought  him 
into  closer  contact  with  working  men,  who  stood  apart 
from  the  churches — so  they  said — because  the  churches 
and  their  ministers  gave  them  so  little  help  in  obtaining 
their  political  and  social  rights.  He  was  anxious  that  the 
democracy    should    not    be    unjustly    prejudiced    against 

1  26th  January  1864. 


POLITICAL  AND  PUBLIC  WORK  255 

religion,  and  also  that  Christian  principles  should  assert 
their  influence  in  dealing  with  the  problems  which  an  ex- 
tended franchise  would  push  to  the  front. 

During  the  conflict,  which  lasted  practically  for  two  Aged  37. 
years,  many  demonstrations  were  held  at  Birmingham. 
Dale  appeared  at  most,  and  spoke  at  several,  always  in 
the  same  sense.  One  of  his  speeches  made  a  great  stir. 
Gladstone's  Bill  of  1866  had  been  rejected,  through  the 
disintegration  of  the  Liberal  party  ;  the  Conservatives  had 
taken  office,  and  were  preparing  to  outbid  their  opponents. 
Their  proposals  were  now  before  the  country,  in  all  their 
original  complexity,  and  a  town's-meeting  was  at  once 
convened  to  discuss  the  plan.  Mr.  Disraeli,  in  introduc- 
ing the  Bill,  had  stated  that  he  regarded  the  franchise  as 
a  popular  privilege,  not  a  democratic  right.  In  combat- 
ing that  declaration,  Dale  said  : — 

I  will  tell  you  why  I  think  the  franchise  to  be  a  popular  or 
democratic  right.  Our  theory  of  representation  is  that  it  is  in- 
tended to  afford  by  peaceful  and  constitutional  means  a  secure 
protection  to  the  interests  of  all  classes  of  the  community.  If  a 
tax  is  to  be  levied,  they  have  a  right  to  some  security  that  it 
shall  be  equitably  levied.  If  a  law  is  to  be  passed,  they  have  a 
right  to  some  security  that  that  law  shall  not  injuriously  affect 
their  interests.  The  franchise  is  intended  to  afford  the  people 
a  peaceful  and  legal  control  over  the  action  of  the  legislature  and 
the  executive ;  and  I  contend  that  the  people — all  classes  of  the 
people — have  a  clear  right  to  this  control,  and  that  therefore  the 
franchise  is  not  simply  a  privilege  granted  by  the  legislature,  but 
a  necessary  check  on  the  legislature  imposed  by  the  people. 
There  is  always  an  ultimate  check  both  on  the  crimes  and  on 
the  follies  of  governments.  Self-defence  is  one  of  man's  natural 
rights,  and  if  we  cannot  protect  our  interests  in  one  way  we  must 
do  it  in  another.  The  franchise  is  a  peaceful  and  harmless 
method  of  protecting  those  interests.  The  franchise  touches  no 
man's  life — destroys  no  man's  property ;  and  if  you  prevent  four- 
fifths  of  the  people  from  asking  for  a  legal  influence  in  the  public 
life  and  action  of  the  country,  you  compel  them  to  resort  to 
other  means  of  self-protection.  Deny  the  people  the  franchise, 
and  the  right  of  revolution  still  remains.  Deny  the  people  the 
franchise,  and  they  are  driven  to  secret  conspiracy,  or  to  a  dis- 
play of  their  overwhelming  physical  force.  Those  who  would 
deny  the  people  the  franchise  must  take  their  choice  between 


256  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  hustings  and  the  barricade.  If  they  take  from  the  people 
the  peaceful  weapon  by  which  they  desire  to  protect  their 
interests,  they  still  leave  to  the  people,  be  it  remembered,  the 
pike  and  the  rifle.  I  say  this,  not  because  I  think  that  we  are 
near  a  time  when  a  resort  to  force  will  be  necessary,  but  because 
I  think  that  in  times  of  peace  we  should  effect  such  constitu- 
tional changes  as  shall  render  political  excitement  needless  in 
times  of  public  disaster.1 

These  phrases  did  not  escape  the  misrepresentation 
that  they  provoked.  The  "  pike,  the  rifle,  and  the  barri- 
cade "  appeared  in  Tory  leading  articles  and  in  Tory 
speeches  with  wearisome  iteration  for  years  after  ;  and  the 
words,  without  their  context,  were  invariably  so  quoted  as 
to  suggest — if  the  charge  was  not  actually  made — that 
they  sanctioned  and  encouraged  an  appeal  to  violence. 
Even  among  Dale's  friends  the  opportunity  was  thought 
too  good  to  lose,  and  one  of  the  cartoons  published  during 
the  by  -  election  that  came  shortly  after — a  parody  of 
Faed's  once  famous  picture,  "  Conquered  but  not  subdued  " 
— represented  him  among  other  figures  as  sitting  on  the 
ground,  and  teaching  a  truculent  bull-dog  to  hold  a  pike 
erect  behind  a  heap  of  paving-stones  and  cobbles.  The 
misrepresentation  did  him  harm  ;  but  the  mass  of  the 
people  knew  what  he  had  said  and  understood  what  he 
meant ;  and  as  he  drove  through  the  crowds  that  watched 
the  great  Reform  procession  on  its  way  to  the  historic 
meeting-place  at  Brookfields,  a  few  weeks  later,  the  wel- 
come that  he  received  all  along  the  line  was  one  of 
exceptional  enthusiasm. 

As  soon  as  the  Reform  Bill  had  been  accepted  by 
Parliament,  the  leaders  of  the  Liberal  party  in  Birming- 
ham arranged  for  a  series  of  lectures  dealing  with  the 
political  and  social  questions  by  which  the  new  electors 
were  likely  to  be  most  affected.  Dale  undertook  to  de- 
liver the  first  of  these  addresses,  and  in  The  Politics  of 
the  Future 2  he  discussed  the  principles  and  the  aims  that 
should  determine  the  political  action  of  the  enfranchised 

1  22nd  March  1867. 

2  The  Politics  of  the  Future,  a  Lecture  to  the  New  Electors  ;  delivered  in 
the  Town  Hall,  Birmingham,  on  Tuesday  evening,  19th  November  1867. 


POLITICAL  AND  PUBLIC  WORK  257 

electors.  The  lecture  is  by  far  the  most  elaborate  and 
detailed  of  his  public  utterances  during  this  period  :  it 
sums  up  the  substance  of  his  political  teaching  ;  it  illus- 
trates the  spirit  in  which  he  approached  the  discussion  of 
national  affairs.  An  exhaustive  analysis,  however,  would 
be  superfluous  ;  a  few  extracts  will  sufficiently  indicate  its 
character. 

After  discussing  the  morality  of  the  Conservative 
"  surrender,"  and  repudiating  the  forebodings  of  those  who 
regarded  the  recent  change  as  fatal  to  the  peace  and  security 
of  the  nation,  he  urged  that  even  if  the  new  electors  were 
hostile  to  the  established  order,  it  was  surely  better  that 
they  should  be  able  to  express  their  hostility  in  a  legal 
and  constitutional  manner — repeating  and  amplifying  the 
argument  that  he  had  enforced  on  the  same  platform  a 
few  months  before. 

To  my  mind  the  very  possibility  of  general  and  violent  resist- 
ance to  the  government  of  a  country  like  this  is  appalling ;  and 
I  ask  with  whom  does  the  blame  lie  of  exposing  us  to  this 
terrible  danger — with  those  who  endeavoured  to  keep  the  fran- 
chise from  the  most  numerous  class  of  the  community,  and  so 
withheld  from  them  the  only  weapon  of  self-defence,  which  is  at 
once  harmless  and  effective,  or  with  me,  for  pointing  out  what 
would  be  the  inevitable  effect  of  that  unjust  and  perilous  policy 
in  times  of  great  popular  excitement  ?  With  whom  does  the 
blame  lie  ?  With  me,  for  maintaining  that  it  is  infinitely  safer 
that  the  great  masses  of  our  countrymen  should  defend  their 
interests  and  vindicate  their  rights  by  constitutional  means  than 
by  the  exercise  of  physical  force,  or  with  those  who  denied  the 
people  the  suffrage,  and  were  willing,  if  dark  and  calamitous 
times  should  come,  to  encounter  the  terrible  risk  of  conspiracy 
and  rebellion  ?  It  was  I  who  pleaded  that  it  was  wiser,  safer, 
more  just,  that  the  rights  of  the  people  should  be  protected  in 
Parliament  by  their  constitutional  representatives ;  it  was  our 
opponents  who,  for  a  time,  said,  No — whatever  their  real  or 
supposed  grievances  they  shall  have  no  means  of  self-defence 
except  the  pike,  the  rifle,  and  the  barricade.1 

Among  the  questions  of  the  day  national  education 
held  the  first  place  in  his  thought :  indeed,  at  that  time, 

1   The  Politics  of  the  Future^  p.  6. 
S 


258  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

and  for  some  years  before,  he  rarely  spoke  in  public  on 
any  platform  without  enlarging  on  the  necessity  of  a  great 
extension  of  our  educational  system.  He  had  no  love 
for  denominational  schools  ;  but  remembering  how  they 
had  arisen,  and  all  that  they  had  done,  he  recognised  that 
it  would  be  both  unwise  and  unjust  to  sweep  them  away, 
and  he  was  willing  to  leave  them  undisturbed,  only  re- 
quiring the  security  for  religious  freedom  given  by  an 
efficient  conscience  clause.  But  where  such  schools  did 
not  exist,  or  where  they  were  inadequate  for  the  needs  of 
the  population,  he  urged  that  the  task  of  providing  school 
accommodation  should  be  no  longer  left  to  the  Churches. 
Half  the  nation,  it  was  admitted,  stood  aloof  from  all 
Churches — never  attended  public  worship.  Why  should 
the  other  half  be  expected  to  bear  the  expense  of  originat- 
ing schools  to  give  secular  instruction  to  the  whole  nation  ? 
Why  should  the  clergyman  or  the  dissenting  minister — 
both  poor  men,  probably,  and  overworked — have  this 
fresh  care  thrown  upon  them  ?  Municipal  bodies,  and 
similar  authorities  in  the  rural  districts,  should  be  em- 
powered to  establish  schools,  maintained  partly  by  local 
rates,  partly  by  grants  from  the  imperial  treasury.  Mr. 
Lowe  was  then  perhaps  the  best  hated  man  in  the  king- 
dom, and  Dale  needed  no  little  courage  and  strength  to 
carry  the  audience  with  him  in  the  following  appeal  : — 

There  is  one  distinguished  member  of  the  House  of  Commons 
who  has  the  genius,  the  practical  knowledge,  and  the  courage 
which  are  necessary  to  lead  and  carry  through  this  great  and 
necessary  reform.  He  has  made  one  great  blunder,  and  for 
the  last  two  years  his  name  has  never  been  mentioned  in  great 
assemblies  of  the  people  without  provoking  loud  expressions  of 
derision  and  indignation ;  but  now  that  he  is  hopelessly  defeated 
on  the  question  of  Parliamentary  Reform,  we  who  are  triumphant 
can  afford  to  forget  the  bitterness  and  the  energy  with  which  he 
opposed  us.  It  is  unlikely  that  any  words  of  mine  can  reach 
him,  but  I  will  venture  to  say  in  your  name — in  the  name  of  the 
new  electors  whose  enfranchisement  he  so  fiercely  resisted — that 
if  he  will  only  win  for  us  a  great  and  generous  and  equitable 
system  of  popular  education,  if  he  will  only  bring  a  good  school 
within  the  reach   of  every   child   in   the  country,   he   shall  he 


POLITICAL  AND  PUBLIC  WORK  259 

received  by  us  with  an  enthusiasm  which  shall  prove  that  all  our 
resentment  has  vanished.  He  shall  hear  no  more  of  the  Cave 
of  Adullam,  or  of  the  Scotch  terrier ;  and  the  people  will  forget 
how  Robert  Lowe  resisted  their  enfranchisement  in  their 
gratitude  for  his  services  in  promoting  the  education  of  their 
children.1 

The  working  classes  themselves  would  naturally  make 
the  "  condition  of  England "  question  their  first  care. 
Legislation  had  already  done  much  for  the  welfare  of  the 
people  ;  with  their  help  it  might  do  more.  But  legis- 
lation must  aim  at  the  right  ends,  and  must  confine  itself 
within  its  natural  limits.  The  condition  of  the  labourer 
might  be,  and  should  be,  improved  ;  but  labour  must  for 
ever  remain  indispensable. 

What  is  wanted  is  not  merely  perfect  freedom  for  every  man 
to  rise  by  his  own  intelligence  and  industry  from  the  lowest  to 
the  highest  positions  in  the  State.  There  is  nothing  now  to  pre- 
vent a  mechanic  becoming  a  master,  or  a  working  man  becoming 
a  capitalist.  But  I  confess  that  I  have  never  told  young  men 
that  it  was  their  supreme  duty  to  try  "to  rise  in  the  world,"  as 
the  phrase  goes,  and  that  the  supreme  reward  for  a  life  of  inces- 
sant and  exhausting  labour  was  to  win  a  position  in  society  to 
which  other  men  were  born.  ...  I  honour  those  who  have  the 
moral  energy  and  the  intellectual  power  necessary  to  achieve,  by 
honest  means,  such  a  success  as  that ;  and  it  is  only  just  that 
any  career  for  which  a  man  is  fit  should  be  open  to  him.  But 
from  the  nature  of  the  case  only  a  very  few  men  can  rise  to  great 
wealth  and  to  a  great  social  position.  ...  If  every  man  became 
a  master,  no  master  could  have  a  man.  .  .  .  The  great  mass  of 
the  people  must  always  spend  the  greater  part  of  their  time  and 
strength  in  physical  labour.  At  present  much  of  that  labour  is 
exhausting,  much  of  it  is  injurious  to  health,  much  of  it  is  ex- 
tremely unpleasant.  Every  year  some  new  application  of  the 
principles  of  science  is  diminishing  the  strain  upon  human 
muscle,  and  the  steam-engine  is  doing  the  work  for  us  which 
our  fathers  had  to  do  for  themselves ;  but  until  new  forms  of 
machinery  are  invented  of  which  none  of  us  have  ever  dreamt, 
and  until  we  learn  how  to  make  one  machine  make  another 
without  the  intervention  of  human  hands,  physical  toil  is  the 
destiny  of  the  majority  of  the  race.  We  must  learn  never  to 
think  of  physical  labour  as  degrading.      All  work  is  honourable 

1    The  Politics  of  the  Future,  pp.  8,  9. 


260  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

which  is  done  by  an  honest  man,  and  which  ministers  to  the 
necessities  or  the  comfort  of  society.  The  object  of  all  social 
and  political  speculations  should  be  not  to  construct  Utopian 
schemes  in  which  the  irresistible  necessity  of  hard  work  is 
ignored,  but  to  learn  how  the  life  of  the  labourer  may  be  made 
happier.1 

The  corruption  that  had  impoverished  the  resources  of 
the  nation  in  the  past  had  been  lessened,  if  not  abolished  ; 
but  other  evils  still  survived.  The  worst  enemies  of 
society  now  were  not  those  at  the  top,  but  those  at  the 
bottom. 

Take  the  Borough  of  Birmingham  alone.  We  have  no  frowning 
castle  overlooking  and  threatening  the  town,  the  stronghold  of  a 
feudal  baron  and  filled  with  armed  men,  permitted  by  their  lord 
to  rob  and  to  ill-treat  peaceful  citizens  almost  at  their  pleasure. 
But  we  have  what  is  perhaps  worse  than  this.  We  have  a  vast 
gaol,  which  is  far  more  costly  to  support  than  were  any  of  the 
strongholds  of  the  robber  chiefs  that  once  dwelt  in  the  castles  of 
the  Rhine.  That  gaol  contains  at  this  moment  three  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  women,  and  children  who  are  fed,  clothed,  and 
lodged  at  your  expense  and  mine,  who  from  week  to  week  are 
being  let  out  to  plunder  the  property  and  to  injure  the  persons 
of  the  rest  of  the  community. 2 

The  pecuniary  burdens  our  criminals  lay  upon  us  are  bad 
enough,  but  they  inflict  upon  us  other  evils  still  more  serious. 
These  unhappy  people  are  incessantly  corrupting  the  morality  of 
the  community.  They  meet  your  boys  as  they  come  away  from 
the  jewellers'  shops  and  metal  works  where  they  are  apprenticed, 
and  persuade  them  to  rob  their  masters ;  they  meet  your  young- 
men  and  women,  your  brothers  and  sisters,  at  places  of  public 
entertainment  and  gradually  tempt  them  to  crime  ;  their  children 
meet  your  children  coming  home  from  school  and  teach  them 
gambling  and  profanity,  and  perhaps  at  last  provoke  some  of 
them  to  positive  violations  of  the  law.  You  have  a  great  practical 
concern  in  whatever  measures  are  likely  to  make  the  criminal 
classes  disappear,  and  I  trust  that  such  measures  will  have  your 
hearty  support.  Your  true  enemies  are  not  those  who  ride  in 
carriages,  but  those  who  ride  in  the  prison  van.  You  suffer 
infinitely  more  from  the  criminals  that  prowl  about  our  streets 
than  from  the  holders  of  pensions  and  sinecures  whom  your 
fathers  were  accustomed  to  call  the  "bloated  aristocracy."     The 

1    The  Politics  of  the  Future,  pp.   10,  II.  2  Ibid,  p.  14. 


POLITICAL  AND  PUBLIC  WORK  261 

reformers  of  '32  raised  a  loud  outcry  against  hereditary  legis- 
lators and  place-holders,  I  ask  you  to  think  of  the  evils  inflicted 
on  the  State  by  hereditary  criminals  ;  for  remember  that  it  is  not 
lands  and  titles  and  wealth  alone  that  are  being  transmitted  from 
father  to  son  ;  a  large  proportion  of  the  men  that  occupy  our 
gaols  to-day  are  the  children  of  men  who  occupied  the  same  cells 
twenty  years  ago ;  and  the  men  who  occupy  them  now,  if 
suffered  to  do  it,  will  transmit  their  lawless  character  to  their 
descendants. 

We  must  repeal,  if  we  can,  this  "law  of  entail,"  which  is 
infinitely  more  perilous  to  the  country  than  that  which  has 
brought  the  soil  into  the  hands  of  a  mere  fraction  of  the 
population.  For  the  sake  of  the  children  themselves,  for  the 
sake  of  the  safety  and  prosperity  and  morality  of  the  nation,  we 
must  ask  that  some  new  and  more  stringent  measures  shall  be 
adopted  by  which  every  child  who  is  manifestly  destined  to  a  life 
of  crime  and  misery  shall,  if  possible,  be  rescued  from  its  doom.1 

Other  questions,  of  greater  or  less  importance,  were 
not  forgotten  :  the  diminution  of  Pauperism,  the  reorganisa- 
tion of  the  Army  and  Navy,  the  responsibility  of  the 
Governors  of  British  possessions  abroad  (the  Jamaica 
atrocities  were  still  fresh  in  men's  minds),  the  abolition  of 
Church  rates,  and  the  disendowment  of  the  Irish  Church. 
But  while  urging  the  new  electors  to  action,  he  felt  bound 
to  add  a  word  of  caution,  lest  past  injustice  should  be 
repeated  and  perpetuated  in  its  most  intolerable  form. 

You  have  achieved  your  own  political  rights ;  resolve  to 
respect  the  rights  of  others.  The  history  of  our  country  has  been 
a  long  and  magnificent  battle  for  freedom,  and  I  believe  that  the 
recent  extension  of  the  franchise  will  render  more  secure  the 
victories  we  have  already  won,  and  make  fresh  victories  possible. 
But  remember  that  even  popular  governments  may  be  guilty  of 
tyranny.  Christianity  taught  mankind  that  every  individual 
citizen  has  rights  which  are  sacred,  and  which  the  State,  what- 
ever its  constitution,  cannot  invade  without  guilt.  That  principle 
has  been  wonderfully  fruitful.  It  constitutes  the  great  distinction 
between  ancient  and  modern  conceptions  of  liberty.  The  freest 
republics  of  Greece  asserted  an  absolute  and  unlimited  control 
over  the  individual  citizen.  His  freedom  consisted  simply  in 
this,  that  he  had  his  vote  in  the  assemblies  that  made  the  laws ; 

1   The  Politics  of  the  Future,  p.   15. 


262  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

and  when  that  vote  was  once  given  there  were  no  inviolable 
rights  left  to  him  ;  the  State  acknowledged  no  limits  to  its  power. 
The  revelation  of  the  Divine  dignity  and  wonderful  destiny  of 
the  individual  soul  introduced  a  new  idea  into  the  ethics  of 
Government,  and  in  Christian  states  men  have  learnt — though 
as  yet  very  imperfectly — that  the  State  exists  to  protect  and 
guarantee  the  freedom  of  individual  men,  and  that  every  man  has 
rights  which  the  State  must  not  presume  to  touch.  This  is  true 
under  every  form  of  government.  To  transgress  the  limits 
within  which  the  power  of  the  State  should  be  restrained  is 
tyranny — whether  the  laws  of  the  State  be  established  by  the 
whole  people  or  by  only  an  inconsiderable  portion  of  them.  I 
have  therefore  heard  with  great  concern  the  principle  thought- 
lessly asserted,  that  where  the  suffrage  is  universal,  no  man's 
freedom  is  injured  by  any  law  which  the  majority  may  choose  to 
pass.     That  principle  destroys  the  very  foundations  of  liberty. 

Suppose  the  majority  of  the  whole  people  of  England  deter- 
mined that  every  Englishman  should  worship  in  an  Episcopal 
Church,  and  that  every  Romanist,  and  Nonconformist,  and  Jew 
that  refused  to  obey  should  suffer  fine  or  imprisonment ;  the 
mere  fact  that  a  majority  had  passed  such  a  tyrannical  law  would 
not  make  it  less  tyrannical.  Suppose  that  in  one  of  your  work- 
shops it  were  proposed  that  every  man  should  be  compelled  to 
drink  a  pint  of  beer  a  day  whether  he  liked  it  or  not ;  if  nineteen 
out  of  twenty  voted  for  it,  the  remaining  man,  if  he  happened  to 
be  a  teetotaller,  and  even  though  he  had  been  permitted  to  vote, 
would  be  the  victim  of  atrocious  injustice.  A  law  must  be  in 
itself  just  and  wise,  or  the  vote  of  a  majority  can  never  make  it 
either  wise  or  just.  A  great  writer  said  many  years  ago  that  if 
the  united  posterity  of  Adam  had  voted,  and  since  the  creation 
had  done  nothing  but  vote,  that  three  and  three  were  seven,  this 
would  not  have  altered  the  laws  of  Arithmetic,  or  put  to  blush 
the  solitary  Cocker  who  continued  to  assert  privately  that  three 
and  three  were  six.  Almost  the  only  danger  incident  to  the  recent 
extension  of  the  suffrage  seems  to  me  to  be  this  :  that  the  people 
may  forget  that  though  it  is  right  that  the  majority  of  the  nation 
should  direct  its  policy  and  legislation,  there  are  many  things 
that  even  a  majority  has  no  right  to  do.  You  have  gained  this 
new  power,  not  that  you  may  use  it  tyrannically,  but  that  you 
may  extend  and  perfect  the  liberties  of  your  country.1 

It  was  in  the  same  year,  1867,  that  he  first  took  any 
active  part  in  a  Parliamentary  election.  Mr.  Scholefield, 
one  of  the  borough  members,  died  suddenly  in  July  ;  and 

1    The  Politics  of  the  Future,  pp.   iS,  19. 


POLITICAL  AND  PUBLIC  WORK  263 

Mr.  George  Dixon — till  recently  the  senior  representative 
of  the  city — who  was  then  Mayor,  resigned  his  office  and 
contested  the  seat  with  Mr.  S.  S.  Lloyd,  the  leader  of  the 
local  Conservative  party.  So  far,  Dale  had  been  content 
to  expound  principles,  leaving  others  to  apply  them  in 
practical  politics,  and  avoiding  the  distasteful  incidents  of 
party  strife.  But  now  he  stepped  down  into  the  arena  ; 
there  were  special  reasons  for  doing  so.  Mr.  Dixon  was 
not  only  his  intimate  friend,  but  a  colleague  in  the  work  of 
an  educational  society  which  had  endeavoured  to  make 
good  in  Birmingham  the  defects  of  the  existing  system, 
and  to  pay  school  fees  where  parents  were  too  poor  to  pay 
for  themselves.  They  had  been  associated  in  other  forms 
of  public  service.  At  the  moment  Mr.  Dixon  was  the  object 
of  an  unscrupulous  hostility.  An  itinerant  lecturer,  named 
Murphy,  whose  visits  had  already  disturbed  several  of  the 
Lancashire  towns,  not  long  before  had  applied  for  the  use  of 
the  Town  Hall  to  deliver  his  lectures  on  "The  Confessional 
Unmasked  "  and  similar  subjects.  This  being  refused,  his 
friends  put  up  a  wooden  building  on  a  site  in  the  centre  of 
the  town.  The  Irish  population  were  infuriated,  and  they 
attacked  the  hall.  The  Protestant  party — if  they  can 
fairly  be  so  described — retaliated  ;  a  street  in  the  Irish 
quarter  was  wrecked  from  end  to  end.  Finally,  the  Riot 
Act  was  read  ;  a  troop  of  Hussars  dispersed  the  mob  ;  and 
order  was  restored.  Mr.  Dixon,  as  Mayor,  had  to  bear 
the  odium  thus  excited,  and  by  Murphy's  supporters  he 
was  vehemently  denounced.  It  was  a  case  in  which 
Dale's  personal  influence — for  he  could  not  be  suspected 
of  Romish  proclivities — might  render  real  service,  and  it 
was  not  withheld.  In  the  Liberal  victory  his  share  was 
conspicuous,  and  when  the  General  Election  occurred  in 
the  following  year,  1868,  it  was  practically  impossible  for 
him  to  keep  out  of  the  fray. 

The  Irish  Church  question  was  now  the  main  issue 
before  the  country,  and  he  had  mastered  the  controversy 
in  all  its  details.  The  local  contest  also  excited  excep- 
tional interest,  not  in  the  town  alone,  but  in  all  parts  of 
the  country.      Birmingham  was  one  of  the  three-cornered 


264  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

constituencies  created  by  the  recent  Act.  The  borough 
had  three  members  ;  but  each  elector  had  only  two  votes, 
and  he  might  not  give  both  to  the  same  man.  Mr.  Bright 
in  the  House  of  Commons  had  lavished  his  scorn  upon 
the  scheme,  and  the  Liberal  party  in  the  borough,  no  less 
indignant,  were  bent  on  retaining  the  representation 
unbroken.  The  Liberal  Association,  established  three 
years  before,  perfected  its  organisation.  After  a  careful 
canvass,  the  wards  were  divided  into  three  equal  groups  : 
two  out  of  the  three  Liberal  candidates  were  apportioned  to 
each  group,  and  the  electors  were  instructed  to  restrict  their 
votes  to  these.  Each  candidate  received  votes  in  two 
groups — Bright  and  Dixon  in  one,  Dixon  and  Muntz  in 
a  second,  and  Bright  and  Muntz  in  a  third.  This  "  vote- 
as-you-are-told  "  system  was  much  criticised.  The  Daily 
News  expressed  its  belief  that  the  calculations  would  prove 
fallacious,  and  that  the  plan  would  fail.  But  the  Liberal 
electors  obeyed  orders  so  loyally,  and  voted  with  such 
precision,  that  they  returned  all  their  candidates  by  a 
majority  of  nearly  six  thousand. 

Throughout  the  contest,  which  lasted  for  several  weeks, 
Dale  was  indefatigable.  He  spent  long  hours  in  the 
committee  rooms ;  he  spoke  in  almost  all  the  wards. 
Some  of  these  election  meetings  were  held  in  strange 
places — one  of  them,  at  which  Mr.  Bright  himself  was 
present,  in  a  well-known  music  hall.  Few  of  those  on  the 
platform  had  ever  been  behind  the  scenes  before.  The 
surroundings  were,  to  say  the  least,  incongruous  ;  and  it 
was  amusing  to  watch  sober  citizens  in  black  coats  and 
white  ties  and  broad-brimmed  hats  groping  their  way  to 
the  stage,  with  mingled  curiosity  and  disapproval  expressed 
in  their  countenances.  As  if  he  had  not  enough  to  do  in 
the  borough,  Dale  went  out  into  the  neighbouring  counties 
also.  He  spoke  in  both  divisions  of  Warwickshire,  and 
elsewhere  also.  At  Leamington,  in  the  very  thick  of  the 
contest,  he  lectured  on  the  Irish  Church  in  support  of  Sir 
Robert  Hamilton  and  his  fellow  candidate.  The  hall 
was  packed  to  the  doors  ;  the  enthusiasm  was  extreme. 
It  must  have  been   strange  to  recall  the  time  when  he 


POLITICAL  AND  PUBLIC  WORK  265 

had  lived  there  as  a  youth  with  no  prospect  in   life  but 
obscure  drudgery. 

In  the  background,  behind  these  more  prominent 
appearances,  lies  a  mass  of  work  that  defies  calculation. 
When  a  man  comes  to  touch  at  every  point  the  public 
life  of  the  community  to  which  he  belongs,  the  demands 
on  him  are  incessant ;  and  the  records  of  those  years 
show  how  heavy  a  burden  Dale  was  already  bearing. 
The  institutions  of  the  town — hospitals,  libraries,  schools  ; 
public  ceremonies  of  all  kinds — presentations,  greetings, 
farewells ;  philanthropic  and  social  gatherings,  to  say 
nothing  of  religious  enterprises,  all  claimed  some  share  of 
his  time  and  his  thought.  If  he  was  often  heard  on  the 
platform,  he  was  still  more  often  to  be  found  in  council 
and  committee  where  difficulties  were  dealt  with  and  the 
real  business  was  done.  It  is  noteworthy  that  when  the 
Birmingham  Banking  Company  had  suspended  payment 
—  a  commercial  calamity  of  serious  magnitude  —  he 
came  forward  at  the  meeting  of  depositors  with  words 
of  encouragement,  dissuading  from  panic  and  irrational 
indignation,  and  adding  that  "  the  manner  in  which 
Birmingham  has  met  the  present  disaster  has  made  me 
even  prouder  of  the  town  than  I  was  before."  It  is  a  crisis 
like  this,  when  men  have  money  at  stake,  that  tests  a  public 
man's  influence  and  shows  how  far  his  fellows  trust  him. 

One  other  incident  is  worth  recalling.  As  might  have 
been  expected,  Dale  and  Dawson,  though  friendly  in  their 
personal  relations,  soon  began  to  diverge  in  public  affairs. 
Their  convictions,  beyond  certain  limits,  were  not  the  same  ; 
and  when  they  agreed  they  did  not  express  their  opinions 
in  the  same  way.  At  times  Dale  was  strongly  provoked, 
and  found  it  difficult  to  keep  the  peace.  There  was  more 
than  one  passage  of  arms  between  the  pair  in  public.  When 
the  monument  to  Joseph  Sturge  was  unveiled,  Dawson — 
who  must  have  been  in  a  perverse  mood  that  morning — de- 
scribed Sturge  as  "a  singularly  unpractical  man."  Dale  was 
roused.  "  The  most  practical  thing  in  the  world,"  he  replied, 
"  is  to  believe  in  God's  law  and  to  try  to  hold  fast  to  it."  It 
was  his  own  conception  of  life  summed  up  in  a  sentence. 


CHAPTER    XII 

THE    EDUCATION     BILL     OF      1870     AND    THE     NONCON- 
FORMIST   REVOLT 

Nonconformists  and  national  education — Their  earlier  position — Discussion 
at  Birmingham  in  1861 — Change  of  opinion — Dale  supports  a  national  as 
against  a  voluntary  system — Education  Aid  Society — Effect  of  practical 
experience — Begins  to  lead — British  Quarterly  articles — The  National 
Education  League — Free  education  an  obstacle — Mr.  Forster's  Bill — 
Objections  to  the  Government  policy — Central  Nonconformist  Committee 
established — Opposition  to  the  Bill — Attempts  at  compromise — Non- 
conformist amendments  —  Miall's  protest  and  Gladstone's  reply — 
Nonconformists  in  revolt — Agitation  in  the  country — The  25th  clause  : 
appeal  to  the  Government — The  Endowed  Schools — A  Nonconformist 
victory — Lectures  at  Manchester  on  "  The  Politics  of  Nonconformity  " — 
The  Manchester  Conference — Controversy  in  the  Congregational  Union 
— Mr.  Conder  and  the  Chair — The  Scotch  Education  Bill — Visit  to 
Scotland — Letter  to  Dr.  John  Cairns — Speech  at  Aberdeen — Bright's 
return  to  the  Ministry — Urged  to  enter  Parliament  —  The  Liberal 
leadership — Hostility  to  Forster  :  letter  to  the  Times — "The  Church 
Militant  " — Invitation  to  Clapton — Feeling  in  Birmingham. 

Before  his  year  of  office  in  the  Chair  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Union  had  run  out,  Dale  found  himself  in  the 
forefront  of  the  conflict  that  arose  out  of  the  Education 
Act  of  1870.  The  part  he  took  in  the  struggle  itself  and 
in  the  controversies  to  which  it  led,  set  him  prominently 
before  the  whole  country  as  a  Nonconformist  leader,  and 
contributed  largely  to  the  growth  of  his  influence. 

Among  Congregationalists,  when  his  public  life  began, 
opinion  was  in  the  main  hostile  to  State  intervention  in 
education.  In  1843  they  had  resolutely  resisted  Sir 
James  Graham's  proposals,  and  had  watched  with  sus- 
picion all  subsequent  attempts  to  bring  the  schools  under 
Government   authority.      Their  own   schools  were   for  the 


THE  EDUCATION  BILL  OF  1870  257 

most  part  "  Voluntary  "  schools  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
term  :  they  did  not  conform  to  Government  requirements 
and  did  not  accept  a  Government  grant  ;  they  repudiated 
State  aid  as  well  as  State  control.  The  objections  to  any 
system  of  State  education  originally  formulated  in  1843, 
had  not  lost  their  strength  fifteen  years  later.  In  185 8, 
at  Halifax,  and  in  1859,  at  Aberdare,  the  Congregational 
Union  reasserted  its  disapproval  of  establishing  schools 
to  be  maintained  out  of  the  poor  rate,  under  the  control  of 
local  boards  of  trustees.1  A  few  of  the  leaders — Mr. 
Binney,  for  example,  and  for  many  years  Dr.  Vaughan — 
held  out  against  the  prevailing  opinion  ;  but  they  were  in 
a  small  minority  ;  and  denominational  feeling,  as  re- 
presented by  Mr.  Edward  Miall  in  the  Nonconformist, 
denied  their  right  to  speak  for  the  Congregational  churches 
in  general. 

When  the  Union  met  at  Birmingham  in  1861,  the 
Congregational  Board  of  Education,  led  by  Mr.  Baines 
and  Mr.  Samuel  Morley,  endeavoured  to  enlist  support 
for  the  voluntary  system,  and  at  an  unofficial  conference 
the  education  question  was  brought  up  for  discussion. 
Dr.  Vaughan,  who  till  then  had  taken  a  different  line, 
made  what  was  regarded  as  a  recantation  of  his  earlier 
convictions.  As  a  special  appeal  had  been  made  to  the 
churches  of  the  town,  Dale,  who  was  present  at  the 
meeting,  felt  bound  to  express  his  opinion,  and  declared 
himself  unable  to  assent  to  the  axiom  that  the  State  can 
never  rightly  meddle  with  education.2  In  his  mind  there 
was  a  clear  distinction  between  the  voluntary  principle  in' 
religion  and  the  voluntary  principle  in  education  ;  the  one 
did  not  necessarily  involve  the  other.  And  though  not 
yet  convinced  in  1861  that  State  action  was  necessary  or 
expedient,  he  was  unwilling  to  declare  definitely  against 
it  or  to  join  an  association  that  condemned  it.  The 
protest  was  made  in   self-defence  and  to  secure  himself 

1  Mr.  Cobden  actively  opposed  the  Bill,  which  applied  only  to  the 
manufacturing  districts,  provided  for  not  more  than  60,000  children,  and 
rated  all  classes  while  giving  the  management  to  one  (F.  Adams,  The 
Elementary  School  Contest,  p.  120). 

2  See  pp.  162,  163. 


268  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

against  a  demand  for  help  that  he  was  not  prepared  to 
give  ;  it  was  in  no  sense  polemical  or  aggressive.  Some 
other  speakers  stood  by  him  ;  he  had  the  sympathy  of 
some  who  did  not  speak.  But  the  recognised  leaders, 
almost  to  a  man,  were  arrayed  against  him. 

During  the  next  four  or  five  years  Congregationalism 
passed  through  great  changes.  A  race  of  younger  men 
was  coming  to  the  front,  eager  for  social  and  political 
progress,  elated  by  new  hopes  and  pursuing  new  ideals, 
ill-content  to  anchor  in  shoal  water  while  the  full  tide  of 
national  life  was  at  the  flow.  They  themselves  were 
swept  forward  by  the  spirit  that  they  had  helped  to  create. 
Dale  was  among  the  first  to  encounter  the  influence  of 
these  fresh  forces.  His  opinions  rapidly  matured,  and 
before  the  end  of  1866  he  had  reached  the  conclusion 
that  the  time  had  come  when  the  nation  should  take  up 
the  task  that  had  been  attempted  by  the  Churches.  The 
analogies  of  the  past  were  all  in  favour  of  the  change. 
What  had  happened  in  the  case  of  education  was  no  new 
experience.  When  a  great  moral  duty  incumbent  on  all 
men  was  recognised  only  by  the  Church,  she  had  no 
choice  but  to  discharge  it  herself,  that  the  community 
might  learn  from  her  example.  Thus  the  Church  had 
created  hospitals,  and  had  taught  Europe  to  care  for  the 
sick  ;  but  when  the  lesson  was  learnt,  the  Church  had 
ceased  to  maintain  hospitals  of  her  own  and  had  left  their 
support  and  management  to  society  at  large.  The 
Church  had  established  schools  for  secular  as  well  as  for 
religious  instruction  ;  but  when  the  nation  had  learnt  to 
care  for  education,  secular  teaching  might  be  left  to  the  care 
of  the  nation,  and  the  Church  would  then  be  free  to  deal 
with  the  religious  instruction  of  the  people.  Dale  believed 
that  the  nation  was  now  ready  to  take  over  the  task  ;  that 
the  work  of  education  might  reasonably  be  undertaken  by 
Government,  and  that  only  by  Government  could  it  be 
efficiently  performed.  In  a  series  of  letters  published  in 
the  English  Independent  early  in  1867,1  he  asserted  the 
necessity  of  a  national  system  of  education,  enforced   by 

1  English  Independent,  February  14,  21  ;  March  7,  1867. 


THE  EDUCATION  BILL  OF  1870  269 

compulsion,  and  paid  for  with  public  funds.  He  declared 
himself  opposed  to  a  system  of  free  education,  willing  to 
safeguard  the  interests  of  existing  schools,  and  anxious  to 
avoid  any  "  vexatious  interference  with  individual  liberty." 

My  position  is  this  :  the  child  has  a  right  to  receive  elementary 
education  ;  the  State  can  enforce  that  right,  and  ought  to  enforce 
it ;  if  the  parents  are  able  to  pay  for  that  education,  they  ought  to 
be  made  to  pay  ;  if  they  are  too  poor,  the  right  of  the  child  must 
still  be  acknowledged,  and  the  State  must  provide  education  from 
public  funds.  These  are  the  principles  on  which  our  legislation  is 
based  in  relation  to  the  physical  necessities  of  children  ;  I  see  no 
reason  why  they  should  not  be  applied  to  necessities  which, 
though  in  some  respects  less  imperative,  are  equally  real  and 
important.  .  .  . 

What  we  ask  is  that  all  children  should  be  taught  somewhere, 
taught  by  somebody  ;  but  taught,  in  any  way  that  their  parents  and 
chosen  teachers  think  best,  that  elementary  knowledge  which  all 
educationalists,  no  matter  what  their  special  theories,  acknow- 
ledge to  be  necessary  and  useful. 

In  1847  the  Nonconformists  had  revolted  against  Lord 
John  Russell's  proposals  to  extend  the  system  of  State 
education.  They  had  carried  their  hostility  to  the  polls. 
At  Birmingham,  Mr.  James  had  led  the  opposition  to  the 
Minutes  embodying  the  plan  of  the  Liberal  Ministry. 
Nonconformist  opinion,  Dale  declared,  had  now  passed 
beyond  that  stage.  The  battle  of  1 847  would  not  be 
fought  over  again.  The  actual  system  of  the  Government 
might  be  modified  and  improved,  but  it  would  not  be 
abandoned.  On  the  principle  of  Government  interference 
the  nation  had  made  up  its  mind. 

Dale's  letters  dealt  with  principles  rather  than  with  Aged  37. 
methods  ;  but  practical  experience  in  an  effort  to  meet 
the  educational  needs  of  Birmingham  soon  added  precision 
and  clearness  to  his  thought.  In  the  same  month  in 
which  he  wrote,  an  Education  Aid  Society  was  established 
in  Birmingham.  The  inaugural  meeting  was  attended  by 
men  of  all  parties  and  professions.  Dr.  Temple  came 
over  from  Rugby — no  one  looked  to  see  him  at  Canter- 
bury in  those  days.  The  Rev.  H.  M.  Capel,  the  Inspector 
of    Schools,    read     a     paper     showing     the     educational 


270  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

deficiencies  of  the  town.  Of  the  children  between  the 
ages  of  three  and  twelve,  fifty  per  cent,  it  was  estimated, 
might  be  found  in  the  schools  ;  ten  per  cent  were  at 
work  ;  the  remaining  forty  per  cent  were  neither  at 
school  nor  at  work,  but  growing  up  in  ignorance  and 
idleness.  And  shocking  as  the  estimate  then  seemed, 
experience  proved  that  these  figures,  so  far  from 
exaggerating,  actually  understated  the  case. 

Most  of  the  men  who  subsequently  became  prominent 
as  leaders  of  the  Education  League  were  associated  in 
the  work  of  this  Society.  Dale  was  one  of  its  Vice- 
Presidents  and  took  an  active  part  in  its  operations. 

To  cope  with  indifference  was  beyond  the  power  of 
any  private  organisation  ;  but  something  might  be  done  to 
help  parents  whose  children  were  absent  from  school  not 
through  negligence  but  through  poverty.  A  systematic 
canvass  of  the  town  was  made,  and  during  the  first  year 
of  the  Society's  existence  6000  orders  for  the  payment  of 
school  fees  were  issued.  But  this  effort,  in  spite  of 
persistent  labour,  made  a  very  slight  impression.  The 
children  whose  school  fees  were  paid  could  not  be  kept  at 
school.  Visitors  were  employed  to  hunt  up  stragglers, 
but  at  the  end  of  the  year  only  2000  remained  at  school: 
nearly  4000  had  drifted  out  of  sight.  Even  after  the 
increase,  the  school  attendance  was  still  below  the  rate  of 
fifty  per  cent.  Other  difficulties  arose.  In  some  cases 
the  only  school  to  which  children  could  be  sent  was  not 
efficient  and  could  not  be  made  so.  It  was  not  easy  to 
meet  the  expenses.  Time  after  time  Dale  had  to  appeal 
for  funds.  He  complained  that  many  people  interpreted 
Voluntaryism  as  "  freedom  to  give  nothing." 

It  became  clear  that  the  necessities  of  the  case  could 
not  be  met  in  this  way  ;  but  all  were  not  of  one  mind  as 
to  the  right  method.  In  the  preliminary  discussions 
which  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Society  there  had  been 
much  divergence  of  opinion.  All  were  agreed  that  local 
authorities  should  be  empowered  to  levy  rates  for  educa- 
tional purposes ;  but  at  this  point  agreement  ended. 
Chamberlain,  Dixon,  Dale,  and   others   were   in   favour   of 


THE  EDUCATION  BILL  OF  1870  271 

compulsion,  but  they  were  outvoted.  All  were  willing  to 
assist  existing  schools  ;  but  some,  while  ready  to  subsidise 
all  schools  then  established  of  whatever  kind,  refused  to 
aid  in  creating  a  new  class  of  schools  to  compete  with  the 
denominational  system  ;  the  denominational  difficulty 
cropped  up  in  other  forms  also.  They  had  differed 
at  the  outset  ;  at  the  end  of  a  year  they  differed 
still. 

The  influence  of  this  experience  on  Dale's  mind  is 
very  conspicuous.  The  more  he  came  to  know  of  the 
condition  of  the  people,  the  deeper  he  penetrated  below 
the  surface,  the  more  vehement  he  became  in  demanding 
a  national  system  of  education.  He  lectured  on  the 
subject  in  many  places  :  during  a  period  of  several  years 
he  rarely  spoke  in  public  without  some  reference  to 
the  subject,  whatever  his  audience ;  whether  addressing 
the  newly  enfranchised  electors  of  Birmingham  or  the 
ministers  and  delegates  of  the  Congregational  Union. 
Before  long  he  began  to  speak  for  others  as  well  as  for 
himself.  For  instance,  in  apologising  for  inability  to 
attend  a  conference  at  Manchester,  he  referred  to  "  a 
grave  misapprehension  "  which  he  desired  to  remove — 
that  Congregationalists  "  are  anxious  to  preserve  un- 
impaired the  denominational  element  in  our  national 
system  of  education." 

What,  before  all  other  things,  nine  Congregationalists  out  of 
ten  would  prefer  would  be  a  national  system,  locally  administered, 
of  secular  education.  This  is  what  we  wanted  nearly  thirty  years 
ago,  and  the  protest  in  1846-47  against  all  State  interference  with 
popular  education  was  really  a  temporary  departure  from  the 
policy  which  Congregational  Dissenters  originally  professed. 
There  are  many  of  us,  however,  who  feel  that  it  would  be 
alike  unjust  and  inexpedient  violently  to  break  up  the  present 
schools;  and  we  are  anxious  to  discover  the  best  method  of 
conciliating  the.  claims  of  those  who  have  worked  hard  under  the 
present  system  with  what  seems  to  us  the  imperative  necessity  of 
introducing  a  broader  and  bolder  scheme.  We  have  no  affection 
for  the  denominational  system  ;  we  should  generally  prefer  secular 
schools  ;  but  there  are  many  amongst  us,  as  I  have  said,  who  are 
unwilling  to  ignore  the  great  services  which  have  been  rendered 


272  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

to  the  country  by  those  whose  schools  are  at  present  in  connection 
with  the  Privy  Council.1 

For  several  months  he  went  up  and  down  the  country, 
speaking  and  lecturing  on  the  duty  of  Congregationalists 
with  reference  to  the  education  of  the  country.  In  Wilt- 
shire he  had  a  pleasant  experience.  It  was  his  habit  to 
combine  various  kinds  of  work  ;  and  one  purpose  of  his 
visit  was  to  collect  funds  for  Spring  Hill  College,  which 
was  then  in  financial  straits.  He  hoped  to  obtain  a 
donation  from  his  host,  Mr.  Jupe,  who  took  the  chair  at 
his  lecture.  But  at  the  meeting  the  chairman  differed 
from  the  lecturer,  and  said  so.  The  discussion  was  warm, 
and  when  Dale  went  to  bed  that  night  he  felt  that  he 
had  failed  to  gain  a  convert  and  that  he  had  lost  a  cheque. 
But  the  next  morning,  before  he  went  away,  Mr.  Jupe  took 
him  aside  and  handed  him  a  cheque  for  .£100 — a  gift  as 
magnanimous  as  it  was  munificent. 

His  activity  was  not  confined  to  the  platform.  He 
offered  an  article  on  the  education  question  to  the  editors 
of  the  British  Quarterly,  not  without  some  misgiving  as 
to  the  extent  to  which  they  agreed  with  his  opinions. 


To  Dr.  Allon 

iltk  February  1868. 

I  am  not  at  all  sure  whether  "  we  three  "  -  are  at  one  on  all 
the  questions  which  must  be  raised  in  a  full  and  thorough  discus- 
sion of  this  subject.  As  you  know.  I  have  been  working  at  it  a 
long  time  and  have  had  some  special  advantages  for  looking  at 
the  matter  all  round.  You  now  have  the  result.  Why  I  wish 
you  to  go  through  it  at  once  is  this :  if  you  two  don't  agree  with 
me,  I  want  to  publish  the  article  as  a  pamphlet  within  a  fortnight. 
It  ought,  in  that  case,  to  be  in  the  printer's  hands  in  a  week. 
You  will  see  that  I  have  written  rather  more  than  you  want  j  but, 
my  dear  fellow,  it  is  so  good !  If  you  don't  agree  with  me  all 
through,  why  can't  you  let  the  article  stand  with  my  name,  if  you 
are  not  ashamed  of  it  ?  It  appears  to  me  that  there  are  many 
reasons  for  doing  this  now  and  then. 

1  To  Mr.  George  Dixon,   2nd  January  1868. 

2  Dr.  Allon  and  Dr.  Reynolds  were  editors  of  the  British  Quarterly 
Revinv. 


THE  EDUCATION  BILL  OF  1870  273 

I  might  do  more,  perhaps,  in  a  pamphlet  than  with  your 
awful  dissent  in  the  British  Quarterly,  but  it's  worth  thinking  of. 

The  article  was  accepted,  and  published  without 
signature  or  editorial  reservation.1 

When  the  National  Education  League  was  established 
in  1869,  Dale,  though  in  full  sympathy  with  its  main 
object  and  its  general  policy,  felt  unable  to  join  it  or  to 
attend  the  inaugural  meetings.  It  was  painful  to  him  to 
stand  apart  from  Mr.  Dixon,  Mr.  Chamberlain,  Mr.  Collings, 
and  other  friends  with  whom  he  had  worked  for  public 
ends  ;  but  he  could  not  accept  the  fundamental  principle 
of  the  League  that  the  schools  aided  by  local  rates  should 
be  free.  To  remit  fees  in  cases  of  poverty  was  a  necessity  ; 
but  to  abolish  fees  indiscriminately — to  say  nothing  of 
extravagance — would  bring  the  new  schools  into  antagon- 
ism with  the  old  ;  and  free  education,  if  provided  for  the 
labouring  classes — so  it  then  appeared  to  him — could  not 
justly  be  withheld  in  schools  of  a  higher  rank. 

These  and  other  objections  he  urged  with  vigour,  both 
in  articles  and  in  addresses  ;  and  for  several  months  he 
remained,  with  obvious  reluctance  and  regret,  outside  of 
both  camps — the  League  and  its  antagonist,  the  National 
Education  Union,  whose  headquarters  were  at  Manchester. 
His  sympathies,  however,  were  unmistakable.  He  criticised 
the  Union  as  an  antagonist,  the  League  as  a  friend  ; 2  and 
by  the  end  of  the  year  he  determined  to  follow  the 
example  of  Professor  Fawcett  and  Mr.  Mundella,  and  like 
them  to  waive  his  scruples  in  order  to  secure  united  action. 
In  accepting  membership,  he  guarded  himself  in  the 
matter  of  free  schools. 

In  common  with  some  of  the  most  distinguished  members 
of  the  League,  I  believe  that  this  proposal  is  open  to  grave 
theoretical  objections,  and  that  it  must  create  serious  difficulties. 
My  adhesion  to  the  other  principles  of  the  League  is  hearty  and 
unqualified ;  on  this  point  I  must  reserve  my  freedom.3 

1  "  Nonconformists  and  National  Education"  :  British  Quarterly  Review, 
April  1868,  pp.  399-434. 

2  "  National  Education  :  the  Union  versus  the  League":  British  Quarterly 
Review,  January  1870,  pp.  145-166.  3   13th  November  1869. 

T 


274  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Once  under  the  colours,  he  took  his  share  of  the 
fighting.  Many  Nonconformists  still  wavered,  and  he 
set  himself  to  win  them  over.  Early  in  1870  he  attended 
a  conference  of  Nonconformist  ministers  at  Leeds — Mr. 
Baines's  stronghold — to  explain  the  proposals  of  the 
League.  He  was  well  "  heckled,"  but  he  carried  the 
majority  of  the  audience  with  him.  He  also  visited 
Bristol — presumably  to  counteract  Mr  Morley's  influence  ; 
and  during  the  first  six  weeks  of  the  year  he  was  in- 
cessantly in  the  field. 

On  17th  February  1870,  Mr.  Forster  laid  his  Educa- 
tion Bill  before  the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  struggle 
began  in  earnest.  From  the  first  the  measure  courted 
disaster.  As  its  subsequent  history — even  in  Parliament 
— showed,  its  birth  was  premature.  Some  of  its  most 
important  provisions  had  not  been  fully  considered,  and 
were  ultimately  rejected  by  the  Ministers  who  had  pro- 
posed them.  Further  deliberation  would  have  saved 
much  misunderstanding  and  some  mistakes,  more  easily 
avoided  than  remedied.  But  Mr.  Forster  was  in  a  hurry. 
He  saw  the  hostile  forces  mustering ;  he  heard  the 
trumpet  as  it  began  to  speak  ;  and  with  Olympian  self- 
confidence  he  thought  that  by  immediate  action  he  might 
avert  popular  agitation  and  settle  the  dispute  before  the 
antagonists  could  come  to  blows.  He  tried  to  anticipate 
public  discussion — the  discussion  that  must  inevitably 
precede  the  passing  of  any  great  measure.  He  attempted 
to  legislate  before  men  had  made  clear  to  themselves 
where  they  stood  and  what  they  wanted,  and  before  they 
clearly  saw  all  that  was  at  stake. 

On  its  first  reading,  the  Bill  met  with  general  though 
guarded  approval ;  but  as  soon  as  members  of  the  House 
of  Commons  had  the  text  in  their  hands,  opinion  among 
the  ranks  of  the  Liberal  party  began  to  change.  Outside  the 
House  dissatisfaction  was  even  more  pronounced.  Dale's 
mind  was  soon  made  up,  and  within  a  week  he  published 
a  vigorous  attack  on  the  scheme,  regarded  from  the 
Nonconformist  standpoint. 

His     complaint    was    threefold:    (1)  that   the   schools 


THE  EDUCATION  BILL  OF  1870  275 

established  by  the  Act  might  be,  and  in  many  cases 
would  be,  purely  denominational  institutions ;  (2)  that 
the  conscience  clause  contained  in  the  Bill  was  inadequate 
as  a  protection  ;  (3)  that  School  Boards  were  empowered 
to  make  grants  out  of  the  rates  to  maintain  sectarian 
schools.1 

Addressing    a   town's-meeting   at    Birmingham  a  few  Aged  40. 
days  later  he  pointed  to  other  blots  in  the  Bill,  summing 
up  his  criticism  in  a  few  vigorous  sentences. 

I  object  to  this  Bill  on  many  grounds.  I  object  to  the  un- 
necessary delay  which  its  provisions  will  occasion  in  the  creation 
of  School  Boards  in  districts  where  the  school  accommodation  has 
been  proved  inadequate.  I  object  to  it  because  it  evades  the 
greatest  difficulties  that  lie  in  the  way  of  educational  legislation, 
instead  of  solving  them.  I  object  to  it  because  it  leaves 
compulsory  attendance  to  the  discretion  of  the  School  Board  : 
"  permissive  compulsion "  is  but  another  phrase  for  permissive 
ignorance ;  and  as  I  protest  against  the  one,  so  I  will  not  tolerate 
the  other.  What  we  ask  for  is  education — the  best  education 
possible,  and  at  any  cost,  for  every  child  in  England.  But  not 
even  at  the  bidding  of  a  Liberal  Ministry  will  we  consent  to 
any  proposition  which,  under  cover  of  an  educational  measure, 
empowers  one  religious  denomination  to  levy  a  rate  for  teaching 
its  creed  and  maintaining  its  worship.  On  this  point  compromise 
or  concession  is  impossible.  Our  minds  are  made  up ;  our 
decision  is  irrevocable.  We  respect  Mr.  Forster — we  honour 
Mr.  Gladstone ;  but  we  are  determined  that  England  shall  not 
again  be  cursed  with  the  bitterness  and  strife  from  which  we 
hoped  we  had  for  ever  escaped  by  the  abolition  of  the  Church 
rate. 

Had  the  questions  at  issue  been  merely  political,  or 
even  educational,  Dale  would  have  left  the  work  of 
opposition  to  the  League  and  its  branches.  But  the 
Nonconformist  objection  to  the  Bill  was  not  one  that 
could  be  urged  with  propriety  or  force  by  an  organisation 
including  every  diversity  of  creed  from  Anglicanism  to 
Positivism.  And  other  controversies,  he  foresaw,  were  not 
unlikely  to  arise  with  which  the  League  had  no  concern. 
So,  to  represent  Nonconformist  opinion,  and  to  promote 
united     action,   the     Central     Nonconformist    Committee 

1  The  English  Independent,  24th  February  1870. 


276  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

was  appointed  at  a  public  meeting  held  on  3rd  March.  Its 
headquarters  were  at  Birmingham.  Dale  and  his  friend  Dr. 
Crosskey  were  its  Honorary  Secretaries  ;  Mr.  Schnadhorst, 
whom  Dale  had  known  for  several  years,  was  appointed 
Secretary — his  first  introduction  to  an  eventful  career. 

The  first  step  taken  by  the  Committee  in  opposing  the 
Bill  was  to  organise  a  Petition  to  the  House  of  Commons 
and  a  Protest  to  Mr.  Gladstone  from  the  Nonconformist 
ministers  of  the  country.  The  project  met  with  remark- 
able success  :  7300  forms  were  sent  out,  and  5173  signa- 
tures were  received  in  four  days.  So  strong  was  the 
feeling  that  even  among  the  Wesleyan  Methodists,  whose 
sympathies  were  supposed  to  be  unfriendly  to  the  League, 
a  clear  majority  signed  both  documents.  Among  the  other 
branches  of  Methodism,  and  among  Congregationalists, 
Baptists,  and  Unitarians,  the  majority  supporting  the 
Committee  was  overwhelming.  The  Protest  was  presented 
to  Mr.  Gladstone  on  1  ith  April  by  representative  delegates. 
Mr.  Forster  received  a  similar  deputation  from  the  Con- 
gregational Union  a  few  days  later.  Dale  was  present, 
and  with  other  speakers  set  forth  the  causes  of  complaint.1 

So  far  his  loyalty  to  the  Liberal  party  and  its  leader 
held  fast — even  under  strain.  At  Manchester,  where  he 
spoke  on  31st  March  to  an  audience  that  crowded  the 
Free  Trade  Hall  and  overflowed  into  the  street ;  at  the 
Congregational  Union  of  Durham  and  Northumberland 
on  10th  April;  and  in  Scotland,  a  few  days  later,  he 
avowed  his  faith  in  Mr  Gladstone's  sense  of  justice,  and 
asserted  the  anxiety  of  the  Nonconformists  to  avoid 
any  action  that  might  weaken  his  leadership.  But  at 
the  same  time  he  insisted  that  the  Prime  Minister  was 
bound  to  consider  the  grievances  of  those  who  had  done 
so  much,  and  suffered  so  much,  in   his  behalf.      Hardly 

1  The  Protest  was  directed  :  (i)  against  the  power  given  to  local  boards  to 
levy  a  rate  for  the  support  of  schools  in  which  they  may  determine  that  the 
religious  teaching  shall  be  denominational,  under  whatever  conditions  the  de- 
nominational teaching  may  be  given  ;  (2)  against  the  conscience  clause,  which  re- 
quires a  Nonconformist  citizen  to  claim  religious  toleration  in  schools  supported 
by  national  money;  (3)  against  the  permissive  arrangement  for  religious 
inspection. 


THE  EDUCATION  BILL  OF  1870  277 

a  man  sat  on  the  Government  benches  who  did  not  owe  his 
return  in  large  measure  to  the  energy  of  Nonconformists  ; 
and  he  urged  the  electors  to  let  their  representatives  at 
Westminster  hear  their  voices.  "  Every  member  of  the 
Liberal  party  should  be  personally  appealed  to,  at  once, 
by  his  own  constituents  to  press  the  Government  to 
modify  the  Bill." 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  Government  made  no  effort 
to  remove  discontent  ;  but  their  effort  was  half-hearted. 
Before  the  Bill  went  into  Committee  they  announced  their 
intention  to  adopt  a  "  time-table  conscience  clause," 
providing  that  religious  instruction  should  be  given  only 
at  the  beginning  or  at  the  end  of  school  hours.  They 
accepted  an  amendment  prohibiting  the  use  of  any 
"  catechism  or  religious  formulary  which  is  distinctive  of 
any  particular  denomination."  1  They  dropped  the  clause 
(clause  22  in  the  original  Bill)  empowering  School  Boards 
to  make  grants  to  schools  not  under  their  control  ;  at  the 
same  time,  by  way  of  compensation,  they  proposed  to 
increase  the  grant  out  of  the  Consolidated  Fund  to  all 
denominational  schools. 

These  concessions  failed  to  satisfy  the  Nonconformist 
leaders.  Dale  condemned  the  amendments  as  wholly 
inadequate,  and  as  betraying  the  indifference  of  the 
Government  to  the  loss  of  Nonconformist  support. 

They  do  not  touch  those  provisions  which  provoked  the 
strongest  hostility.  They  adhere  to  the  three  fundamental 
principles  by  which  they  think  they  have  solved  the  religious 
difficulty — unrestricted  liberty  of  teaching  to  the  schoolmaster, 
unrestricted  liberty  of  withdrawal  to  the  parent,  unrestricted 
liberty  to  the  majority  to  levy  a  rate  for  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  schools  in  which  their  own  creed  shall  be  taught 
and  their  own  religious  observances  practised.  The  liberty  con- 
ceded to  the  parent  will,  however,  in  many  districts  be  theoretical 
rather  than  practical.  .  .  .  Those  of  us  who  have  hitherto 
trusted  in  the  Government,  must  henceforth  trust  in  ourselves. 

}  This  amendment  was  suggested,  not  by  any  representative  of  Non- 
conformity or  the  Education  League,  but  by  Mr.  Cowper  Temple,  the 
President  of  the  Education  Union.  It  was  repudiated  by  Mr.  Richard, 
speaking  in  the  name  of  Nonconformists  (20th  June  1870). 


278  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

While  the  Bill  was  in  Committee,  Dale  and  his 
colleagues  watched  its  progress  with  unremitting  atten- 
tion. They  spent  many  hours  in  the  House,  in  the  seats 
beneath  the  gallery ;  they  took  an  active  part  in  dis- 
cussing the  amendments  that  should  be  proposed  ;  they 
were  in  constant  communication  with  Mr.  Miall,  and  Mr. 
Richard,  and  Mr.  Winterbotham.  At  the  same  time  they 
had  to  explain  their  policy  to  friends  in  the  country  on 
whom  they  counted  for  support.  The  following  letter  to 
Dr.  Paton  of  Nottingham  refers  to  Mr.  Richard's  amend- 
ment declaring  against  any  increased  grant  to  denomina- 
tional schools,  and  urging  that  religious  instruction  should 
be  supplied  by  voluntary  effort. 

To  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Paton 

June  [13M?]  1S70. 

The  history  of  Richard's  motion  is  this  : — 

My  fellow-secretary  went  to  London  last  week,  and  it  was  part 
of  his  business  to  do  what  we  had  not  been  able  to  do  thoroughly 
by  correspondence — arrange  finally  for  the  line  to  be  taken  in 
the  House  on  Thursday.  I  had  had  a  good  deal  of  corre- 
spondence during  the  last  fortnight  with  Winterbotham,  but  on 
Friday  morning  things  still  remained  in  confusion.  Crosskey 
saw  Winterbotham  and  Miall,  and  arranged  with  them  for  a 
meeting  of  our  friends  in  the  Tea  Room  on  Friday  night.  After 
a  long  discussion,  the  conclusion  was  arrived  at  expressed  in 
Richard's  motion.1 

Gladstone  had  sent  for  Miall  and  Winterbotham  before  the 
House  separated  for  the  holidays,  and  it  became  clear  that  the 
only  alternatives  before  us  are — (1)  Winterbotham's  simple  Bible 
reading;  (2)  unrestricted  sectarian  teaching,  only  excluding 
creeds,  etc.  ;  (3)  purely  secular  schools  with  free  religious 
teaching  by  denominations :  the  Irish  Model  School  system. 
"  Undenominational "  teaching — as  might  have  been  inferred 
from  Gladstone's  talk  with  the  deputation — was  plainly  out  of  the 
question. 

Of  these  alternatives  (1),  though  it  will  possibly  be  the  ultimate 

1  On  the  motion  for  going  into  Committee,  Mr.  Henry  Richard  moved  as 
an  amendment  (20th  June  1870),  That  ["  the  grants  to  denominational  schools 
should  not  be  increased  ;  and  that  in  any  system  of  national  education,  the 
attendance  should  everywhere  be  compulsory,  and  the  religious  instruction 
should  be  supplied  by  voluntary  effort,  and  not  out  of  public  funds."] 


THE  EDUCATION  BILL  OF  1870  279 

solution,  was  felt  to  be  illogical — unsatisfactory  to  those  who  want 
the  schoolmaster  to  be  a  religious  teacher,  offensive  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  members,  and  on  other  grounds  a  bad  line  for 
fighting  on  going  into  Committee;  (2)  is  intolerable;  (3)  was 
left. 

We  have  the  strongest  grounds  for  believing  that  between 
Forster  and  Gladstone  there  are  the  gravest  differences  on  the 
treatment  of  the  religious  question  in  the  Bill,  and  that  should 
the  House  go  in  for  "  undenominationalism,"  or  for  the  Bill  as  it 
stands,  it  will  be  because  Gladstone  cannot  have  his  own  way. 
He  believes  that  religious  teaching  to  be  effective  must  be 
absolutely  free  :  the  teacher  must  be  able  to  say  all  that  is  in  his 
heart.  He  has  been  annoyed  at  the  confusion  in  the  minds  of 
the  deputations  which  have  seen  him,  and  told  Winterbotham 
that  our  [Congregational]  Union  Deputation  was  the  only  one 
which  knew  its  own  mind. 

Our  Committee  have  not  formally  expressed  their  approval  of 
Richard's  motion,  but  considerable  discretion  has  been  left  in  the 
hands  of  the  Secretaries,  and  we  knew  enough  of  their  minds  to 
be  able  to  predict  with  moral  certainty  what  their  judgment 
would  be. 

Further,  although  our  organisation  is  local,  our  correspondence 
covers  the  country,  and  with  exceptions  we  are  sure  that  we  are 
supported  by  the  mass  of  our  constituents.  During  the  last  ten 
days  the  question  has  come  to  this — Richard's  line  substantially, 
or  sectarianism ;  we  can  have  no  hesitation  which  line  to  take. 
Of  course  it  is  open  to  any  Nonconformist  to  contest  our  policy. 
Every  one  knows  that  there  are  differences  as  to  the  extent  of 
concession  which  we  should  be  prepared  to  make  to  the  people 
who  want  religion  taught  by  the  schoolmaster ;  I  have  gone  as 
far  as  any  man  almost  in  that  line.  But  our  present  position  has 
been  taken  with  the  aid  of  a  fuller  information  than  is  probably 
possessed  elsewhere  of  how  the  question  is  really  regarded  by  the 
Government  and  the  House,  and  whatever  may  be  the  solution 
in  Committee,  I  believe  it  will  be  found  that  our  course  will  be 
justified  by  the  event.  Those  who  doubt  us,  should  remember 
that  Dixon's  amendment *  was  regarded  by  large  numbers  of  men 
with  intense  indignation  and  hostility.  There  was  a  perfect  howl 
against  it  at  first.  The  event  proved  that  we  were  right  then ;  I 
believe  it  will  be  the  same  again. 

1  On  the  motion  for  the  Second  Reading  of  the  Bill,  Mr.  Dixon  moved 
(14th  March  1870),  That  ["this  House  is  of  opinion  that  no  measure  for  the 
elementary  education  of  the  people  will  afford  a  satisfactory  or  permanent 
settlement  which  leaves  the  question  of  religious  instruction  in  schools 
supported  by  public  funds  and  rates  to  be  determined  by  local  authorities. "}' 


28o  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

Our  Committee  interpret  Richard's  amendment  as  laying  down 
the  general  principle  which  should  regulate  the  treatment  of  the 
religious  question  in  rate  schools ;  but  as  leaving  them  free  to 
support  Bible  reading  without  note  or  comment. 

The  amendment  was  rejected  :  only  sixty-two  members 
supported  it ;  but  at  clause  14  the  division  in  the  Liberal 
party  became  serious.  Mr.  Jacob  Bright  proposed  to  add 
to  Mr.  Cowper  Temple's  clause  accepted  by  the  Govern- 
ment a  provision  that  in  rate-supported  schools  in  which 
the  Scriptures  were  taught,  "  the  teaching  shall  not  be 
used  or  directed  in  favour  of  or  against  the  distinctive 
tenets  of  any  religious  denomination."1  The  amendment 
was  of  the  first  importance.  The  Cowper  Temple  clause 
— Dale  pointed  out — 

Excluded  the  Church  Catechism,  but  left  the  Board  absolutely 
free  to  teach  every  one  of  its  characteristic  doctrines.  There  was 
nothing  in  it  to  prevent  the  schools  of  the  nation  from  being  used 
for  the  same  purpose  for  which  denominational  schools  had 
been  established — to  propagate  a  denominational  creed.  The 
"formulary"  was  forbidden,  but  the  dogma  of  the  formulary  was 
permitted. 

But  in  spite  of  criticism  and  menace  the  Ministry  held 
its  ground.  When  the  division  was  taken,  132  Liberals 
voted  for  the  amendment ;  133  abstained  ;  and  the  clause 
was  carried  by  121  Liberals  (including  25  Government 
officials)  and  132  Conservatives.  The  Ministry,  in  fact, 
carried  its  proposal  by  the  votes  of  the  Opposition  ;  and 
on  other  occasions  the  same  alliance  was  resorted  to 
for  the  same  ends.  When  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  a  vigorous 
passage  of  arms  with  Mr.  Miall,  bade  the  Nonconformist 
leader  "  for  God's  sake "  to  withdraw  his  support  "  the 
moment  he  thinks  it  better  for  the  cause  which  he  has  at 
heart  that  he  should  do  so,"  2  the  retort,  however  natural 
under  provocation,  did  not  tend  to  lessen  estrangement  or 
to  appease  rancour. 

The  struggle  was  now  transferred  from  Parliament  to 
the  country,  and  for  the  next  two  or  three  years  Dale 
1  30th  June  1870.  2  22nd  July  1870. 


THE  NONCONFORMIST  REVOLT  281 

lived  in  the  thick  of  agitation.  With  his  resentment 
against  the  Government  still  keen,  he  went  down  to 
Shrewsbury  to  support  a  second  Liberal  candidate  at  a 
by-election,  in  opposition  to  Mr.  Cotes,  who  had  declared 
himself  in  favour  of  Mr.  Forster's  policy.  Dale  appealed 
to  Nonconformist  electors  not  to  vote  for  candidates  who 
refused  to  resist  a  denominational  system  and  the  increase 
of  grants  to  denominational  schools.  "  Nonconformists," 
he  said,  "  must  make  it  clearly  understood  that  there  are 
certain  terms  by  which  their  allegiance  to  the  Liberal 
party  stands  or  falls,  and  that  they  mean  to  take  some  part 
in  Liberal  councils."  It  was  an  excellent  object  lesson  ; 
and  though  the  second  candidate  did  not  go  to  the  poll, 
Mr.  Cotes  lost  the  election. 

But  for  the  most  part  Dale's  work  at  this  time  was  of 
another  kind.  Nonconformist  Committees  began  to  form 
in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  put  themselves  in  com- 
munication with  one  or  other  of  the  more  powerful 
organisations  at  Manchester,  Liverpool,  and  Birmingham  ; 
and  as  the  campaign  went  on,  these  three  associations  had 
to  keep  touch  between  themselves  and  to  agree  on  joint 
action.  Dale,  as  representing  his  own  committee,  was 
in  incessant  demand  both  on  the  platform  and  in  council. 
Before  long,  his  face  became  almost  as  familiar  at  Crewe 
—  where  the  three  committees  met  —  as  it  was  in 
Birmingham. 

As  soon  as  the  School  Boards  were  elected  and  settled 
to  work,  the  controversy  entered  upon  a  new  phase.  The 
twenty -fifth  clause  of  the  Education  Act  empowered 
School  Boards  to  pay  fees  at  any  public  elementary  school 
in  cases  of  poverty ;  but  wherever  the  denominational 
party  attempted  to  put  the  clause  in  operation,  they  met 
with  stubborn  resistance.  No  other  question  roused 
keener  excitement  or  provoked  more  embittered  hostility. 
Strangely  enough,  the  clause  had  been  allowed  to  pass 
the  House  of  Commons  without  an  amendment  and 
without  a  division.  It  had  been  so  closely  associated  with 
clause  22  of  the  original  Bill,  which  allowed  School  Boards 
to  subsidise  denominational  schools,  that  it  had  been  over- 


282  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

looked  in  the  resistance  which  was  offered  to  the  more 
important  clause.  When  clause  23  was  thrown  overboard 
before  going  into  Committee,1  its  opponents  forgot  that 
clause  25  still  remained2;  and  Mr.  Gladstone's  declaration 
that  the  Government  had  decided  to  "  sever  altogether  the 
tie  between  the  local  boards  and  the  voluntary  schools  "  3 
helped  no  doubt  to  disarm  their  vigilance.  But  the  clause 
stood  in  the  Act,  and  some  School  Boards  at  once  resolved 
to  use  the  power  which  it  conferred  on  them  ;  fees  at 
denominational  schools  were  paid  out  of  the  rates  before 
any  Board  school  had  been  built. 

This  injustice — so  palpable,  so  unforeseen — roused  the 
indignation  of  Nonconformists,  even  if  they  had  been 
lukewarm  before.  Dale  was  conspicuous  in  the  conflict. 
In  May,  as  one  of  a  deputation  sent  by  the  three  com- 
mittees to  Mr.  Gladstone,  he  was  chosen  to  address  the 
Prime  Minister  on  this  subject  ;  his  hand  may  be  traced 
in  a  careful  statement  of  Nonconformist  objections  drawn 
up  at  Mr.  Gladstone's  request.4  A  little  later  he  appeared 
before  Lord  Ripon,  the  President  of  the  Council,  on  a 
similar  mission.  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  the  affluence  of  his 
dialectical  skill,  thoroughly  enjoyed  dealing  with  opponents 
at  close  quarters  ;  but  Lord  Ripon  was  not  so  ready  in 
debate,  and  his  attempt  to  turn  the  tables  on  the  delegates 
was  a  failure.  After  listening  to  their  arguments  against 
the  clause,  he  urged  that  without  such  a  provision  a 
compulsory  system — which  the  deputation  were  known  to 
desire — was  impossible.  You  cannot  compel  a  parent,  he 
said,  to  send  his  child  to  school,  and  then  deprive  him  of 
the  right  to  select  the  school  to  which  his  child  shall  be 
sent.  In  that  case,  replied  Dale,  compulsion  in  the  rural 
districts  is  impossible  :  in  the  villages  there  is  no  choice  of 
schools  ;  there  is  but  one  ;  the  theory  of  the  Act  is  that 
the    conscience   clause   gives   adequate   protection   to  the 

1  Clause  22  in  the  original  Bill,  providing  for  assistance  out  of  the  rates  to 
existing  schools;  abandoned  on  16th  June  1870. 

2  Clause  25  of  the  Act  was  clause  24  in  the  original  Bill. 

3  Speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  16th  June  1870. 

4  Central   Nonconformist   Committee  :  Occasional   Paper.     No.     r,    July 
871,  pp.  1-6,  and  pp.  20,  21. 


THE  NONCONFORMIST  REVOLT  283 

faith  of  every  parent ;  and  if  the  conscience  clause  is 
sufficient  for  its  purpose,  what  more  can  the  parent 
demand  ?  The  report  continues,  "  The  reply  of  the 
noble  Lord  to  these  observations  was  not  heard.  The 
deputation  thanked  the  noble  Marquis  and  withdrew."1 
Again  and  again  Dale  spoke  on  the  subject — twice  before 
the  Congregational  Union  ;  at  Swansea,  in  reply  to  a 
paper  read  by  Mr.  Edward  Baines  ;  and  in  London,  in 
opposition  to  an  amendment  moved  by  Dr.  Conder,  who 
would  neither  bless  nor  ban  the  clause  ;  at  public  meetings 
in  Birmingham  and  elsewhere.  He  read  an  elaborate 
paper  at  a  conference  of  the  League.  His  speech  in  the 
debate  at  the  Birmingham  School  Board,  to  which  he  had 
been  elected,  was  circulated  by  thousands.  When  Mr. 
Forster  and  the  Education  Department  endeavoured  to 
force  the  Boards  to  exercise  a  power  that  the  Act  left 
to  their  discretion,  his  ardour  redoubled,  and  he  fought 
steadily  year  after  year  until  the  obnoxious  clause  was 
at  last  repealed  by  Lord  Sandon's  Act  of  1876. 

At  the  same  time  he  was  engaged  in  another  battle 
with  the  Education  Department.  The  Endowed  Schools 
Act  of  1869  provided  that  a  large  number  of  schools  in 
various  parts  of  the  country  should  be  placed  under  new 
management.  Certain  exceptions  were  made  in  favour  of 
schools  that  might  be  regarded  as  distinctively  associated 
with  the  Established  Church,  but  elsewhere  denominational 
control  and  supremacy  were  to  cease ;  the  Act  under 
which  the  new  governing  bodies  were  constituted,  expressly 
directed  that  "  the  religious  opinions  of  any  person  shall 
not  in  any  way  affect  his  qualification  for  being  one  of  the 
governing  body  of  such  Endowment." 2  The  intention 
of  the  Act  could  hardly  have  been  clearer  ;  nevertheless, 
out  of  forty  schemes  of  management  prepared  by  the 
Endowed  Schools  Commissioners,  sanctioned  by  the  Educa- 
tion Department,  and  laid  on  the  table  in  both  Houses  of 
Parliament  for  ratification,  thirty-six  contained  provisions 

1  Central  Nonconformist  Committee  :  Occasional  Paper.      No.  2,  October 
1871,  pp.  13,  14. 

2  Endowed  Schools  Act  1869,  clause  17,  section  1. 


284  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

for  the  appointment  of  ex  officio  clerical  governors.  The 
Birmingham  Committee  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to 
call  attention  to  this  anomaly.  The  legality  of  such 
appointments  was  challenged  by  Mr.  Miall  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  At  first  Mr.  Forster  endeavoured  to  treat 
the  matter  lightly  ;  and  relying  on  four  exceptions  out  of 
the  forty  cases,  he  replied  that  it  was  "  not  a  rule  "  with 
the  Commissioners  that  the  incumbent  of  a  parish  should 
be  ex  officio  a  governor  of  an  endowed  school.1  But  the 
question  once  raised  could  not  be  set  aside.  The  Non- 
conformist opposition  was  pertinacious.  Finally,  the 
Privy  Council,  at  the  direction  of  the  Law  officers  of  the 
Crown,  pronounced  such  appointments  illegal,  and  directed 
that  they  should  be  cancelled  in  all  schemes  that  had  not 
yet  received  the  sanction  of  Parliament. 

In  itself  the  matter,  except  as  an  infringement  of  law, 
was  not  of  supreme  importance.  But  it  was  closely  related 
to  a  larger  question  on  which  Dale  felt  strongly.  He  was 
anxious  to  secure  for  Nonconformists  their  due  share  in 
the  administration  and  control  of  higher  education.  The 
disabilities  inflicted  on  earlier  generations,  he  knew  too 
well,  had  inflicted  lasting  injury.  The  attempt  to  starve 
and  impoverish  the  intellectual  life  of  Nonconformity  by 
cutting  it  off  from  the  sources  of  culture,  so  far  as  law 
could  do  it,  had  proved  only  too  successful.  With  the 
universities  closed  against  them,  excluded  by  prescription, 
both  as  teachers  and  governors,  from  the  best  schools  of 
the  country,  Nonconformists  had  been  brought  to  under- 
value education  and  to  disparage  the  learning  that  had 
been  the  pride  of  their  forefathers.  This  attempt  to  pack 
the  new  governing  boards  with  clerical  members  revived 
the  policy  of  exclusion  in  a  feeble  and  attenuated  form  ; 
and  the  passion  with  which  Dale  assailed  its  promoters 
and  defenders  was  drawn  from  the  past  as  well  as  from 
the  present. 

How  complete  the  victory  over  the  Department  had 
been  he  did  not  realise  at  first.  After  the  Secretary  had 
announced   that  the  clerical  ex  officio  governors  had  been 

1  House  of  Commons,  7th  August  1871. 


THE  NONCONFORMIST  REVOLT  2S5 

withdrawn,  Dale  was  spokesman  of  a  deputation  that 
waited  on  Lord  Lyttelton  and  the  other  Commissioners 
to  urge  various  objections  against  some  of  their  schemes 
of  management.  He  pointed  out  that  in  several  cases 
sectarian  appointments  had  been  made  by  indirect 
methods. 

Ex  officio  governors  were  appointed,  who  would  of  necessity 
be  members  of  the  Church  of  England ;  thus  the  Head  Master 
of  King's  School  was  appointed  an  ex  officio  governor  of  the 
Sherborne  School — the  Foster  foundation. 

Lord  Lyttelton. — That  has  been  withdrawn. 

Mr.  Dale. — Again,  in  the  Chelmsford  scheme,  the  church- 
wardens elected  a  governor ;  and  in  the  Sherborne  scheme  the 
churchwardens  were  ex  officio  governors. 

Lord  Lyttelton. — They  have  been  withdrawn. 

Mr.  Dale. — I  am  delighted  to  hear  it. 

Lord  Lyttelton. — You  see  what  a  power  you  are,  Mr.  Dale.1 

Throughout  the  autumn,  at  Swansea,  at  Bristol,  and  at  1871. 
Bradford,  Dale  continued  to  impeach  the  educational 
policy  of  the  Government.  Towards  the  end  of 
November  he  lectured  at  Manchester  on  the  "  Politics 
of  Nonconformity."  The  interest  excited  was  remark- 
able. Not  less  than  ten  thousand  applications  were 
received  for  tickets  of  admission,  and  the  Free  Trade 
Hall  was  packed  from  end  to  end.  It  was  the  first 
emphatic  declaration  of  the  Nonconformist  revolt.  Dale 
summed  up  the  case  of  the  Nonconformists  against  the 
Liberal  administration  : — The  sectarian  partiality  of  the 
Endowed  Schools  Commission  ;  the  efforts  of  the  Depart- 
ment to  force  School  Boards  to  pay  fees  in  denominational 
schools ;  the  increased  grant  to  denominational  schools, 
coupled  with  a  persistent  refusal  to  provide  that  a  fixed 
proportion  of  the  cost  of  maintenance  should  come  from 
voluntary  contributions  ;  the  deliberate  attempt  to  extend 
and  to  enlarge  the  sectarian  system  throughout  the  country 
at  the  public  cost.  Such  a  policy,  crowning  the  original 
injustice   of   the    Education    Act,    he    insisted,    "  relieves 

1  nth  April  1872,  Central  Nonconformist  Committee:  Occasional  Paper, 
No.  5,  p.  15. 


286  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Nonconformists  from  their  old  allegiance  to  the  Liberal 
party,  and  requires  us  so  to  organise  our  political  power  as 
to  prevent  the  Liberal  party  from  ever  inflicting  a  similar 
injury  again  on  the  principles  of  religious  equality."  1 

He  pleaded  for  immediate  action.  An  education  bill 
for  Ireland  could  not  be  remote.  Already  the  Roman 
Catholic  hierarchy  had  met  in  Dublin  and  had  made 
known  their  demands.  Declaring  themselves  "  the 
divinely  -  constituted  guardians "  of  faith  and  morals, 
they  claimed  absolute  control  of  the  elementary  schools, 
provided  at  the  public  expense,  throughout  the  greater 
part  of  Ireland  ;  power  to  bring  distinctive  religious 
teaching  into  the  daily  course  of  secular  instruction  ; 
liberty  to  use  Roman  Catholic  books  and  emblems  in 
the  schools  ;  unrestricted  access  of  the  priest  to  the 
school ;  and  authority  to  remove  books  that  they  might 
consider  objectionable.  Such  were  their  "  demands."  To 
such  claims  Nonconformists  were  bound  to  oppose  an  un- 
flinching resistance  ;  rather  than  concede  them,  "  let  the 
Liberal  party  be  broken  in  pieces  and  for  ever  destroyed." 
But  experience  had  shown  that  even  a  majority  of  their 
own  supporters  could  not  keep  the  Government  in  the 
right  way  ;  and  only  by  a  general  uprising  among  the 
constituencies  could  the  Nonconformists  ensure  the 
success  of  their  protest.  They  had  tried  Mr.  Gladstone 
in  vain  ;  now  they  must  appeal  to  the  electors. 

The  audience  was  stirred  profoundly.  Every 
declaration  of  political  independence,  every  reference 
to  the  impending  disruption  of  the  Liberal  party,  was 
cheered  to  the  echo.  At  Birmingham,  where  the  lecture 
was  repeated  a  few  nights  later,  there  was  equal  enthusiasm. 
The  Nonconformists  of  the  Midlands  were  as  resolute  as 
those  of  Lancashire  ;  they  were  no  less  outspoken  in  their 
indignation  against  the  Liberal  leaders. 

The  policy  of  revolt  was  endorsed  by  a  conference 
which  met  at  Manchester  early  in  1872.  The  gathering 
was  large  and  representative.  Nearly  nineteen  hundred 
delegates  were  present,  appointed  by  eight  hundred   Non- 

1   The  Folitics  of  Nonconformity,  p.  22. 


THE  NONCONFORMIST  REVOLT  287 

conformist  churches  and  organisations.  As  one  of  the 
secretaries,  Dale  was  concerned  mainly  with  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  business  and  the  drafting  of  the  resolutions 
laid  before  the  assembly  ;  but  he  intervened  in  the  debate 
when  it  threatened  to  drift  from  the  straight  course.  In 
one  instance  he  helped  to  avert  a  serious  mischance.  A 
section  of  the  conference  were  dissatisfied  with  the 
resolution,  as  originally  worded,  which  protested  against 
the  educational  policy  of  the  Government,  and  required 
that  candidates  for  Parliament  should  pledge  themselves 
to  a  modification  of  the  Education  Act  as  a  condition  of 
Nonconformist  support  This  was  the  intention  of  the 
resolution,  but  its  phrasing  was  somewhat  vague :  it 
said  that  Nonconformists  "  will  not  accept  as  a  satisfactory 
representative  "  a  candidate  who  might  refuse  to  give  the 
required  pledge  ;  it  did  not  say  that  they  would  back 
their  opinions  with  their  votes.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 
gave  voice  to  the  discontent,  and  moved  an  amendment 
— "  will  not  vote  for " — as  trenchant  as  his  speech  in 
proposing  it.  Opinion  was  at  once  divided.  Some 
hesitated  to  bind  themselves  by  a  pledge  so  stringent, 
so  unqualified.  It  became  evident  that  the  conference 
might  split  on  the  most  important  of  its  resolutions,  at 
the  very  point  where  any  real  divergence  of  feeling  would 
destroy  its  authority. 

Foreseeing  the  danger,  Dale  had  held  himself  in 
reserve.  He  was  busy  while  the  debate  went  on ; 
and  when  he  rose  to  speak,  he  was  able  to  announce 
that  Dr.  Rogers  and  his  seconder  had  accepted  the 
original  resolution  with  the  addition  of  a  rider.  The 
words  so  added  were — "  and  further,  to  make  it  clearly 
understood,  that  except  under  the  pressure  of  grave 
national  exigencies  they  will  not  give  any  such  candidate 
their  support."  The  clause  gave  Dr.  Rogers  and  his 
supporters  what  they  wanted  ;  they,  too,  admitted  that 
the  claims  of  Nonconformists,  however  righteous  and 
reasonable,  must  be  postponed  in  face  of  an  unjust 
war  or  of  some  grave  peril  to  the  constitution.  And 
at  the  same  time,  those  who  were   less  impetuous  did  not 


288  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

feel  that  they  were  forced  into  the  fray  at  all  hazards. 
The  resolution,  so  modified,  carried  the  whole  conference 
with  it.1 

Another  instance  of  the  same  adroitness  occurred 
soon  after  at  the  meetings  of  the  Congregational  Union. 
Persistent  attempts  had  been  made  to  impugn  the 
claim  of  the  Manchester  Conference  to  speak  for  Non- 
conformity as  a  whole.  Four  hundred  ministers  and 
laymen,  connected  with  various  denominations,  set  their 
names  to  a  declaration  protesting  against  the  exclusion 
of  the  Bible  by  law  from  public  elementary  schools. 
Several  leading  Congregationalists  were  of  the  number, 
and  among  them  Dr.  Conder,  Dr.  Stoughton,  and  Dr. 
Newman  Hall  —  men  both  honoured  and  beloved. 
Opponents  pointed  to  their  names,  and  to  those 
associated  with  them,  and  asserted — not  without  some 
show  of  reason — that  the  extreme  men,  the  political 
gladiators,  of  Congregationalism,  did  not  truly  represent 
the  opinion  of  the  denomination  ;  and  on  the  platform  and 
in  the  press  they  assiduously  paraded  the  "  Round  Robin  " 
— as  the  memorial  was  called — to  prove  their  case.  It 
so  happened  that  Dr.  Conder  had  been  put  in  nomination 
for  the  Chair  of  the  Congregational  Union.  Service, 
ability,  character — as  all  admitted — marked  him  out  for 
the  honour.  But  many,  if  not  most,  of  those  who  on 
the  education  question  were  of  the  opposite  camp, 
demurred  to  his  election  at  a  moment  when  such  a 
choice  would  inevitably  be  ascribed  to  sympathy  with 
his  position  in  the  controversy.  Those  who  felt  that  ns 
man  should  be  disqualified  for  office  by  his  opinions  on 
a  special  question  found  themselves  shut  in  between 
apparent  intolerance  and  certain  misrepresentation. 
And  when  the  Union  met  in  the  spring  of  1872,  the 
minds  of  many  were  swaying  to  and  fro. 

Suddenly  a  way  of  escape  was  opened  for  them — and 
by  their  foes.  Before  the  Chairman's  election  the  Union 
Committee  submitted  their  annual  report,  which    on    this 

1  General  Conference  of  Nonconformists  held  in  Manchester,  23rd,  24th, 
and  25th  January  1872.     Authorised  Report,  pp.  207-212,  215,  216. 


THE  NONCONFORMIST  REVOLT  289 

occasion  referred  to  the  resistance  they  had  offered  to  the 
educational  policy  of  the  Government.  Mr.  Binney,  the 
patriarch  of  Congregationalism,  stated  that  he  accepted 
the  report  with  the  exception  of  a  great  many  expressions 
on  the  education  question.  Dr.  Stoughton  followed  with 
a  similar  objection.  Dale  saw  his  opportunity.  As  soon 
as  Dr.  Stoughton  sat  down,  he  sprang  to  his  feet,  and 
proposed  a  rider  to  the  report,  thanking  the  Committee 
for  the  action  they  had  taken,  and  expressing  hearty 
concurrence  with  the  principle  affirmed  by  the  Manchester 
Conference — that  in  any  system  of  national  education, 
secular  instruction  alone  should  be  provided  by  the  State, 
and  that  the  care  of  religious  instruction  should  be  re- 
mitted to  parents  and  churches.  This  raised  the  issue 
between  the  two  parties  in  a  distinct  form.  A  vigorous 
debate  ensued.  On  a  vote  the  rider  was  carried  by  an 
overwhelming  majority.  The  way  was  thus  cleared  for 
Dr.  Conder's  election.  Some  still  contended  that  nothing 
should  be  done  to  weaken  the  hands  of  those  who  were 
fighting  the  battle  of  unsectarian  education  in  the  country ; 
but  Dale,  supported  by  his  friend  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers, 
insisted  that  the  Union,  having  now  secured  itself 
against  everything  but  wilful  misrepresentation,  ought 
not  to  allow  "  test  questions  "  to  bar  the  way  to  the  Chair. 
The  appeal  was  successful.  His  prompt  action  helped 
to  avert  what  would  have  been  regarded  outside  as  a 
scandalous  excess  of  party  spirit. 

At  the  Manchester  Conference  it  was  proposed  in 
committee  that  delegates  should  be  sent  to  Scotland 
to  agitate  against  the  Scotch  Education  Bill — a  measure 
in  some  respects  even  more  favourable  to  the  sectarian 
system  than  Mr.  Forster's  Act.  School  Boards  in  Scot- 
land were  not  left  free  to  exercise  their  option  in  paying 
fees  for  poor  children  at  denominational  schools  ;  whether 
willing  or  unwilling,  they  were  bound  to  pay.  In  their 
own  schools,  the  Boards  were  empowered  to  provide  what- 
ever religious  instruction  they  might  think  fit ;  the  clause 
in  the  English  Act  excluding  sectarian  catechisms  and 
formularies  was  discarded.  In  Glasgow  and  other  towns 
u 


290  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

where  the  poorer  Irish  congregate,  Roman  Catholic  schools 
were  assured  of  large  subsidies  from  the  rates ;  the 
Shorter  Catechism  might  be  taught  in  every  Board  School 
in  the  kingdom.  Some  antagonism  had  already  declared 
itself,  and  it  was  not  unnatural  that  the  Nonconformist 
leaders  in  England  should  desire  to  secure  united  action 
in  both  countries.  But  Dale,  who  was  already  in  com- 
munication with  friends  in  Scotland,  resisted  the  proposal, 
which  was  withdrawn  on  the  understanding  that  action  of 
some  less  formal  and  official  kind  should  be  taken.  It 
was  ultimately  arranged  that  Dale  himself,  with  one  or 
two  others,  should  undertake  a  campaign  in  Scotland,  but 
without  any  representative  commission,  and  speaking  only 
in  their  own  name. 

The  project,  when  announced,  caused  no  small  flutter. 
1872.  Dr.  Cairns  begged  Dale  not  to  come,  or  at  least  to  defer 
his  visit  Dr.  Rainy  wrote  to  the  same  effect.  Dr 
Taylor  described  the  intervention  of  English  Noncon- 
formists as  "  unwise  and  uncalled  for."  Such  a  feeling 
might  have  been  anticipated.  Scotchmen  like  to  keep 
their  fighting  to  themselves.  The  moment  also  was  not 
altogether  opportune.  Negotiations  for  union  between 
the  United  Presbyterians  and  the  Free  Church  were  in 
progress,  and  such  men  as  Dr.  Cairns  were  nervously 
anxious  to  avoid  all  strife  till  the  settlement  for  which 
they  hoped  had  come  about.  But  beyond  all  this, 
opinion,  even  among  the  religious  bodies  most  closely 
akin  to  English  Nonconformity,  was  deeply  divided. 
Dr.  Cairns,  for  example, — who  cannot  have  regarded 
himself  as  antagonistic  to  Dale  and  his  friends  ;  for  in 
that  case  he  could  hardly  have  offered  advice  unsought — 
was  anxious  to  allow  Bible  teaching  during  any  part 
of  the  school  hours,  and  he  desired  to  retain  the  Shorter 
Catechism,  provided  that  it  should  be  taught  at  the  begin- 
ning or  the  end  of  the  day,  and  with  the  safeguard  of  a 
conscience  clause.  Though  strongly  opposed  to  any  union 
between  Church  and  State,  he  would  have  been  content 
with  a  "  declaration  "  inserted  in  the  Bill  to  the  effect  that 
the   rates   paid   for   secular   teaching   only,  and    that   the 


THE  NONCONFORMIST  REVOLT  291 

parents'  fees  provided  for  the  cost  of  the  religious  in- 
struction —  a  wholly  artificial  distinction  ;  and,  as  his 
biographer  points  out,  even  when  fees  were  no  longer  paid 
Dr.  Cairns  did  not  modify  his  position.1 

Dale  did  not  underestimate  the  weight  of  this  re- 
monstrance, but  on  discovering  Dr.  Cairns's  real  position 
in  relation  to  the  question  at  issue,  and  encouraged  by 
other  leaders,  he  resolved  not  to  draw  back. 


To  Dr.  John  Cairns 

Y^th  February  1872. 

It  was  very  kind  of  you  to  write  to  me,  and  you  may  be  sure 
that  your  judgment  against  the  expediency  of  my  going  to  Scot- 
land just  now  has  very  great  weight  with  me ;  and  I  may  add 
that  I  have  read  Dr.  Rainy's  lectures  in  reply  to  the  Dean  of 
Westminster,  who  wants  to  take  all  the  bone  and  muscle  out  of 
Scotch  Christianity,  with  such  admiration,  that  it  would  be  a 
real  pain  to  me  to  take  a  course  which  he  seriously  disapproves.2 

There  was  a  strong  desire  that  the  Manchester  Conference 
should  appoint  a  deputation  to  visit  Edinburgh,  Glasgow,  Dundee, 
and  Aberdeen ;  but  I  prevented  this  proposal  from  being  sub- 
mitted to  the  Conference,  feeling  that  it  hardly  became  us  to  take 
action  in  relation  to  Scotland  of  so  formal  a  kind.  But  there 
was  an  understanding  come  to  privately  that  Dr.  Raleigh  and 
myself  and  Mr.  Hannay  with  some  United  Presbyterian  minister 
should  place  ourselves  in  communication  with  some  of  our  friends 
in  Scotland,  and  arrange,  if  possible,  to  assist  the  manifestation 
of  the  feeling  adverse  to  the  Lord  Advocate's  Bill,  which  we  knew 
existed  but  which  was  in  danger  of  being  suppressed,  as  it  seemed 
to  us,  by  the  policy  of  the  leaders  of  the  Free  and  United 
Presbyterian  Churches.  Raleigh  is  not  able  to  leave  London 
immediately,  and,  influenced  very  much  by  what  I  had  learnt  to 
be  the  feeling  of  such  men  as  Dr.  Buchanan  and  Dr.  Rainy,  I 
had  determined  to  delay  my  own  visit  for  a  short  time,  and  see 
what  course  matters  took.     This  is  the  history  of  the  matter. 

Your  own  position  I  have  had  some  difficulty  in  apprehending. 
You  say  that .  you  would  not  have  the  Bible  excluded  from  the 
school  during  "  regular  hours,"  by  which  I  imagine  you  mean  the 

1  Life  of  Dr.  John  Cairns,  by  Rev.  A.  R.  M'Ewan,  D.D.,  pp.  541-546. 

2  Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  delivered  in 
Edinburgh  in  1872,  by  A.  P.  Stanley,  D.D.  Three  Lectures  on  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  by  Robert  Rainy,  D.D. 


292  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

hours  not  covered  by  the  time-table  conscience  clause.  Now  I 
have  not  yet  received  a  copy  of  the  Lord  Advocate's  Bill,  but 
it  is  my  full  persuasion  that  the  Bill  must  certainly  do  what  you 
deprecate.  The  English  Bill  would  permit  the  Bible  to  be  read 
only  under  the  protection  of  the  conscience  clause,  and  it  is  to 
me  inconceivable  that  on  this  point  the  Scotch  Bill  should  differ 
from  the  English,  and  from  the  Scotch  Bill  previously  submitted 
to  the  House.  On  that  point  I  think  that  there  need  be  no  con- 
troversy between  those  who  held  your  position  and  the  southern 
Nonconformists. 

On  the  question  round  which  the  controversy  will  move,  I 
should  be  very  grateful  if  you  could  find  time  to  give  me  a 
sentence  or  two  of  explanation.  You  say  "We  hope  to  secure  a 
conscience  time-table,  and  (i)  our  Church  will  use  every  effort 
to  get  the  rates  as  well  as  the  grants  restricted  to  secular 
education,  (2)  leaving  the  religious  education  to  be  controlled 
by  the  local  boards  and  paid  for  by  the  parties  actually  receiving 
it."  If  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  will  really  do  its  best  to 
secure  what  is  expressed  by  the  clause  which  I  have  marked  (1). 
there  is  no  difference  between  your  position  and  ours,  except  in 
the  point  about  having  the  Bible  read  in  "regular  hours,"  which 
will  really  not  emerge.  But,  if  (1)  means  all  it  seems  to  mean, 
I  cannot  understand  (2).  Why  should  the  local  board  control 
religious  education — how  can  it  control  it — if  no  public  money  is 
used  to  provide  it  ? 

If  you  mean  that  the  schoolroom  should  be  at  the  disposal 
of  churches  out  of  regular  hours,  at  times  to  be  determined  by 
the  Board,  for  the  purposes  of  giving  religious  instruction  to  those 
who  are  willing  to  receive  it,  this  is  the  platform  of  the  League, 
and  I  believe  that  many  Nonconformists  would  offer  no  serious 
objection  to  the  proposal. 

I  can  hardly  imagine  that  any  possible  injury  could  be  inflicted 
on  the  projected  Disestablishment  movement  by  the  attempt  on 
our  part  to  elicit  public  feeling  in  Scotland  in  favour  of  amend- 
ments to  the  Bill  restricting  grants  and  rates  to  secular  education. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  some — perhaps  many — Free  Churchmen, 
and  some — not  many — United  Presbyterians  might  be  irritated 
by  our  movement ;  but  for  their  own  sakes — not  out  of  considera- 
tion for  us — they  will  go  in  for  Disestablishment,  and  no  hard 
words  flung  at  us  in  this  present  controversy  would  chill  the 
earnestness  with  which  we  shall  support  you. 

The  one  point  on  which  I  should  like  to  trouble  you  is,  what 
shape  do  you  think  the  amendments  of  your  church  are  likely  to 
assume,  in  order  to  secure  that  neither  rates  nor  grants  shall  go 
to  provide  religious  instruction  ?     At  present — as  the  Bill  stands 


THE  NONCONFORMIST  REVOLT  293 

— unless  it  is  eventually  different  from  the  former  Bill,  and  unless 
the  Lord  Advocate  failed  last  night  to  explain  its  provisions — 
public  money  is  to  provide  for  the  teaching  of  religious  doctrine 
just  as  it  provides  for  the  teaching  of  grammar  and  geography. 
I  think  that  if  your  friends  stand  by  your  principle,  they  will 
render  my  visit  to  Scotland  very  unnecessary.  If  they  do  not 
stand  by  it,  they  will  put  into  the  hands  of  their  opponents  a 
weapon  the  edge  of  which  will  cut  them  sharp  and  deep  when 
they  raise  the  Disestablishment  question. 

Dale  attended  meetings  at  Edinburgh,  Glasgow,  and 
Aberdeen.  At  Edinburgh,  Dr.  Rogers  was  with  him  ;  at 
Glasgow,  Dr.  Raleigh  ;  he  went  alone  to  Aberdeen.  In 
each  city  he  and  his  friends  met  with  substantial  support, 
but  the  campaign  does  not  appear  to  have  stirred  any 
strong  enthusiasm.  The  same  line  of  argument  was 
maintained  throughout.  It  was  urged  that  religious  in- 
struction should  be  neither  provided  nor  controlled  by 
local  authorities,  but  should  be  left  to  the  Church  and  the 
home.  It  was  at  Aberdeen  that  Dale  was  most  successful, 
in  spite  of  unfavourable  conditions.  The  audience  was 
thin.  The  preceding  speakers  had  been  overcome  by 
depression.  But  Dale  was  in  one  of  his  most  fervid 
moods  ;  his  enthusiasm  was  contagious  ;  in  a  few  minutes 
the  ice  had  melted.  The  axiom  that  the  orator  receives 
from  his  audience  in  vapour  what  he  returns  in  flood,  was 
on  this  occasion  wholly  falsified  ;  the  speaker  received 
nothing  and  gave  everything. 

The  closing  passages  of  the  speech  produced  a  pro- 
found impression.  Dale  had  warned  his  hearers  that 
whatever  was  granted  to  Scotland  in  virtue  of  its 
substantial  unanimity  in  matters  of  faith,  could  not  be 
denied  to  Ireland,  where  religious  agreement  was  at  least 
as  great,  and  then  continued — 

My  Lord  [Provost],  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  majesty  and 
grandeur  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  It  has  other  and  nobler  claims 
on  our  wonder  and  admiration  than  those  which  rest  upon  the 
elaborate  perfection  of  its  organisation,  the  vast  number  of  its 
adherents,  its  venerable  antiquity,  and  the  great  part  which  it  has 
played  in  the  history  of  Christendom.  I  have  wept  over  the 
story  of  the  heroism,  the  sufferings,  the  unquenchable  ardour  of 


294  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

its  illustrious  missionaries.  The  massive  and  stately  structure  of 
its  theology,  built  up  by  the  gigantic  labours  and  enormous 
learning  of  innumerable  doctors,  through  a  long  succession  of 
generations,  has  filled  me  with  intellectual  awe.  I  have  been 
melted,  and  I  have  been  thrilled,  by  the  transcendent  eloquence 
of  its  great  preachers,  from  Bossuet  to  Lacordaire.  I  know 
something  of  the  wealth  of  spiritual  wisdom  to  be  found  in  the 
spiritual  writings  of  its  great  mystics  who,  in  the  strength  of  an 
intense  faith  in  the  unseen,  have  been  able  to  dissolve  the  spell 
of  a  sensuous  worship,  and  to  penetrate  through  an  elaborate 
ceremonial  into  the  immediate  presence  of  God.  I  rejoice  to 
believe  that  among  its  members  there  are  thousands  upon 
thousands  who  are  regenerate  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  whose 
exaggerated  homage,  rendered  to  the  Virgin,  is  the  expression  of 
a  passion  true  and  deep,  though  mistaken,  for  the  honour  of  our 
Lord,  and  whose  hearts  forget  the  crucifix  before  which  they  are 
kneeling  and  cling  to  that  living  Christ  who  is  on  the  cross  no 
longer.  The  saints  who  have  been  the  strength  and  the  glory  of  the 
Romish  Church  in  days  gone  by  have  their  successors  in  our  own 
times,  and  God  forbid  that  I  should  ever  forget  that  those  who 
love  Christ,  whatever  their  church  and  whatever  their  creed,  are 
regenerate  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  heirs  together  of  God's  eternal 
glory.  But  against  the  pretensions  of  this  Church  to  be  the 
exclusive  minister  of  God's  grace  and  to  stand  between  even  the 
humblest  and  obscurest  of  God's  children  and  their  heavenly 
Father;  against  the  assumptions  on  which  her  priests  and  her 
bishops  rest  their  claim  to  control  national  policy  and  legislation  ; 
against  the  authority  asserted  on  behalf  of  her  chief  ruler  to 
interfere  in  the  name  of  God  with  the  free  development  of  the 
intellectual,  political,  and  social  life  of  mankind  ; — against  these  I 
must  declare  my  intense  and  implacable  hostility.  My  remem- 
brance of  the  evils  which  spiritual  tyranny  has  already  inflicted 
on  Europe ;  of  the  cruel  sufferings  of  innumerable  martyrs  ;  of 
the  decay  of  the  industry,  genius,  and  liberty  of  great  nations 
which  have  submitted  to  its  power ;  and  my  conviction  of  the 
deep  antagonism  between  the  traditional  policy  of  this  Church 
and  its  theological  faith,  and  the  free  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  compel 
me  to  swear  eternal  hatred  to  Rome.  Never,  never  again,  I 
trust,  will  the  people  of  England  and  Scotland  permit  the 
emissaries  of  an  Italian  bishop  to  menace  their  Parliaments  and  to 
control  their  kings.  If  we  have  to  fight  over  again  the  old  battle 
— the  battle  between  the  theology  of  Rome  and  the  pure  truth 
of  Christ ;  between  the  pretensions  of  her  priesthood  and  the 
liberty  of  immediate  access  to  God  which  Christ  confers  on  every 
one  that  receives  His  grace — I  trust  we  shall  have  the  sanctity 


THE  NONCONFORMIST  REVOLT  295 

and  the  learning  and  the  genius  to  win  a  controversial  triumph 
as  illustrious  as  that  which  our  fathers  won.  And  if  the  battle  is 
to  be  fought  in  another  form — if  the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood 
tell  us  that  freedom  is  not  enough  for  them,  but  that  they  must 
have  privilege  ;  if  they  tell  us  that  it  is  not  enough  that  the  Irish 
people  have  been  emancipated  from  the  injustice  of  having  to 
support  a  Church  whose  faith  and  whose  worship  they  reject ;  if 
they  insist  on  having  imperial  grants,  in  larger  and  still  larger 
proportions,  voted  for  the  maintenance  of  schools  intended  to 
propagate  the  Romish  faith ;  and  if  they  tell  us  that  in  the  event 
of  our  refusing  to  concede  their  claims  they  will  provoke  civil 
disturbance  and  render  British  rule  in  Ireland  impossible; — I 
trust  that  those  threats  will  but  stir  the  heart  and  brace  the 
courage  of  the  English  and  Scottish  people,  and  that  we  shall  tell 
them  that  the  high  spirit  of  this  ancient  empire  has  not  decayed, 
that  we  are  resolved  to  pursue  a  policy  of  justice  and  of  freedom, 
that  we  scorn  their  threats  and  defy  their  power,  and  may  God 
defend  the  right ! 

At  a  succession  of  by-elections  during  the  next  twelve 
months  the  policy  of  the  Conference  was  steadily  pursued, 
and  Nonconformist  discontent  made  it  impossible  for  any- 
ministerial  candidate  to  win  a  seat.  With  Mr.  Bright's 
recovery  and  return  to  the  Ministry,  after  his  condemna- 
tion of  the  Education  Act  as  "  the  worst  Act  passed  by  a 
Liberal  Government  since  1832,"  confidence  was  to  some 
extent  restored,  and  an  article  in  the  Contemporary 
Revieiv1  showed  that  Dale  looked  forward  to  a  genuine 
reconciliation.  But  Mr.  Forster  was  stubborn,  and  the 
General  Election  of  February  1874  found  the  Liberal 
party  still  disunited.  However,  the  influence  of  the 
Nonconformists  told  in  the  constituencies.  Out  of  425 
Liberal  candidates  in  England,  Wales,  and  Scotland,  300 
were  pledged  to  the  repeal  of  the  25  th  clause,  and  in 
spite  of  the  Liberal  collapse  the  League  section  of  the 
party  added  to  its  strength. 

Some  of  Dale's  friends  were  anxious  that  he  should 
stand  for  Bradford,  where  the  Liberal  Association  refused 
to  accept  Mr.  Forster  as  their  candidate.  To  such  over- 
tures he   would    not  listen   either   then   or  at  any  other 

1  "  The  Nonconformists  and  the  Educational  Policy  of  the  Government," 
Contemporary  Review,  September  1873,  pp.  643-662. 


296  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

time.  The  House  of  Commons  he  felt  to  be  incompatible 
with  the  pastorate,  and  no  inducement  would  have  led 
him  to  abandon  his  work  as  a  Christian  minister — in 
his  mind  the  noblest  calling  open  to  man,  demanding  and 
exercising  his  highest  powers.  He  would  have  regarded 
the  Government  bench  itself  as  a  descent  from  the  pulpit 
of  Carr's  Lane. 1  In  reply  to  Mr.  Henry  Richard,  two 
years  before,  he  lays  stress  on  other  objections  also. 


To  Mr.  Richard 

21st  May  1872. 

Your  kind  words  about  my  attempting  to  find  my  way  into 
the  House  at  the  next  election  raise  a  question  which  has  been 
raised  several  times  by  some  of  my  friends  during  the  last  three 
or  four  years.  Happily  the  question  is  not  a  practical  one  for 
me.  I  am  quite  clear  that  Parliamentary  life  would  be  absolutely 
inconsistent  with  the  doing  of  my  ministerial  work,  and  unless 
the  impression  which  I  have  sometimes  had  of  my  unfitness  for 
ministerial  work  became  deeper,  I  could  not  see  my  way  to 
giving  it  up.  Moreover — and  this  is  a  kind  of  consideration  for 
which  in  times  of  difficulty  one  is  very  thankful — Parliamentary 
life  without  a  definite  and  independent  income  has  for  me  a  very 
ghastly  look ;  it  means  frightful  temptation  and  the  possibility  of 
utter  moral  ruin.  You  will  probably  laugh  when  I  say  it — but  it 
is  nevertheless  true — that  I  am  conscious  of  a  tendency  which 
would  almost  disqualify  me  for  the  kind  of  fight  which  you  and 
Miall  have  so  gallantly  fought  and  on  which,  while  I  am  outside, 
I  look  with  such  hearty  sympathy  and  admiration.  What  I  mean 
is,  that  in  the  various  religious  and  philanthropic  societies  in 
which  I  have  got  whatever  business  faculty  I  possess,  I  have 
always,  or  nearly  always,  been  on  the  official  side.  It  is  there- 
fore an  almost  invincible  habit  of  mine  to  be  always  asking  how 
will  a  thing  work  ?  and  to  be  considering  how  far  I  can  go  to 
meet  an  opponent.  I  always  want  to  find  some  common  ground 
if  I  can,  on  which  I  can  stand  with  every  honest  and  able  man 
who  is  against  me.  I  am  certain  that  the  atmosphere  of  the 
House  would  develop  the  tendency  rather  perilously,  and  so  I 
think  that  I  can  serve  the  good  cause  outside  better  than  in. 

But  these  considerations  are  like  the  Marquis's  superfluous 
reasons  for  receiving  the  King  without  a  salute;  the  material 
reason  is  enough  :  I  have  no  powder. 

1  Cf.   The  Epistle  of  James,  pp.  288,  289. 


THE  NONCONFORMIST  REVOLT  297 

Once,  and  only  once,  did  he  express  any  regret  that  he 
was  not  with  his  friends  in  Parliament ;  it  was  during  the 
Bradlaugh  controversy,  when  he  longed  to  say  within  the 
House  what  he  was  saying  outside  it,  and  to  protest  before 
the  representatives  of  the  nation  against  the  profanation 
of  the  most  sacred  elements  of  Christian  faith  for  the 
purposes  of  party  warfare. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  resignation  of  the  Liberal  leadership 
in  January  1875  ^d  to  a  new  episode  in  the  struggle. 
Mr.  Forster's  friends,  backed  by  a  large  portion  of  the 
press,  did  their  best  to  secure  him  the  reversion.  But 
the  Nonconformist  representatives  met  at  Crewe  and 
publicly  protested  against  the  appointment,  and  though 
attempts  were  made  to  show  that  his  colleagues  in  the 
late  Ministry  were  equally  responsible  with  him  for  the 
obnoxious  policy,  they  persisted  in  their  opposition.  Dale, 
who  had  been  singled  out  for  attack  by  the  Times  and 
the  Leeds  Mercury,  defended  the  decision  of  the  United 
Nonconformist  Committee  in  the  following  letter : — 

In  your  article  of  this  morning  on  the  selection  of  a  successor 
to  Mr.  Gladstone  in  the  Liberal  leadership  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  you  intimate  that  the  objections  of  the  Noncon- 
formists to  the  claims  of  Mr.  Forster  are  equally  fatal  to  the 
claims  of  every  other  member  of  the  late  Cabinet.  I  venture  to 
differ  from  this  opinion,  and  for  the  following  reasons  : — 

i.  Mr.  Forster  is  the  author  of  the  Education  Act  of  1870. 
Whatever  honour  belongs  to  the  statesman  who  succeeded  in 
carrying  the  first  great  measure  for  the  promotion  of  national 
education  in  this  country  belongs  to  him,  as  it  cannot  belong  to 
his  colleagues.  He  is  responsible  for  the  faults  and  imperfections 
of  the  Act  in  a  manner  in  which  his  colleagues  are  not  responsible. 

2.  For  four  years  the  Act  was  administered  by  Mr.  Forster, 
and  for  the  way  in  which  it  was  administered  the  chief  responsi- 
bility attaches  to  Mr.  Forster,  not  to  Mr.  Forster's  colleagues. 
The  Act  leaves  School  Boards  at  liberty  to  pay  or  refuse  to  pay  fees 
out  of  the  rates  for  children  attending  denominational  schools. 
Whenever  a  Board  with  a  Liberal  majority  sent  up  by-laws  to 
the  Department,  taking  no  power  to  pay  the  fees,  Mr.  Forster 
used  the  whole  of  his  official  influence  to  induce  them  to  pay  the 
fees.  The  Act  as  it  stood  was  not  sufficiently  favourable  to 
denominationalism  :  Mr.  Forster  tried  to  make  it  more  favourable. 


298  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

3.  In  the  resolutions  passed  by  the  United  Nonconformist 
Committees  at  Crewe  on  Wednesday — the  resolutions  referred  to 
in  the  Times  article  of  this  morning — there  is  no  protest  against 
the  selection  of  a  leader  who  is  responsible  for  the  educational 
policy  of  the  late  Ministry.  The  protest  is  against  the  selection 
of  a  leader  "  who  is  publicly  pledged  to  pursue  a  policy  which  is 
regarded  with  irreconcilable  hostility  by  the  great  mass  of  the 
Nonconformists  of  this  country."  We  are  quite  willing  to  let 
bygones  be  bygones.  We  are  anxious  about  the  future.  In 
political  as  well  as  private  life,  it  is  both  ungenerous  and  unjust 
to  refuse  to  forget  the  mistakes  and  even  the  faults  of  one's 
friends.  But  Mr.  Forster  has  never  given  any  sign  of  an  in- 
tention to  change  his  course.  He  stands  apart  from  his  late 
colleagues  and  is  conspicuous  for  the  emphatic  earnestness  with 
which  he  has  made  it  clear  that,  while  his  practice  has  been  to 
make  large  concessions  to  his  opponents,  he  will  make  no  con- 
cessions to  those  who  were  once  his  friends.  The  25th  clause 
of  the  Act  of  1870  became  accidentally  the  symbol  and  flag  of 
the  conflict  between  those  who  wish  to  perpetuate  the  control  of 
the  clergy  over  public  elementary  schools,  and  those  who  wish 
these  schools  to  be  managed  by  the  representatives  of  the  people. 
Mr.  Richard's  motion  for  the  repeal  of  this  clause,  last  session, 
was  supported  by  about  two-thirds  of  the  whole  number  of 
Liberal  members  voting  on  the  question,  so  that  of  Liberal  votes 
he  had  a  majority  of  about  two  to  one.  Of  the  members  of  the 
late  Cabinet,  Mr.  Lowe  spoke  in  its  support,  Mr.  Forster  spoke 
against  it.  In  the  division,  five  members  of  the  late  Cabinet, 
including  the  Marquis  of  Hartington,  Mr.  Bright,  Mr.  Lowe,  Mr. 
Goschen,  Mr.  Stansfeld,  voted  with  Mr.  Richard;  Mr.  Forster 
alone  voted  against  him. 

It  is  not  for  the  Nonconformists  to  dictate  to  the  Liberal 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons  who  shall  be  their  leader ; 
on  the  qualifications  necessary  for  the  leadership  people  outside 
can  form  only  a  very  imperfect  judgment ;  but  it  is  only  frank 
for  those  who  have  the  opportunity  of  knowing  the  feeling  of 
large  masses  of  Nonconformists  to  say,  as  distinctly  as  they  can, 
that  Mr.  Forster  is  regarded  as  chiefly  responsible  for  those  acts 
of  the  late  Ministry  which  provoked  the  Nonconformists'  revolt, 
that  he  appears  to  be  just  as  resolute  in  his  antagonism  to  the 
Nonconformists  at  the  present  moment  as  he  was  five  years  ago, 
and  that  his  selection  for  the  vacant  position  would  certainly 
prolong,  and  probably  perpetuate,  the  separation  of  the  Noncon- 
formists from  the  Liberal  party.1 

1  The  Times,  22nd  January  1875. 


THE  NONCONFORMIST  REVOLT  299 

The  protest  was  effectual.  It  was  evident  that  Mr. 
Forster's  appointment,  if  carried,  would  break  up  the 
party,  and  his  candidature  was  withdrawn. 

The  controversy  did  not  leave  Dale  where  it  found 
him.  It  had  made  him  known  not  only  to  Noncon- 
formists in  all  parts  of  the  kingdom,  but  to  prominent 
politicians  and  party-leaders.  He  had  become  recognised 
as  a  representative  of  the  rising  generation  in  the  Free 
Churches.  When  the  Daily  Telegraph  published  a  series 
of  articles  on  Christianity  in  Great  Britain — three  of  them 
officially  approved  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Cardinal  Manning,  and  the  President  of  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Conference  respectively,  and  a  fourth  written 
by  Principal  Tulloch — Dale  was  asked  to  speak  for 
Nonconformity ;  and  his  article,  which  filled  several 
columns  of  the  paper,  appeared  on  Christmas  Day  1873. 

While  the  strife  lasted  he  threw  himself  into  it  with 
no  half-hearted  zeal.  If  he  despised  any  one,  it  was  the 
man  who  doubted  whether  his  principles  were  worth 
fighting  for.  He  himself  fought,  not  with  the  graces  of 
the  fencing-school,  but  with  the  chivalry  and  passion  of 
the  battlefield.  His  spirit  and  temper  at  this  time  were 
happily  described  by  Mr.  Bright  at  a  great  meeting  held 
to  celebrate  the  return  of  the  three  Liberal  candidates  for 
Birmingham.  After  Dale  had  spoken  with  characteristic 
vehemence  in  condemnation  of  the  Education  Act  and  its 
author,  Mr.  Bright,  in  proposing  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the 
chairman,  repeated  a  remark  of  his  colleague,  Mr.  Muntz  : 
"  What  a  fine  fellow  Dale  is ! "  he  said  ;  "  I  never  listen 
to  him  without  thinking  of  the  Church  Militant."  The 
phrase,  as  Mr.  Bright  repeated  it,  was  intended  to  convey 
a  gentle  reproof.  He  felt  that  Dale,  in  questions  for 
which  he  greatly  cared,  was  apt  to  be  too  dogmatic,  too 
uncompromising.  But  the  audience,  proud  of  their  leader, 
ignored  the  remonstrance  and  cheered  the  eulogy  to  the 
echo. 

About  the  same  time  Dale  received  even  more  striking 
proof  of  the  position  that  he  had  made  for  himself  in  the 
life  of  the  town.     At  the  end  of  July  1871  he  was  invited 


3oo  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

to  the  pastorate  of  a  church  at  Clapton  Park,  one  of  the 
London  suburbs  ;  and  although  two  years  before  he  had 
refused  even  to  consider  the  possibility  of  succeeding  Mr. 
Binney  at  the  Weigh  House,  he  now  thought  that  the 
time  for  change  had  come.  Year  by  year  he  found  him- 
self drawn  more  deeply  into  political  and  public  work 
which,  so  long  as  he  remained  in  Birmingham,  he  felt 
bound  in  duty  to  undertake.  He  longed  for  a  life  of 
greater  quiet  and  less  excitement,  in  which  he  could  write 
one  or  two  books  before  he  died.  He  also  wished  to  try 
whether  church  life  of  a  type  impossible  at  Carr's  Lane 
might  not  be  developed  among  a  less  scattered  congrega- 
tion "  in  the  intimate  communion  of  all  its  members  with 
one  another  as  well  as  with  Christ. "  He  knew  but  too 
well  all  that  he  would  sacrifice  by  going — in  friendship, 
affection,  influence,  and  above  all  in  "that  glorious 
freedom  to  say  everything  that  I  care  to  say,  and  to 
say  it  in  what  way  I  think  best."  But  he  was  convinced 
that  for  the  church  as  well  as  himself  a  change  in  the 
pastorate  was  desirable.  Some  of  his  reasons  are  given 
below. 

To  Miss  Martin 

Grasmere,  2tykjuly  187 1. 

.  .  .  You  know  I  have  an  idea  that  a  twenty  years'  pastorate  is 
quite  long  enough  both  for  a  minister  and  a  congregation.  It 
seems  to  me  that  no  man  can  have  such  a  varied  knowledge  of 
Divine  truth  as  to  make  it  desirable  for  a  church  to  remain  for  a 
longer  period  than  that  under  his  influence ;  and  on  the  other 
hand  a  complete  change  of  position  may  enable  a  minister  to 
amend  many  errors  into  which  inexperience  or  youthful  folly  may 
have  betrayed  him,  and  may  also  give  him  a  new  impulse  in  his 
work. 

At  Birmingham  the  news  that  he  seriously  thought  of 
removing  to  London  was  received  with  dismay.  Nine 
years  before,  when  he  was  invited  to  Melbourne,  the 
church  at  Carr's  Lane  had  begged  him  not  to  leave  them. 
Now  the  appeal  to  remain  was  more  general.  It  came 
not  from  his  own  church  alone  nor  from  the  Congrega- 


THE  NONCONFORMIST  REVOLT  301 

tional  churches  only,  but  from  Birmingham  Nonconformists 
of  every  order,  expressed  not  in  private  letters  but  in 
official  resolutions.  "  All  who  cared  for  the  intellectual, 
moral,  and  political  life  of  Birmingham  shared  the 
apprehension."  An  effort,  described  by  the  Daily  Post 
as  "  without  example,"  was  made  and  a  letter  signed  by  a 
selected  number  of  leading  men  in  the  town  was  addressed 
to  him,  urging  him  on  public  grounds  to  remain. 

Such  an  appeal  could  not  be  without  weight.  Its  force 
was  strengthened  by  personal  entreaty.  Among  the  mass 
of  letters  that  Dale  received,  one  from  his  friend  Mr. 
Callaway  had  great  effect.  Mr.  Callaway,  who  knew  him 
well,1  suggested  that  freedom  to  follow  the  bent  of  his  own 
mind  persistently — ample  leisure  to  read  and  to  think — 
might  prove  a  misfortune  and  no  gain.  For  a  nature  like 
his,  the  distraction  of  Birmingham  life  was  almost  a 
necessity.  "  Men  of  a  certain  order,"  said  Mr.  Callaway, 
"  like  Dr.  Newman,  perhaps,  in  retirement  see  angels  ; 
others,  like  Luther,  when  withdrawn  from  turmoil  and 
strife,  see  devils  ;  and  you,  I  believe,  are  of  this  order." 

After  two  or  three  weeks  of  anxious  thought  the 
invitation  was  declined,  though  with  evident  reluctance, 
and  the  letter  conveying  the  decision  to  the  church  at 
Clapton  was  full  of  subdued  regret.  To  the  church  at 
Carr's  Lane  he  wrote  with  a  deep  sense  of  affection  and 
gratitude.  Their  eagerness  that  he  should  remain,  he 
said,  "  confounded  and  humbled  "  him.  The  letter  need 
not  be  quoted  in  full  ;  but  a  few  sentences  may  be  given, 
if  only  to  dispel  the  idea  that  a  Nonconformist  minister 
is  in  bondage  to  his  people  and  can  only  preach  what  it  is 
pleasant  for  them  to  hear. 

To  the  Church  and  Congregation  assembling 
at  Carr's  Lane  Chapel 

Grasmere,  l^th  August  1871. 

I  have  earnestly  endeavoured,  with  what  strength  has  been 
given  to  me,  to  illustrate  the  love  and  glory  of  God  as  revealed 
1  See  p.  204. 


302  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

to  us  in  Christ,  and  to  minister  to  your  spiritual  strength  and  joy  ; 
I  have  never  feared  and  I  have  never  flattered  you  ;  I  have  never 
shrunk  from  asserting  any  truth  because  I  thought  it  might  be 
unwelcome  to  any  of  you  ;  I  have  tried  to  enforce  most  earnestly 
the  duties  which  I  thought  you  were  most  likely  to  neglect ;  but 
there  is  so  wide  a  gulf  between  my  idea  of  what  the  minister  of 
Christ  ought  to  be,  and  my  actual  work,  that,  though  I  thank 
God  that  during  these  last  nine  years  your  confidence  in  me  has 
not  been  shaken,  the  expressions  of  your  affectionate  loyalty  and 
trust  have  given  me  pain  as  well  as  pleasure.  You  have  told  me 
what  I  desire  to  be  rather  than  what  I  am. 

So  far  as  strength  and  knowledge  enabled  him,  Dale 
did  not  shun  to  declare  to  his  people  "  the  whole  counsel 
of  God." 


BOOK   III 


CHAPTER    XIII 

FROM    EAST    TO    WEST 

Edits  the  Congregationalist — Accident  at  Carisbrooke — Journey  to  the  East 
— Quiet  hours — Declares  his  belief  in  "  Life  in  Christ  "  and  the  annihila- 
tion of  the  wicked — Effect  of  the  theory  on  moral  soundness,  and  on 
missions — A  spiritual  revival  —  Moody  and  Sankey  in  Birmingham — 
Dale's  ardour — Attempts  mission  work— The  lectures  on  the  Atonement 
—  Their  reception — Newman's  letter  —  Movement  for  deepening  the 
spiritual  life  ;  Dale's  attitude  —  Christian  holiness — Visits  the  United 
States — -"Lyman  Beecher  "  Lecturer  at  Yale — Letters  from  America  ; 
scenery,  schools,  politics  —  New  Haven  —  The  University  of  Yale — 
Lecture  on  British  Politics  ;  Mr.  Kimball's  account — The  "  Lectures  on 
Preaching." 

The  history  of  the  Nonconformist  revolt  against  the 
policy  of  the  Liberal  Government  has  carried  us  some- 
what beyond  the  mark,  and  we  must  now  return  to  the 
point  at  which  we  diverged.  In  1872,  in  the  very  thick 
of  the  Education  controversy,  Dale  became  editor  of  the 
Congregationalist,  a  monthly  magazine  started  and  sub- 
sidised by  the  trustees  of  the  Christian  Witness  Fund. 
The  magazine,  as  its  name  implies,  was  intended  primarily 
to  illustrate  and  defend  the  theological  and  ecclesiastical 
principles  asserted  by  the  churches  of  the  Congregational 
order,  but  in  subordination  to  those  higher  interests  which 
concern  the  common  faith  of  all  Christians.  For  a  man 
already  overburdened  with  work  it  was  a  serious  under- 
taking. Dale  soon  found  it  to  be  so,  although  he  was 
generously  supported  by  his  friends — especially  by  Dr. 
Guinness  Rogers,  the  most  regular  and  active  of  his  con- 
tributors, who  twice  took  charge  of  the  magazine  during 
his  absence  from  home.  He  would  never  have  accepted 
the  responsibility  but  for  his  strong  desire  to  discover 
x 


306  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

what  amount  of  real  earnestness  about  fundamental  ques- 
tions there  might  be  among  those  whom  he  was  likely  to 
reach,  and  for  the  conviction  that  he  might  render  some 
service  to  the  churches  by  serious  and  thoughtful  examina- 
tion of  the  religious  problems  by  which  they  were  beset. 
The  magazine  never  aimed  at  popularity.  It  was  not  one 
to  be  taken  up  in  an  idle  hour.  The  class  of  subjects 
with  which  it  dealt,  and  the  way  in  which  it  treated  them, 
were  not  such  as  to  attract  the  ordinary  reader  ;  and  the 
constituency  to  which  it  appealed  was  not  sufficiently  wide 
to  ensure  financial  success.  But  its  literary  standard  was 
high.  Its  contributors  for  the  most  part  were  men  of 
influence,  and  they  gave  it  some  of  their  best  work.  Its 
ability  and  authority  were  conspicuous  ;  and  its  failure — 
if  it  can  be  said  to  have  failed — was  due  to  its  merits 
quite  as  much  as  to  its  defects.  And  defects  there  were  ; 
for  editors,  like  poets,  are  born,  not  made  ;  and  Dale  was 
not  born  to  the  chair.  He  found  it  hard  to  say  No  to  a 
friend — especially  when  the  friend  was  young.  He  was 
interested  in  many  things  that  did  not  interest  other 
people.  More  than  once  he  loaded  the  magazine  with 
articles  that  swamped  it.  He  did  not  succeed  in  provid- 
ing sufficient  variety  or  relief.  There  was  very  little  to 
attract  those  who  did  not  care  for  theology,  literature,  or 
politics.  One  editorial  virtue,  however,  he  undoubtedly 
possessed.  He  did  not  stint  his  praise.  When  he  liked 
a  man's  work  he  said  so,  and  his  hearty  appreciation 
sometimes  helped  his  contributors  to  surpass  their  own 
conception   of  their  possibilities.       Two   illustrations   will 


su 


ffice. 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Barrett 

24M  February  1877. 

You  are  very  kind  to  say  that  notwithstanding  the  pressure 
upon  you,  you  will  do  the  "  Golden  Texts  "  for  April  if  I  am 
driven  hard.  I  am  unwilling  to  turn  to  anybody  else  for  a  single 
month,  for  your  papers  are  simply  perfect  in  every  way.  They 
are  precisely  what  I  wanted,  and  are  done  in  a  manner  that 
charms  me.      But  I  know  what  it  is  to  be  under  the  harrow,  and 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  307 

will   free   you  if  I  can.     I  have  written  to  Finlayson,  and  hope 
that  for  this  month  he  may  be  able  to  do  them. 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  T.  Campbell  Finlayson 

l$tk  April  1877. 

I  think  I  like  your  present  set  better  than  the  last,  though  I 
liked  that  set  too.  Next  month  Barrett,  I  believe,  resumes  the 
"  Golden  Texts  "  ;  but  can  you  not  go  on  with  something  else  ? 
I  had  a  note  from  some  man  of  whom  I  have  never  heard  before, 
begging  me  to  try  to  induce  you  to  go  on  writing  ■  the  man  was 
so  earnest  that  I  was  glad  I  could  write  to  him  and  say  that  I 
had  already  resolved  to  try  to  persuade  you  to  write  more. 

The  papers  which  you  have  been  good  enough  to  let  me 
have  for  the  Congregationalism  convince  me  that  you  have  a 
faculty  which,  so  far  as  I  know,  you  rarely  use ;  and  personally  I 
shall  be  very  grateful  if  you  can  let  me  have  some  more. 

There  were  other  difficulties  with  which  he  had  to  con- 
tend— want  of  leisure,  want  of  room,  and  the  absence  of 
proper  appliances.  That  he  should  have  been  able  to 
carry  on  the  magazine  for  seven  years  under  such  unfavour- 
able conditions  says  much  for  his  resolute  will  and  his 
indomitable  industry.  But  the  struggle  was  severe,  and 
he  was  delighted  when,  at  the.  end  of  1878,  Dr.  Guinness 
Rogers  consented  to  relieve  him  of  the  burden. 

At  the  time  when  Dale  accepted  the  editorship,  he  was 
already  exhausted  by  the  excitement  and  the  whirl  in 
which  he  had  been  living.  For  the  sake  of  the  future  he 
was  anxious  to  take  a  long  holiday  at  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity, and  when  invited  by  Mr.  Henry  Lee  in  the  autumn 
of  1 87 1  to  go  with  him  to  the  Holy  Land,  it  cost  him  much 
to  decline  his  friend's  proposal.  It  was  impossible  just 
then  to  release  himself  from  other  work,  and  he  could  not 
postpone  the  new  venture  to  which  he  was  just  committed; 
but  the  journey,  though  deferred,  was  not  abandoned. 
While  it  was  still  in  abeyance,  he  met  with  an  accident 
that  might  have  been  serious.  In  the  middle  of  July 
1872  he  had  arranged  to  preach  at  Ventnor,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  take  a  few  days'  holiday  in  the  island. 
On  the    Thursday  before   his   engagement,   he   made  an 


308  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

excursion  to  Carisbrooke  ;  and  while  walking  along  one  of 
the  castle  walls,  he  slipped  and  fell,  breaking  an  arm  and 
dislocating  the  elbow.  The  pain  and  the  shock  kept  him 
on  the  couch  for  several  days.  Dr.  Halley  took  his  place 
on  the  Sunday,  and  when  he  gave  out  as  his  text,  "  He 
keepeth  all  his  bones  :  not  one  of  them  is  broken," l  the 
gravity  of  the  congregation  gave  way.  The  good  old 
man  was  uneasily  conscious  that  something  was  wrong  ; 
but  the  ripple  of  laughter  did  not  enlighten  him,  and  it 
was  not  until  he  had  left  the  pulpit  that  he  saw  what  he 
had  done.  He  was  acutely  distressed — especially  when 
he  found  that  some  present  supposed  the  incongruity  to 
have  been  intentional. 

The  results  of  this  misadventure  did  not  make  work 
easier,  and  it  was  with  great  delight  that  Dale  found  the 
journey  of  which  he  had  dreamed  at  last  within  sight ; 
though,  when  it  came  to  the  point,  he  hesitated  to  leave 
his  people  for  so  long,  especially  at  a  time  when  there 
were  signs  of  a  great  spiritual  awakening  both  in  and 
around  the  church. 

To  Miss  Phipson 

2nd  December  1872. 

At  times  my  contemplated  journey  rather  troubles  me,  and  I 
wonder  how  it  should  have  happened  that  I  should  be  intending 
to  leave  my  work  for  so  long  a  time  just  at  the  moment  when 
I  have  a  more  confident  hope  of  the  manifestation  of  the  power 
of  God  than  I  have  ever  had  at  any  previous  period  of  my 
ministry.  If  I  did  not  feel  that  the  loss  of  the  elasticity  and  energy 
necessary  for  really  effective  labour  rendered  a  long  interruption 
of  work  necessary,  I  should  be  half  inclined,  even  now,  to  give 
up  the  project.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  I  know  that  what  I  am 
longing  for  is  to  be  done  by  God,  not  by  me ;  and  if  you  and 
others  continue  to  implore  Him  to  reveal  His  presence  among 
us,  my  absence  can  be  no  hindrance  to  His  coming,  and  may  be 
one  of  the  conditions  of  the  manifestation  of  His  power. 

Lged  43.     The    reluctance    was    overcome,    and    on     13  th    January 
1873  Dale  set  out  with  Mr.  Lee,  and  Mr.  Wells  of  Notting- 

k  Psalm  xxxiv.  20. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  309 

ham,  taking  Paris,  Florence,  Rome,  and  Naples  on  the  way 
to  Brindisi,  where  they  were  joined  by  Mr.  Charles  Wallis 
of  Birmingham.  After  reaching  Alexandria,  they  spent  a 
month  in  Egypt,  going  up  the  Nile  beyond  the  first 
cataract,  and  visiting  Luxor,  Karnack,  and  Philoe,  before 
setting  out  through  the  Peninsula  of  Sinai  and  along  the 
Gulf  of  Akaba  for  Petra,  and  thence  to  Jerusalem. 

There  is  no  reason  to  trace  his  course  in  detail,  through 
the  colossal  remains  of  an  extinct  civilisation  in  Egypt, 
among  the  wild  tribes  of  the  Bedaween,  or  in  Palestine 
where  every  spot  has  its  solemn  associations.  And  his 
letters,  though  interesting  at  the  time  and  to  those  for 
whom  they  were  written,  describe  no  scenes  that  other 
travellers  have  left  unportrayed. 

The  plan  of  the  journey  was  admirably  conceived.  If 
Dale,  exhausted  as  he  was,  had  gone  straight  to  Jerusalem 
and  Bethany  and  Nazareth,  the  emotion  would  have  been 
too  much  for  him,  and  he  would  have  come  back  as  worn 
and  jaded  as  he  went  away.  Or  if  he  had  started  at  once 
from  Suez  through  the  desert,  the  fatigue  might  have  over- 
taxed his  strength.  But  the  three  weeks  on  the  Nile, 
with  continuous  alternation  of  interest  and  repose,  made 
him  a  new  man.  The  air  was  delicious,  and  in  the  little 
cabin,  seven  feet  square,  he  slept  better  than  he  had  slept 
for  years.  When  the  time  came  to  begin  the  six  weeks' 
expedition  between  Suez  and  Jerusalem,  he  could  bear  the 
long  day's  march  and  the  motion  of  the  camel  without 
undue  fatigue.  And  when  he  reached  the  Holy  Land 
itself,  rich  in  the  sacred  memories  by  which  the  heart  is 
melted  and  stirred,  he  was  already  braced  and  fortified 
against  oppressive  strain.  It  was  a  great  experience.  The 
first  glimpse  of  Jerusalem,  the  Mount  of  Olives,  Nazareth 
in  its  ring  of  hills,  the  blue  waves  of  Galilee,  Hermon 
glistening  with  its  snow,  the  gardens  and  minarets  of 
Damascus,  the  austere  solitudes  of  Sinai,  and  Petra  with 
its  temples  and  tombs  hewn  in  the  rosy  rock — these  are 
sights  that  a  man  does  not  forget.  And  the  spell  of  the 
past  was  sometimes  strongest  in  unexpected  hours,  and 
in  places  where  its  touch  was  sudden  and  unforeseen.     The 


310  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

memories  of  these  months  coloured  and  enriched  his 
preaching  for  years  after.  But  he  resolutely  resisted  the 
tendency  to  exalt  material  over  spiritual  associations. 
For  us,  as  for  the  first  believers,  he  felt  it  might  be  loss 
rather  than  gain  to  "  know  Christ  after  the  flesh,"  in  the 
limitations  and  infirmities  of  His  earthly  life,  and  that  we 
may  so  dwell  on  the  Human  as  to  lose  sight  of  the 
Divine.1 

The  journey  was  not  free  from  accident  and  anxiety. 
At  Assuan  Mr.  Wells  sprained  his  ankle  severely.  Mr. 
Wallis  was  summoned  home  from  Jerusalem  by  serious 
illness  in  his  family.  Not  far  from  Damascus  Mr.  Lee 
was  thrown  from  his  horse,  and  dislocated  a  shoulder.  In 
fact,  Dale  was  the  only  one  of  the  travellers  who  wholly 
escaped  misadventure. 

The  party  reached  England  in  the  first  week  of  June, 
after  an  absence  of  four  months  and  a  half.  To  Dale  the 
journey  had  been  of  immense  value.  It  restored  his 
strength,  and  left  him  with  a  reserve  of  vigour  that  carried 
him  through  several  years  crowded  with  work.  It 
enlarged  his  experience,  and  gave  him  a  wider  outlook 
on  the  world.  But  independently  of  these  benefits,  it 
removed  him  from  the  strain  of  public  work  and  from  the 
excitement  of  political  agitation  at  a  time  when  he  might 
have  been  mastered  by  these  engrossing  interests.  It 
enabled  him  to  readjust  his  perspective  ;  it  helped  to 
restore  his  sense  of  proportion.  More  than  this,  during 
the  hours  of  quiet  on  the  Nile  and  in  the  desert — while 
the  boat  was  slowly  working  up-stream,  or  as  he  rode  by 
himself  in  advance  of  his  companions — it  gave  him  time 
for  continuous  thought  about  the  deeper  elements  of 
Divine  truth.  He  explored  new  territory,  he  surveyed  what 
he  had  already  traversed.  It  would  be  difficult  to  ex- 
aggerate what  he  owed  to  those  months  spent  in  medita- 
tion and  repose  "  far  from  the  noise  of  archers  in  the 
places  of  drawing  water." 

It  was  not  till  after  this  journey  that  Dale  committed 
himself  by  public  utterance  to  the  theory  of  the  annihila- 
1  Cf.  Fellowship  with  Christ,  pp.  38-41. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  311 

tion  of  the  impenitent.  Among  the  Congregational 
churches,  as  elsewhere,  the  belief  in  endless  punishment 
had  lost  much  of  its  hold  on  the  minds  of  men.  By 
many — perhaps  by  most — the  doctrine  had  not  been 
consciously  and  deliberately  surrendered  ;  they  had  drifted 
from  their  earlier  position,  but  as  yet  had  not  reached  any 
definite  conclusion  on  the  subject.  Some,  however,  had 
adopted  the  theory  of  universal  restoration,  associated 
among  Congregationalists  with  the  Rev.  H.  H.  Dobney 
of  Maidstone  ;  others  had  accepted  the  teaching  of  the 
Rev.  Edward  White,  who  asserted  that  man  is  not  by 
nature  immortal  ;  that  the  gift  of  eternal  life  is  con- 
ferred in  regeneration,  and  that  although  the  unregenerate 
have  a  life  which  does  not  perish  with  the  death  of  the 
body,  this  life,  not  being  rooted  in  God,  will  come  to  an 
end  ;  those  who  persistently  defy  the  Divine  law  and 
reject  the  Divine  mercy  being  destined  to  eternal  destruc- 
tion. Dale  had  been  moving  in  this  direction  for  some 
time.  Those  who  had  followed  his  preaching  with 
intelligent  insight  were  aware  that  he  had  discarded  the 
traditional  doctrine.  But  earlier  experience  had  taught 
him  not  to  be  too  impetuous  in  attacking  common  beliefs, 
and  that  a  purely  destructive  criticism  was  apt  to  do 
more  harm  than  good.  Even  when  his  own  convictions 
had  become  settled,  he  was  slow  to  speak.  He  imposed 
on  himself  the  caution  that  he  recommended  to  those  who 
consulted  him  when  perplexed  by  problems  of  this  order. 
His  advice  to  them  was  that  after  reaching  a  definite  con- 
clusion as  the  result  of  prayer  and  study,  they  should  be 
silent  for  a  year  before  they  attempted  to  draw  others  to 
the  same  judgment  ;  and  he  acted  as  he  advised.1 

His  first  public  declaration  on  this  subject  occurred  in 
a  paper  read  before  the  Congregational  Union  in  May 
1 874.  After  examining  the  position  of  Congregationalists 
in  relation  to  various  aspects  of  theological  thought,  he 
proceeded  to  discuss  the  extent  to  which  other  opinions 
had  supplanted  the  traditional  belief  in  future  punishment. 

1  Cf.  The  Epistle  of  James,  pp.  88,  89.       It  is  probable  that  in  his  own 
case  the  period  of  silence  was  considerably  extended. 


312  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

The  doctrine  of  universal  restoration,  in  his  judgment,  was 
then  not  generally  accepted.  Very  many  men  did  not 
know  where  they  stood. 

The  doctrine  ot  our  forefathers  has  been  silently  relegated, 
with  or  without  very  serious  consideration,  to  that  province  of 
the  intellect  which  is  the  home  of  beliefs  which  we  have  not 
rejected,  but  which  we  are  willing  to  forget.  But  there  are  some 
of  us — and  to  this  class  I  myself  belong — who  have  taken  a 
definite  position.  We  have  reached  the  conclusion  that  eternal 
life  is  the  gift  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  this  life  is  not 
given  to  those  who  reject  the  Gospel,  but  is  given  in  the  new 
birth  to  those  who  believe  and  who  are  thereby  made  partakers 
of  the  Divine  nature.  We  warn  men  that  while  they  continue 
in  impenitence,  they  fail  to  secure  it ;  and  if  they  continue 
impenitent  to  the  end  they  are  destined  to  indignation  and 
wrath,  tribulation  and  anguish ;  that  in  the  world  to  come  they 
will  not,  after  suffering  and  discipline,  hear  from  the  lips  of 
Christ  the  words,  "  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father  " ;  but  that 
He  will  say  to  them  at  the  judgment  seat,  "  Depart  from  Me,  ye 
cursed  " — words  extinguishing  all  hope  and  dooming  to  incon- 
solable despair ;  that  their  punishment  will  not  regenerate  but 
destroy  them ;  that  in  the  fires  to  which  they  are  destined  they 
will  not  be  purified  but  consumed,  and  that  from  the  second 
death  there  is  no  resurrection. 

Having  thus  declared  his  adhesion  to  the  doctrine  of 
"  Life  in  Christ,"  Dale  did  not  hesitate  to  give  the  subject 
its  due  place  in  his  teaching.  This  excited  some  resent- 
ment, and  dissatisfaction  was  expressed  that,  holding  such 
opinions,  he  should  be  allowed  to  edit  the  Congregationalist, 
which  was  regarded  as  a  representative  though  not  an 
official  organ.  But  no  attempt  was  made  to  remove  him 
from  that  position,  and  he  did  not  feel  it  necessary  to 
defend  himself  against  personal  attacks.  His  chief  con- 
cern was  that  the  theory  should  be  set  forth  and  appre- 
hended in  its  entirety.  For  himself,  and  for  those  who 
shared  his  opinions,  the  annihilation  of  the  wicked  was 
subordinate  to  the  larger  truth  of  "  Life  in  Christ "  ;  but 
criticism  for  the  most  part  ignored  the  general  principle, 
and  dealt  solely  with  the  special  application.  Against 
this  tendency  he  vigorously  protested. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  313 

We  should  remember  that  this  truth  is  much  wider  and  more 
comprehensive  that  is  usually  imagined.  It  is  not  simply  a 
theory  on  the  future  destiny  of  the  impenitent.  It  is  a  restate- 
ment of  the  relation  of  the  human  race  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
It  is  a  reassertion  in  a  more  definite  and  emphatic  form  of  the 
ancient  doctrine  of  the  Church  concerning  the  nature  and 
necessity  of  regeneration.  It  has  a  claim  to  consideration  on 
the  ground  that  it  is  rooted  in  the  common  faith  of  Christendom 
concerning  the  wonderful  character  of  that  change  which  passes 
upon  men  when  they  receive  the  life  of  God. 

So  far  from  impairing  the  authority  of  the  central 
truths  of  revelation,  the  theory  was  incorporate  with  the 
whole  substance  of  the  Christian  faith  and  inspired  with 
its  life.  The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  it  left  untouched. 
The  Incarnation,  the  Atonement,  Justification  by  Faith, 
and,  above  all,  Regeneration,  it  invested  with  a  new  and  a 
deeper  significance.  For  himself  it  had  an  additional 
value  in  its  assertion  of  that  essential  difference  between 
those  who  are  in  Christ  and  those  who  are  not,  which  is  a 
fundamental  principle  of  Congregationalism.  And  while 
the  doctrine  was  in  alliance  with  the  whole  circle  of  truths 
and  facts  revealed  in  Holy  Scripture,  it  did  not  impair 
the  moral  freedom  which  is  the  inalienable  characteristic 
of  human  nature.  Man,  so  long  as  he  is  man,  can  sin, 
and  can  continue  to  sin.  Any  theory  that  takes  no 
account  of  this  possibility  excludes  one  of  the  great  factors 
of  the  moral  problem. 

The  will  of  man  may  be  finally  and  irrevocably  divorced  from 
the  law  of  righteousness ;  as  the  very  nature  of  the  redeemed 
becomes  light,  so  the  very  nature  of  those  who  have  rejected 
Christ  becomes  darkness  and  sin.  While  it  is  possible  to  separate 
a  man  from  his  sin,  God's  love  clings  to  the  man,  while  God's 
anger  lies  on  the  sin  ;  but  when  this  becomes  impossible  and  the 
man  and  the  sin  are  one,  then  there  is  nothing  left  but  for  the 
evil  to  be  consumed  by  the  fires  of  the  Divine  wrath.  The  final 
expression  of  God's  abhorrence  of  sin  will  be  the  moral  flame  in 
which  those  who  cannot  be  separated  from  their  sin  will  be 
consumed.1 


1  From  an  address  delivered  at  a  meeting  held  to  commemorate  the  twenty- 
fifth  anniversary  of  the  Rev.  Edward  White's  pastorate  at  Hawley  Road, 
Camden  Town  [English  Indepoulent,  22nd  March  1877). 


3i4  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

For  minds  of  a  certain  order  the  doctrine,  he  knew, 
was  not  without  its  perils.  Such  men,  while  they  still 
believed  in  an  eternity  of  suffering,  were  distressed  not  so 
much  by  sin  as  by  the  penalty  of  sin.  In  their  prayers 
for  pardon  they  sought  to  escape  from  the  everlasting 
flame,  not  to  be  reconciled  with  a  God  who  abhors  evil. 
But  once  delivered  from  the  expectation  of  torment,  they 
were  left  without  anything  to  fear.  Callous  to  the  moral 
wrath  of  God,  blind  to  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin,  they 
lost  all  agony  of  desire  for  Divine  forgiveness.  Their 
God  was  less  righteous  and  less  merciful  than  the  God  of 
their  earlier  faith  ;  less  righteous,  as  being  more  tolerant 
of  iniquity  ;  less  merciful,  because  where  there  is  little 
resentment  there  can  be  little  mercy.  Error  in  its  expulsion 
had  carried  away  with  it  one  of  the  supreme  moral  truths 
of  the  Christian  faith.  Spiritually,  they  were  poorer  in 
freedom  than  they  had  been  in  bondage.  To  a  moral 
nature  like  Dale's  there  was  something  appalling  in  such 
a  condition.  His  sense  of  sin  was  deep  and  vivid.  Sin — 
not  merely  as  revealed  in  speech  and  conduct,  but  as  that 
principle  of  evil  within  us  by  which  the  very  springs  of  life 
are  corrupted  ;  sin,  whether  ours  by  inheritance,  or  through 
our  own  defect,  or  by  our  mysterious  community  in  the 
moral  life  of  the  race — sin,  in  all  its  forms  and  degrees,  he 
felt  to  be  the  most  terrible  of  realities.  No  one  who  knew 
him  intimately  could  fail  to  perceive  it.  He  sometimes 
referred,  half  wonderingly,  half  sadly,  to  the  experience  of 
a  friend  of  his  who  once  asked  him  what  theologians  meant 
by  "  original  sin" : — "  I  cannot  understand  what  they  mean," 
he  said.  "  I  have  never  been  conscious  of  any  inclination  to 
do  what  I  knew  to  be  wrong."  The  fact  of  original  sin 
presented  no  difficulty  to  Dale.  He  knew  only  too  well 
the  unremitting  energy  of  moral  evil,  and  the  incessant 
struggle  against  its  malignant  power.  He  would  have 
echoed  the  cry  of  the  Psalmist — "  shapen  in  iniquity," 
"  conceived  in  sin."  x  Altogether  apart  from  any  special 
incentive,  he  would  never  have  dealt  lightly  with  the  baser 
elements  in  human  character  and  conduct  ;  and  anxiety  to 

1  Cf.  Christian  Doctrine,  "Sin,"  pp.  198  foil. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  315 

avert  any  moral  degeneracy  in  those  who  had  accepted 
the  new  doctrine  intensified  his  natural  antipathy  to  evil. 
At  times  his  denunciation  of  sin  was  overwhelming  in  its 
force.  He  never  stormed  ;  but  his  wrath,  as  it  grew,  glowed 
with  passion  at  a  white  heat.  It  swept  on  in  waves  of 
living  fire.  It  seemed  to  scorch,  to  shrivel,  to  consume. 
And  if  it  was  not  often  that  he  let  indignation  break  into 
flame,  there  was  always  a  certain  austerity — it  might  even 
be  called  harshness — in  his  moral  judgment,  which  strongly 
contrasted  with  his  charitable  temper  in  dealing  with 
individual  offenders  ;  though  even  with  them  his  sternness, 
when  provoked,  could  be  terrible. 

The  doctrine  of  annihilation — imperfectly  apprehended 
— was  held  accountable  for  an  alleged  decline  of  missionary 
zeal  among  those  who  held  it  or  were  affected  by  it.  So 
long  as  men  believed  that  the  heathen,  if  unconverted,  were 
doomed  to  an  eternity  of  woe,  the  churches  were  impelled 
to  mission  work  by  a  motive  as  cogent  as  supreme.  But 
when  the  darkness  of  the  future  had  been  relieved  by  the 
new  theory,  then  the  constraining  force  was  weakened  if 
not  destroyed.  Such  at  least  was  the  conviction  of  those 
who  still  retained  the  traditional  belief.  Dale  never 
denied  the  danger.  Almost  every  great  truth,  he  knew, 
may  be,  and  has  been,  perversely  and  mischievously 
applied  ;  this  truth  was  not  exempt  from  the  common  lot. 
But  by  example  and  by  precept  he  endeavoured  to  impress 
upon  the  conscience  of  those  whom  he  could  reach  that 
any  theories  we  may  hold  as  to  the  ultimate  destiny  of  the 
heathen  cannot  affect  our  immediate  duty.  He  condemned 
unsparingly  the  easy  and  indolent  temper  which  says  that 
we  may  leave  the  heathen  in  their  darkness,  as  they  are  in 
the  hands  of  a  just  and  merciful  God.  That  seemed  to 
him  "  a  most  inhuman  fatalism."  Both  in  sermons  and  in 
speeches  he  often  dealt  with  such  pleas.  A  few  paragraphs 
taken  from  an  address  delivered  on  behalf  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society  will  illustrate  his  method  of  argument. 

The  heathen  are  in  the  hands  of  a  just  and  merciful  God, 
but  so  are  we ;  and  what  will  be  the  sentence  of  His  justice 
against  us  if  we  refuse  to  send  them  the  Gospel  which  He  has 


316  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

entrusted  to  our  hands  for  them  ?  And  will  not  the  very  fires  of 
His  infinite  mercy  turn  to  fires  of  fierce  indignation  if  we  make 
His  very  love  for  them  the  excuse  for  our  neglect  ?  .  .  .  They 
are  here  within  our  reach,  millions  upon  millions  of  them;  many 
of  them  weary  with  sorrow  and  suffering,  and  it  is  in  our  power 
to  give  them  Divine  consolation  ;  many  of  them  in  those  heathen 
lands  crushed  with  a  sense  of  sin,  and  we  know  of  God's  infinite 
mercy ;  many  of  them  feeling  after  God  in  the  darkness,  if  haply 
they  may  find  Him,  and  we  have  to  tell  them  if  they  are  seeking 
God  it  is  because  God  is  seeking  them.  They  are  men,  whatever 
their  future  may  be.  Is  it  worth  while  for  them  to  know  here 
of  the  infinite  love  of  the  Son  of  God  that  moved  Him  to  stoop 
from  the  height  of  His  glory  and  with  impatient  mercy  to  come 
and  to  seek  those  who  had  erred  and  gone  astray?  Is  it  worth 
while  for  them  to  listen,  as  you  and  I  have  listened,  to  the 
parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  ?  Is  it  worth  while  for  them 
to  be  invited,  as  you  and  I  have  been  invited,  to  be  the  guests 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  at  His  table — His  friends  and  His 
brethren  ?  .  .  .  Does  God  care  to  have  the  heathen  know  in 
this  world  all  that  you  know  about  Himself?  Whatever  your 
speculations  may  be  about  the  possibilities  of  the  infinite  future, 
is  not  the  heart  of  God  yearning  to  have  His  children  home 
soon  ?  Does  He  want  to  wait  for  them  until  they  have  exhausted 
the  years  of  this  mortal  life  ?  Is  not  His  heart  touched  by  the 
indifference  of  their  hearts  to  Himself?  We  have  not  to  do  with 
great  impersonal  spiritual  laws  ;  we  have  to  do  with  a  Person  of 
immeasurable  love.  He  is  longing  to  see  the  heathen  at  His  feet; 
and  to  satisfy  the  heart  of  God,  here  and  now,  by  bringing  them 
there,  should  be  the  earnest  and  passionate  desire  of  every  true 
and  loyal  servant  of  His. 

But  Dale's  chief  concern  during  these  years  was 
not  with  theology.  For  some  time  he  had  been  looking 
forward  to  the  possibility  of  a  spiritual  revival,  and  of 
a  repetition,  perhaps  in  a  new  form,  of  those  great  move- 
ments by  which  the  religious  life  of  men  had  been  deeply 
and  permanently  affected.  The  Divine  method,  he  knew, 
was  in  the  main  one  of  noiseless  and  orderly  progress  ;  but 
from  time  to  time  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  had  been 
manifested  in  striking  and  startling  forms,  and  such 
revelations  constituted  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  and 
experience  of  the  Church.  Before  he  started  on  his 
Eastern  journey,  he  saw  reason  to  believe  that  a  manifesta- 
tion  of  the   Divine   power  might   be  close  at   hand.      He 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  317 

found  that  others  shared  his  conviction  ;  that  ministers  and 
churches  were  being  stirred  in  unwonted  ways,  and  that 
despondency  was  brightening  into  hope.  When  he 
returned,  the  blessing  had  not  yet  come,  but  hearts  were 
still  expectant.  The  articles  on  religious  revivals  that  he 
published  in  the  Congregationalist  during  the  years  1873 
and  1874  show  how  confident  he  was  that  the  Divine 
Spirit  was  about  to  do  great  things  either  within  the 
churches  or  outside  them,  and  they  reveal  his  intense 
anxiety  that  no  lack  of  faith  or  coldness  of  heart,  no 
perverse  adherence  to  tradition  and  custom,  might  stand 
in  the  way  of  its  beneficent  power. 

He  expected  a  great  religious  movement ;  but  the 
movement,  when  it  came,  was  not  what  he  expected.  Mr. 
Moody  and  Mr.  Sankey,  the  American  evangelists,  were 
not  at  all  the  kind  of  men  for  whom  he  had  been  looking ; 
and  when  they  entered  on  their  mission  in  1874,  ft  was 
but  gradually  that  he  came  to  appreciate  the  importance 
of  their  work.  When  he  deprecated  hostile  criticism  at 
the  meetings  of  the  Congregational  Union  in  May  1874, 
he  did  not  speak  of  them  as  he  would  have  spoken  a  year 
later.  He  recognised  their  spiritual  force,  but  declined 
to  stand  forward  as  an  apologist  for  their  methods  in 
detail.  He  had  read  enough  and  heard  enough  to  call 
forth  his  sympathy,  but  as  yet  he  had  not  come  into  close 
contact  with  the  personality  of  the  evangelists  or  with  the 
power  of  the  movement  with  which  they  were  identified. 

It  was  not  until  eight  months  after  this  discussion  that  l875- 
Mr.  Moody  visited  Birmingham.  During  the  interval  he 
had  been  at  work  in  the  great  towns  of  northern  England, 
in  Scotland,  and  in  Ireland.  His  power  and  his  fame  had 
steadily  grown.  Wherever  he  went  crowds  would  gather 
to  hear  him.  But  even  then  Dale  felt  no  certainty  that 
Mr.  Moody's  preaching  would  prove  as  effective  in  Birming- 
ham as  it  had  been  elsewhere.  Some  of  the  evangelists' 
methods  were  not  wholly  congenial.  However,  he  did  not 
allow  obstacles  of  this  kind  to  stand  in  the  way,  and  from 
the  outset  he  actively  associated  himself  with  the  mission. 
In  the  course  of  a  few  days  all  hesitation,  all  distrust,  had 


318  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

vanished.  He  was  amazed  and  delighted  by  what  he 
saw.  Night  after  night,  Bingley  Hall,  which  held  with 
ease  twelve  or  thirteen  thousand  people,  was  so  crowded 
that  it  was  necessary  to  close  the  doors.  Those  who 
came  were  of  all  classes  and  conditions.  Great  numbers 
of  them  were  profoundly  moved.  How  the  effect  was 
produced  Dale  at  first  could  not  explain  even  to  himself ; 
as  to  its  reality  there  could  be  no  doubt.  He  recorded 
with  perfect  frankness  his  first  impressions  of  Mr.  Moody's 
power. 

At  the  first  meeting,  Mr.  Moody's  address  was  simple,  direct, 
kindly,  and  hopeful ;  it  had  a  touch  of  humour  and  a  touch  of 
pathos ;  it  was  lit  up  with  a  story  or  two  that  filled  most  eyes 
with  tears ;  but  there  seemed  nothing  in  it  very  remarkable. 
Yet  it  told.  A  prayer  meeting  with  an  address,  at  eight  o'clock 
on  a  damp  cold  January  morning,  was  hardly  the  kind  of  thing 
— let  me  say  it  frankly — that  I  should  generally  regard  as 
attractive;  but  I.  enjoyed  it  heartily;  it  seemed  one  of  the 
happiest  meetings  I  had  ever  attended ;  there  was  warmth  and 
there  was  sunlight  in  it.  At  the  evening  meeting  the  same  day, 
at  Bingley  Hall,  I  was  still  unable  to  make  it  out  how  it  was 
that  he  had  done  so  much  in  other  parts  of  the  kingdom.  I 
listened  with  interest ;  everybody  listened  with  interest ;  and  I 
was  conscious  again  of  a  certain  warmth  and  brightness  which 
made  the  service  very  pleasant,  but  I  could  not  see  that  there 
was  much  to  impress  those  that  were  careless  about  religious 
duty.  The  next  morning  at  the  prayer  meeting  the  address  was 
more  incisive  and  striking,  and  at  the  evening  service  I  began  to 
see  that  the  stranger  had  a  faculty  for  making  the  elementary 
truths  of  the  Gospel  intensely  clear  and  vivid.  But  it  still 
seemed  most  remarkable  that  he  should  have  done  so  much,  and 
on  Tuesday  I  told  Mr.  Moody  that  the  work  was  most  plainly 
of  God,  for  I  could  see  no  real  relation  between  him  and  what 
he  had  done.  He  laughed  cheerily,  and  said  he  should  be  very 
sorry  if  it  were  otherwise.1 

He  was  even  more  deeply  impressed  by  his  experience 
at  the  "  after-meetings,"  where  those  who  were  anxious 
about  their  spiritual  condition  remained  to  get  what  help 
they   could    from    Christian    men    and   women    who  were 

1  Mr.  Moody  and  Mr.  Sankey  (reprinted  from  the  Congrzgationalist 
for  March  1875),  p.   17. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  319 

ready  to  tell  others  how  they  themselves  had  passed  out 
of  darkness  and  despair  into  light  and  peace.  Without 
the  after-meeting,  the  preaching,  Dale  felt,  would  not  have 
accomplished  one-fifth  of  its  results.  The  effect,  however, 
was  due  not  to  morbid  excitement,  but  to  the  power  of 
personal  testimony  and  to  the  contact  of  soul  with  soul. 
Faith  is  contagious  ;  and  in  most  cases,  he  found,  these 
"  inquirers "  went  home  with  overflowing  gladness.  To 
"  the  typical  Moody  convert,"  during  this  mission,  the 
Gospel  came  as  tidings  of  great  joy. 

I  had  seen  occasional  instances  before  of  instant  transition 
from  religious  anxiety  to  the  clear  and  triumphant  consciousness 
of  restoration  to  God;  but  what  struck  me  in  the  gallery  of 
Bingley  Hall  was  the  fact  that  this  instant  transition  took  place 
with  nearly  every  person  with  whom  I  talked.  They  had  come 
up  into  the  gallery  anxious,  restless,  feeling  after  God  in  the 
darkness,  and  when,  after  a  conversation  of  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
or  twenty  minutes,  they  went  away,  their  faces  were  filled  with 
light,  and  they  left  me  not  only  at  peace  with  God  but  filled 
with  joy.  I  have  seen  the  sunrise  from  the  top  of  Helvellyn 
and  the  top  of  the  Righi,  and  there  is  something  very  glorious 
in  it ;  but  to  see  the  light  of  heaven  suddenly  strike  on  man 
after  man  in  the  course  of  one  evening  is  very  much  more  thrill- 
ing. These  people  carried  their  new  joy  with  them  to  their 
homes  and  their  workshops.     It  could  not  be  hid.1 

The  impression  that  the  movement  left  on  Dale's  mind 
was  both  deep  and  lasting.  All  that  he  saw  of  the  evan- 
gelists and  of  their  work  in  Birmingham  and  in  London 
convinced  him  that  they  were  the  agents  of  an  invisible 
power,  mightier  than  themselves — a  power  to  which  they 
surrendered  themselves  with  loyal  and  trustful  hearts,  but 
which  they  could  not  control.  The  effects  of  their  activity 
far  transcended  the  human  cause,  and  could  be  attributed 
only  to  the  direct  action  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  He  saw 
what  from  the  earliest  days  of  his  ministry  he  had  longed 
to  see — men  and  women  pressing  into  the  Divine  king- 
dom, not  as  solitary  souls  but  by  scores  and  by  hundreds. 
One  hundred  and  twenty  of  the  converts  were  admitted 

1  Mr.  Moody  and  Mr.  Sankey  (reprinted  from  the  Congregationalist 
for  March  1875),  PP-  IX>  I2- 


320  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

to  membership  at  Carr's  Lane,  and  this  was  but  one  of 
the  churches  into  which  they  were  received. 

The  ardour  with  which  Dale  flung  himself  into  the 
work,  and  his  open  admiration  of  Mr.  Moody,  amazed 
many  of  those  who  thought  they  knew  him  well.  It  was 
an  offence  to  some,  a  problem  to  others.  During  the 
mission  Mr.  Bright  came  down  to  address  his  constituents, 
and  Mr.  Moody,  with  characteristic  common  sense,  in- 
sisted that  Bingley  Hall — the  only  building  that  could 
hold  the  crowds  who  wished  to  hear  their  great  repre- 
sentative— should  be  placed  for  the  evening  at  Mr.  Bright's 
disposal,  and  that  he  should  not  be  prevented  from  dis- 
charging a  public  duty.  Some  who  listened  to  Dale  that 
night  as  he  enforced  Mr.  Bright's  plea  for  church  dis- 
establishment, and  who  heard  him  in  the  same  week 
helping  Mr.  Moody  on  the  same  platform,  or  saw  him  at 
work  in  the  inquirers'  gallery,  found  it  hard  to  understand 
how  he  could  thus  blend  political  and  religious  enthusiasm. 
That  political  interest  should  be  supreme  at  one  time,  and 
religious  interest  at  another,  would  have  been  intelligible  ; 
but  how  both  could  co-exist,  each  inflaming  and  intensi- 
fying the  other- — -this  was  an  insoluble  enigma.  The 
paradox  of  his  life,  one  might  say,  in  this  instance  was 
focussed  at  a  point. 

As  he  rebuked  those  who  made  religious  zeal  a  pretext 
for  evading  the  duties  of  citizenship,  he  now  repelled  any 
attempt  to  slight  or  to  disparage  the  work  of  the  evangelists. 
Those  who  were  disposed  to  be  critical  or  contemptuous 
found  it  safer  not  to  indulge  their  bent  in  his  company. 
He  was  not  quick  to  take  offence  nor  intolerant  of 
divergent  opinion  even  in  serious  matters,  but  where  Mr. 
Moody  was  misrepresented  or  abused,  he  struck  with  his 
full  force.  He  met  scorn  with  scorn.  He  did  not  shrink 
from  using  unwonted  weapons  of  irony  and  ridicule.  In 
public  and  in  private  he  was  alert  for  any  challenge,  and 
he  fought  with  his  whole  heart  in  the  conflict.1 

1  See  especially  the  sermon  —  "The  Day  of  Salvation:  a  Reply  to  the 
Letter  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  on  Mr.  Moody  and  Mr.  Sankey," 
1875. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  321 

In  the  criticism  directed  against  Mr.  Moody  and  his 
teaching,  there  was  much  to  excite  the  indignation  of 
those  who  had  seen  the  work  with  their  own  eyes,  and 
who  knew  how  in  hundreds  of  cases  it  had  helped  to 
bring  about  an  entire  change  of  life.  When  mission 
services  of  such  a  kind  were  described  as  "  performances," 
or  even  ridiculed  as  "a  religious  penny  gaff";  when  the 
inquirers'  meeting  was  denounced  as  a  debased  form  of 
the  confessional  ;  or  when  it  was  asserted  that  Mr.  Moody 
insisted  only  on  the  necessity  of  conversion  and  said 
nothing  about  repentance  and  amendment,  such  insults 
and  such  slanders  called  for  nothing  but  indignant  con- 
tempt. But  at  some  points  Mr.  Moody's  teaching  was 
not  free  from  danger,  and  Dale,  while  wholly  loyal  to  his 
friend,  did  not  deny  the  fact.  The  stress  which  was  laid 
upon  the  necessity  of  sudden  conversion  seemed  likely  to 
produce  a  false  impression  ;  for  although  Mr.  Moody 
never  denied  that  the  soul  might  pass  from  darkness  into 
light  by  a  gradual  transition,  he  assumed  the  other  to  be 
the  normal  experience,  and  that  the  supreme  change 
would  almost  always  be  instantaneous.  In  a  large 
majority  of  cases  it  was  so.  But  the  sudden  change  was 
so  great,  and  often  so  startling,  that  a  man  might  easily 
suppose,  because  so  great  and  so  startling  a  change  had 
passed  upon  him,  that  everything  was  finished  when  in 
fact  the  work  of  the  Spirit  had  only  begun.  The  delusion 
was  fatal  to  the  strength  and  the  security  of  the  religious 
life.  Dale  recognised  the  peril,  and  resolutely  combated 
it.  He  insisted  that  if  people  thought  they  could  become 
saints  in  a  minute,  they  made  a  terrible  mistake.  Con- 
version was  the  beginning,  not  the  end.  Most  men  when 
they  came  to  Christ  were  immature  both  in  conscience 
and  in  mind,  and  still  had  the  very  elements  of  Christian 
truth  and  duty  to  learn.  But  on  the  other  hand,  he 
urged,  if  there  was  danger  in  sudden  conversion,  there  was 
still  greater  danger  in  delay.  Prompt  and  immediate 
decision  was  of  transcendent  importance. 

Through    Mr.    Moody's    influence,   and    partly    at    his 
instigation,  Dale  was  led  to  undertake   mission  work  on 

Y 


322  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

his  own  account.  For  this  form  of  service  he  had  no 
special  aptitude — such  at  least  was  his  own  conviction  ; 
though,  if  he  had  been  free  to  choose  his  gifts,  this  was  the 
one  that  he  would  have  coveted  most.  But  he  had  never 
tested  his  powers  as  an  evangelist  under  the  conditions 
most  favourable  to  success,  and  many  years  had  passed 
since  they  had  been  tried  ;  so  when  the  opportunity  came, 
he  did  not  feel  himself  free  to  evade  the  duty.  His  first 
experiment  was  at  Stratford-on-Avon,  where  he  held 
services  for  a  week.  A  little  later,  at  the  invitation  of 
Dr.  Macfadyen,  he  conducted  a  mission  for  the  Church  at 
Chorlton  Road,  Manchester  ;  and  again,  after  an  interval 
of  three  or  four  years,  he  undertook  a  similar  mission,  but 
on  a  larger  scale,  at  Norwich.  His  experience  on  these 
occasions  satisfied  him  that  he  had  not  been  called  to  this 
form  of  service  ;  and  he  abandoned  the  work,  not  because 
he  underestimated  its  necessity  or  its  value,  but  because 
he  lacked  the  distinctive  powers  that  it  required.  For 
although  in  Manchester  and  at  Norwich  his  preaching  left 
a  decided  impression,  it  was  far  more  effective  in  stimulat- 
ing the  Christian  conscience  and  in  enlarging  the  Christian 
intelligence  than  in  breaking  the  slumber  of  the  soul,  or 
in  turning  the  indifferent  and  the  disloyal  to  the  Saviour 
whom  they  disregarded  or  denied.  The  following  letters — 
the  first  written  before  he  had  come  into  personal  contact 
with  Mr.  Moody's  work — express  his  own  feeling  about 
the  matter  : — 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mackennal 

22nd  May  1874. 

...  I  take  it  that  you  disbelieve  in,  or  rather  distrust,  move- 
ments associated  with  the  work  of  special  evangelists  like  Finney, 
Moody,  and  the  rest.  For  myself  it  seems  to  me  that  such 
movements  are  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  recognised  and 
general  laws  of  the  Divine  kingdom.  Surely  there  are  many  of 
us  to  whom  the  gift  of  doing  very  much  in  bringing  men  to 
God  for  the  first  time  has  not  come ;  we  may  have  the  power  of 
helping  them  when  they  have  found  Him,  but  our  work  needs 
complementing.     On   the   other  hand,  I  think  that   there  are 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  323 

men  who  have  the  power  of  awakening  men,  who  can  do  very 
little  with  them  when  they  are  awake :  their  work  needs  com- 
plementing too. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Barrett 

2lst  March  1879. 

My  visit 1  was  a  very  pleasant  one — very  much  more  than  a 
pleasant  one.  It  rather  strengthened  my  own  conviction  that  I 
have  no  great  function  for  dealing  with  outsiders.  As  I  came 
with  an  apprehension  of  that  kind,  the  apprehension  may  have 
somewhat  impaired  the  work ;  but  every  man  must  be  content 
with  the  form  of  service  to  which  God  has  appointed  him.  I 
did  what  I  could.  The  services  were  of  use  to  me,  if  to  no  one 
else. 

Early  in  the  year  1 87  5,  soon  after  Mr.  Moody's  Aged  45. 
mission  in  Birmingham,  Dale  began  to  deliver  a  course  of 
lectures  at  the  Memorial  Hall  in  London  on  the  doctrine 
of  the  Atonement.  The  lectureship  had  been  established 
by  the  Congregational  Union  in  its  early  days  ;  but  after 
i860  the  lectures  were  discontinued  for  several  years.  In 
the  new  series  which  began  in  1873,  Mr.  Henry  Rogers, 
Dale's  former  tutor  at  Spring  Hill,  was  the  first  lecturer  ; 
Dr.  Reynolds,  of  Cheshunt,  was  the  second  ;  and  Dale 
followed  him.  The  Union  Committee  had  invited  him  to 
lecture  on  "  Congregationalism,"  but  they  acceded  to  his 
request  that  he  might  be  allowed  to  take  the  Atonement 
instead.  The  subject  was  one  that  had  been  before  his 
mind  for  many  years.  To  the  doctrine  of  the  Atone- 
ment he  had  always  attached  supreme  importance.  He 
had  given  it  the  foremost  place  in  his  preaching.  His 
friend,  Mr.  Callaway,  in  his  notes  of  a  conversation  that 
took  place  early  in  Dale's  ministry,  records  that  it  was  his 
\  crucial  test  in  theology.  "  He  said  he  considered  if  a 
man  was  right  there,  it  mattered  little  if  he  had  views  on 
minor  points  different  from  the  common  opinions  of  our 
churches."  Dale,  it  may  be  remembered,  had  written  on 
the  subject  in  the  British  Quarterly  Review;2  and  since 
then  the  desire  to  deal  with  the  doctrine  on  a  larger  scale 

1  To  Norwich.  2  See  pp.  216  foil. 


324  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

had  never  left  him.  While  he  was  in  the  Desert,  he  tells 
us,  he  spent  many  solitary  hours  in  revising  the  conclu- 
sions to  which  he  had  been  led.1  As  soon  as  he  returned 
from  his  Eastern  journey,  he  set  himself  to  prepare  for  his 
task,  though  he  did  not  begin  to  write  until  the  autumn 
of  1874. 

Mr.  Rogers  and  Dr.  Reynolds  had  published  their 
lectures  without  oral  delivery,  but  in  Dale's  case  there  was 
no  reason  for  this  departure  from  the  original  intention  of 
the  Union  ;  and  he  began  his  course  in  the  second  week 
of  February  1875 — exactly  forty  years  since  Josiah 
Gilbert  had  lectured  on  the  same  subject  on  the  same 
foundation.  Each  lecture  was  repeated  at  Birmingham  on 
successive  Sunday  evenings.  In  London,  where  it  is  not  easy 
to  draw  people  together  for  such  a  purpose,  the  audiences 
were  considerable  ;  and  they  were  as  large  at  the  close  as 
at  the  beginning.  At  Carr's  Lane,  week  after  week  for 
nearly  three  months,  the  building  was  crowded  from  end 
to  end  without  any  diminution  of  interest.  Those  who 
heard  Dale  at  that  time  heard  him  in  the  fulness  of  his 
strength.  And  although  in  later  years  there  were  elements 
in  his  preaching  that  as  yet  were  wanting,  his  intellectual 
force  and  his  moral  passion  were  at  their  height.  The 
theme  was  one  that  called  out  his  most  characteristic 
powers.  He  had  been  profoundly  affected  by  the  great 
spiritual  movement  with  which  he  had  just  been  associated; 
and  the  discourses,  as  he  delivered  them,  had  an  intensity 
of  conviction  and  emotion  that  cools  and  fades  in  print. 

The  conditions  under  which  the  lectures  were  produced 
in  some  degree  affected  the  character  of  the  book.  Some 
passages  are  too  diffuse,  others  too  rhetorical  ;  though  the 
reasoning  is  always  close  and  the  movement  of  thought 
strenuous.  But  superficial  defects  of  this  kind  did  not  impair 
success.  The  lectures  were  cordially  received  on  publica- 
tion, and  their  popularity  has  not  yet  abated.  They  have 
been  translated  into  both  French  and  German,  and  some 


1  "All  [the  last  lecture]  came  to  me — or  most  of  it — in  solitary  hours  on 
the  top  of  my  camel  in  the  Sinaitic  desert — natural  home,  as  some  would  say, 
of  mysticism." — To  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Figgis. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  325 

portions  into  Japanese.  Their  praise  is  in  all  the 
churches.  Soon  after  the  book  appeared,  the  Record — 
less  friendly  to  Nonconformity  in  those  days  than  it  is 
now  —  reviewed  it  not  merely  with  favour  but  with 
enthusiasm.  Eminent  theologians  of  the  opposite  school, 
such  as  Canon  Liddon,  were  no  less  generous  in  their 
praise.  It  has  been  widely  used  in  the  theological 
colleges  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  it  has  been  recom- 
mended for  study  by  many  of  the  bishops.  And  although 
some  would  give  a  higher  place  to  the  lectures  on  the 
Ephesians,  The  Atonement  was  the  work  to  which  most 
frequent  reference  was  made  at  the  time  of  Dale's  death. 

Out  of  the  mass  of  letters  that  the  book  brought  him 
then  and  for  many  years  after,  only  one  can  be  given  ;  it 
has  a  peculiar  interest  : — 

From  the  Rev.  John  Henry  Newman  i 

The  Oratory,  26//1  July  1875. 

I  hope  you  will  excuse  my  delay  in  acknowledging  the  receipt 
of  your  volume  ;  but  the  very  day  on  which  you  date  your  gift 
of  it,  brought  upon  me  a  trial  which  has  confused  and  disordered 
me  ever  since,  and  has  made  me  remiss  in  my  duties  towards 
others  as  well  as  towards  you.  I  cannot  even  now  say  that  I  have 
read  your  work  through,  or  studied  it  as  it  deserves  to  be  studied  ; 
but  at  least  I  can  say  that  I  have  followed  its  argument  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end,  and  have  read  large  portions  of  it ;  and 
that,  in  doing  so,  I  have  found  nothing  bearing  on  its  main  sub- 
ject which  I  did  not  admire,  and  that  I  rejoiced  with  my  whole 
heart  to  see  so  important  a  defence  of  the  cardinal  doctrine  of 
our  Lord's  Atonement,  and  such  a  straightforward  recognition  of 
His  Divinity  in  this  time  and  place,  and  from  so  distinguished  a 
member  of  a  School  so  divergent  in  many  of  its  views  from  the 
teaching  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

In  the  chapter  on  Dale's  theological  position,  Dr. 
Fairbairn  has  so  dealt  with  the  substance  and  method  of 
the  lectures  as  to  render  analysis  and  criticism  superfluous  ; 
but  there  are  one  or  two  subordinate  points  on  which  a 
few  words  may  be  added. 

1  Afterwards  His  Eminence  Cardinal  Newman. 


326  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

In  the  first  place,  while  the  ninth  and  tenth  lectures 
suggest  and  maintain  a  particular  theory  of  the  Atonement, 
the  other  eight  lectures  are  intended  to  establish  the  fact : 
the  relative  importance  of  these  two  elements  is  never 
forgotten  ;  and  the  book,  therefore,  appeals  to  very  many 
who  cannot  accept  the  theory  with  which  the  fact  is 
associated.  And  further,  although  the  purpose  of  the 
argument  throughout  is  to  show  that  the  "  moral  theory  " 
of  the  Atonement — as  it  has  been  called — is  inadequate 
to  account  for  the  fact,  and  that  the  Death  of  Christ 
involves  something  more  than  a  supreme  appeal  to  the 
heart  and  conscience  of  the  human  race,  the  theory  set 
forth  in  the  book — the  "  legal  "  or  "  objective  "  theory — 
that  there  is  a  direct  relation  between  the  Death  on  the 
Cross  and  the  remission  of  sin,  does  not  necessarily 
exclude  the  other  view.  Those  who  regard  our  Lord's 
Death  as  a  propitiation  for  sin,  also  acknowledge  it  to 
be  a  transcendent  manifestation  of  the  Divine  Love,  by 
which  "  a  change  is  wrought  in  us,  a  change  by  which  we 
are  reconciled  to  God."  l  The  "  subjective  "  theory  of  the 
Atonement,  taken  alone,  is  not  essentially  untrue,  but  it  is 
incomplete.  And  so  the  lectures  admit  that  the  Death  of 
Christ  is  all  that  the  "  moral  "  theory  asserts  it  to  be  ;  but 
they  urge  that  it  is  something  more,  and  that  when  "  the 
objective  element  of  our  Lord's  work  is  suppressed  its 
moral  power  over  the  heart  of  man  is  seriously  lessened."  2 

Only  one  other  point  need  be  noticed.  In  the  British 
Quarterly  articles  on  the  Atonement,  Dale  had  laid  him- 
self open  to  the  charge  of  making  the  Eternal  Law  of 
Righteousness  independent  of  God  and  in  a  sense  superior 
to  God.  In  the  lectures  the  conception  of  the  relation  of 
God  to  the  Moral  Law  is  so  modified  as  to  remove  this 
objection.3 

The  following  letters,  though  written  at  different 
times,  may  conveniently  stand  together,  as  related  to  the 
same  subject : — 

1  Bushnell,  Vicarious  Sacrifice,  p.  450. 

2  The  Atonement,  Preface  to  the  Seventh  Edition,  p.  xlvii. 

3  See  pp.  218,  219. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  327 

To  Mr.  Wilson 

Athjuly  1873. 

Now  that  I  am  fairly  committed  to  a  book  on  the  Atonement, 
I  am  almost  terrified  at  what  I  feel  to  be  the  responsibility  which 
it  involves,  although  for  years  it  has  been  my  hope  that  God 
would  let  me  render  some  service  to  the  Church  by  the  re- 
statement of  what  I  feel  to  be — next  to  the  Incarnation — the 
most  vital  doctrine  of  the  Christian  Faith.   .  .  . 

...  I  am  not  very  certain  that  it  is  wise  to  attempt  a  restate- 
ment of  the  truth  just  now,  although  I  have  undertaken  to  do  it.  A 
far  deeper  sense  of  sin  as  sin,  and  as  involving  guilt  and  requiring 
punishment,  is  necessary  for  a  true  account  of  the  Atonement, 
than  I  fear  we  possess.  Even  Miiller's  great  book  on  sin  treats 
rather  superficially  the  idea  of  guilt,  and  I  do  not  know  where  to 
find  any  adequate  account  of  what  is  meant  by  forgiveness.  And 
as  the  Atonement  stands  between  human  guilt  and  Divine 
forgiveness,  it  is  clear  that  unless  we  really  know  what  we  mean 
when  we  speak  of  guilt  and  forgiveness,  we  can  know  nothing  of 
what  is  meant  by  Atonement. 

Some  years  ago  I  wrote  two  articles  in  the  British  Quarterly 
on  "  the  Moral  View "  and  the  "  Expiatory  Theory "  of  the 
Atonement.  I  believe  that  substantially  these  two  articles  con- 
tain the  truth  as  far  as  they  go,  but  I  am  equally  certain  that 
something  more  is  necessary.  Dr.  Halley,  if  I  understand  him 
aright,  believes  in  Propitiation,  not  in  Expiation.  The  more  I 
talk  with  men  the  more  I  find  of  chaos. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Reynolds 

Zth  January  1875. 

John  the  Baptist1  came  a  day  or  two  after  your  note,  and  I  have 
read  the  greater  part  of  the  volume.  .  .  .  You  have  succeeded 
wonderfully  in  handling  your  immense  materials.  I  don't  agree 
with  the  British  Quarterly  about  Farrar's  "  superior  eloquence  "  ; 
much  of  Farrar's  eloquence  is  mere  rhodomontade. 

My  lectures  are  practically  ready.  A  couple  of  days  will 
finish  all  the  text,  and  a  day  more  all  the  notes.  If  I  were 
anxious  about  personal  reputation — which  I  trust  God  has  given 
me  grace  to  renounce — I  should  be  sorely  troubled  at  the  con- 
trast between  your  volume  and  mine.  I — poor  wretch — have 
been  living  in  crowds,  fighting  the  Tories,  fizzing  about  in 
connection  with  all  sorts  of  transient  movements,  while  you  have 
1  The  Congregational  Union  Lecture  for  1874. 


328  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

been  slowly  accumulating  your  wealth  and  making  it  your  own 
by  meditation.  But  I  have  some  hope  of  making  the  great 
truth  clearer  and  more  credible  to  some  minds.  Hand  and  foot, 
eye  and  ear,  brain  and  muscle — there  is  place  for  all  in  the  great 
body  of  Christ 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mackennal 

loth  November  1875. 

I  have  to  thank  you  for  your  very  kind  and  generous  notice 
of  my  lectures  in  the  Nonconformist  of  this  morning.  If  to  any 
minister  reading  the  book  it  brings  an  assurance — as  you  think 
it  may — that  the  Death  of  Christ  should  be  preached  as  the 
ground  of  human  forgiveness,  my  chief  object  in  writing  the 
book  will  be  accomplished.  The  development  of  the  theory  in 
the  last  two  lectures  was  to  myself  quite  a  subordinate  matter, 
though  I  thought  it  might  help  some  people. 

I  don't  quite  understand  as  yet  all  your  criticisms,  for  which  I 
am  not  less  grateful  than  for  the  earlier  part  of  the  notice,  but  I 
shall  think  them  over.  It  was  a  relief  to  me  to  find  that  you 
did  not  raise  the  objection  which  was  urged  against  my  position 
the  other  day  by  a  man  for  whose  judgment  I  have  a  great 
respect.  He  said  that  he  understood  me  to  deny  that  the 
Death  of  Christ  had  any  value  as  a  Divine  appeal  to  the  human 
heart — that  I  was  hostile  to  the  idea  that  it  has  a  great  function 
in  assuring  us  of  the  Divine  love.  Because  I  maintained  that  it 
is  not  only  this,  he  supposed  that  I  considered  that,  it  is  not  this 
at  all.  I  thought  that  I  had  put  the  case  so  far  as  this  point 
was  concerned  clearly  enough  at  starting,  though  on  reflection 
I  was  obliged  to  acknowledge  that,  as  it  never  occurred  to  me 
that  any  one  could  imagine  that  I  denied  its  moral  power,  I 
might  possibly  have  omitted  to  say  distinctly  enough  that  I 
recognised  it.1 

To  the  Rev.  Canon  Bright 

2 6th  March  1877. 

You  have  laid  me  under  a  great  obligation  by  your  kind  and 
generous  letter.  I  have  attempted  many  things,  but  next  to  my 
work  in  my  own  congregation,  the  lectures  on  the  Atonement 
have  occasioned  me  greater  anxiety  than  anything  else  that  I 
have  ever  done.     To  touch  any  of  the  central  doctrines  of  the 

1  Dale  dealt  with  this  misconception  in  the  Preface  to  the  Seventh  Edition 
of  The  Atonement,  pD.  xlv-lv. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  329 

Christian  Faith  is  to  incur  the  gravest  responsibility,  and  just 
now  the  tendencies  of  theological  thought  in  this  country  make 
it  exceptionally  perilous  to  venture  upon  an  exposition  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Atonement. 

The  incessant  claims  of  a  large  congregation,  to  say  nothing 
of  public  work  of  other  kinds,  have  left  me  but  little  leisure  for 
the  wide  reading  and  persistent  meditation  which  a  task  of  this 
magnitude  required.  But  I  thought  that  I  might  do  something 
for  those  whose  lives  are  as  restless  and  disturbed  as  mine  has 
been.  To  receive  the  assurance  of  a  man  like  yourself  that  I 
have  not  injured  the  truth  I  was  anxious  to  maintain  is  a  great 
solace  and  encouragement  to  me.  Nonconformist  and  Puritan 
as  I  am,  I  can  appreciate  the  impulse  which  led  you  to  write  to 
me  as  Passion  week  was  coming  near.  I  never  go  into  the 
pulpit  on  Easter  morning  without  being  thrilled  by  the  remem- 
brance that  all  Western  Christendom  is  exulting  and  triumphing 
in  the  Resurrection  of  our  Lord.  In  the  presence  of  the  Cross 
and  the  open  Sepulchre  all  the  differences  which  separate  those 
who  are  conscious  of  having  been  redeemed  through  Christ  are 
forgotten. 

With  the  religious  movement  that  attracted  much 
attention  during  the  years  1875-6  —  the  movement  for 
deepening  the  spiritual  life — Dale  did  not  associate  him- 
self. He  was  not  present  at  any  of  the  great  conventions 
held  at  Brighton,  Oxford,  and  elsewhere,  though  he 
followed  their  proceedings  with  vigilant  interest.  In  the 
utterances  of  those  who  took  part  in  the  meetings  there 
was  much  by  which  he  was  repelled,  much  that  he  could 
not  but  condemn.  The  unsound  and  uncritical  use  of 
Scripture,  the  passion  for  allegory  by  which  the  plain 
sense  of  the  Bible  was  distorted  with  an  ingenuity  worthy 
of  the  Alexandrian  commentators,  he  regarded  as  destruc- 
tive of  intellectual  integrity  ;  the  incessant  use  of  luscious 
and  sensuous  imagery  derived  from  the  language  of  human 
passion  seemed  to  him  fraught  with  the  gravest  moral 
peril.  But  he  refused  to  join  in  unqualified  censure  of  the 
movement  and  its  leaders.  He  was  not  prepared  to 
reject  the  testimony  of  those  who  asserted  that  through 
the  influence  of  what  they  had  heard  or  read  they  had 
attained  a  freedom  and  a  strength  which  they  had  never 
known  before.      It  seemed  to  him  difficult  to  resist  the 


33Q  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

conclusion  that  at  these  meetings  there  must  have  been 
taught  some  great  truth,  or  some  aspect  of  a  great  truth, 
the  power  of  which  was  too  divine  to  be  impaired  by  the 
extravagance  and  the  imperfection  of  the  manner  in  which 
it  was  often  expressed  and  illustrated. 

But  some  of  the  teaching  identified  with  the  movement, 
though  not  endorsed  by  all  its  exponents,  he  rejected 
without  hesitation.  The  doctrine  of  "  Sinless  Perfection  " 
he  believed  to  be  indefensible.  Those  who  asserted  with 
confidence  that  they  had  been  delivered  from  the  power  of 
evil  did  not  venture  to  claim  a  complete  and  perfect 
knowledge  of  moral  duty  ;  they  admitted  that  unattained 
heights  of  spiritual  achievement  still  lay  before  them. 
But  while  a  man  is  still  liable  to  sin  through  ignorance, 
how  can  he  be  accounted  perfect  ?  And  so  long  as 
growth  in  grace  remains  possible,  how  can  it  be  deter- 
mined what  measure  of  defect  involves  no  guilt  ?  The 
doctrine  of  "  Entire  Consecration  "  was  less  open  to  objec- 
tion ;  but  when  closely  examined  it  proved  unsatisfactory. 
The  movement — so  it  appeared  to  Dale — had  prophets, 
but  had  not  teachers.  Those  who  undertook  to  set  forth 
its  principles  comprehended  inadequately  the  moral 
authority  of  Christ.  Their  conception  of  moral  obedience 
and  of  the  necessity  of  knowledge  was  superficial.  They 
seemed  indifferent  about  instruction  in  righteousness,  and 
their  whole  strength  was  devoted  to  the  illustration  not  of 
the  Divine  laws,  but  of  the  Divine  promises.1 

Yet  notwithstanding  these  and  other  defects,  they  had 
rendered  a  real  service  to  the  Christian  Church — so  Dale 
held — by  declaring  that  those  whom  Christ  has  redeemed 
are  called  to  be  saints,  and  that  holiness  even  in  this  life 
is  possible  to  the  believer  through  the  sanctifying  power 
of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

To  pass  from  the  Atonement  and  Justification  by 
Faith  to  Sanctification  by  Faith  was  a  natural  sequence. 
The  subject  took  possession  of  him,  and  during  1876  the 
doctrine  held  a  conspicuous  place  in  his  preaching.  He 
also  wrote  a  series  of  articles  for  the  Congregationalist,  in 

1  The  Congregationalist,  vol.  v.  p.  585. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  331 

which  he  not  only  dealt  with  the  doctrine  of  Sanctification, 
but  also  attempted  to  enlarge  and  to  ennoble  the  prevail- 
ing conception  of  Christian  holiness.1  It  was  in  his  mind 
to  reprint  these  articles  in  a  more  permanent  form,  and  he 
went  so  far  as  to  revise  most  of  them,  making  large 
additions  to  the  original  material  ;  but  the  plan  was  sub- 
sequently abandoned  for  the  reasons  given  in  the  following 
letter : — 

To  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Figgis 

1st  May  1882. 

As  to  your  suggestion  that  I  should  write  a  book  on  Sancti- 
fication— I  will  think  of  it ;  life  is  short.  I  cut  out  the  Con- 
gregationalist  articles,  thinking  it  possible  that  some  day  I  might 
reprint  them;  here  they  are,  lying  untouched  in  my  drawer. 
And  it  seems  to  me  that  the  subject  is  of  a  kind  to  require  the 
history  of  a  whole  life  as  a  preparation  for  illustrating  it.  I  was 
a  mystic  early,  but  do  not  think  that  I  touched  the  idea  of  true 
Christian  mysticism  till  comparatively  recent  years,  though  I  was 
feeling  after  it  for  a  long  time. 

In  some  lectures  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  which  I 
hope  to  publish  in  the  autumn,  there  will  be  something  in  the 
direction  of  this  discussion.  I  am  not  sure  whether  a  higher 
conception  of  Christian  Ethics  is  not  necessary  before  the  Church 
can  grasp  the  truth  that  Christian  righteousness  is  Christ's 
righteousness.  I  am  trying  in  Good  Words  to  treat  Ethics  on 
Christian  principles,  and  shall  probably  bring  the  articles  together 
in  a  book  by  and  by.2 

By  this  time  Dale  was  well  known  in  the  United 
States.  Ministers  of  all  churches  had  read  his  books  and 
his  magazine  articles.  Many  of  them  when  visiting  Eng- 
land had  heard  him  preach.  With  some  he  had  formed 
ties  of  personal  friendship.  He  had  often  been  urged  to 
visit  America,  and  he  would  certainly  have  done  so  but 
for  the  difficulty  of  leaving  his  work  during  the  busy 
months  of  the  year.  But  in  1877  he  received  an  invita- 
tion that  he  could  not  decline.  The  Theological  Faculty 
of  the  University  of  Yale  requested  him  to  lecture  to  their 

1  The  Congregationalist,  February  to  December,  1S76. 
2   Hie  Laws  of  Christ  for  Common  Life,  1884. 


332  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

students  on  preaching.  The  Chair  to  which  he  was  ap- 
pointed had  been  founded  in  memory  of  Dr.  Lyman 
Beecher,  one  of  the  most  eminent  Congregationalists  of  an 
earlier  generation.  It  had  been  filled  by  several  illustrious 
Americans,  but  Dale  was  the  first  Englishman  who  had  been 
invited  to  lecture.  The  compliment  was  signal  ;  the  sub- 
ject was  one  in  which  he  was  keenly  interested,  and  about 
which  he  had  much  to  say.  With  habitual  generosity, 
his  church  put  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  acceptance.  He 
undertook  the  duties  of  the  lectureship,  and  sailed  from 
Liverpool  on  ist  September,  with  Mr.  Henry  Lee — his 
fellow-traveller  in  the  East — as  his  companion. 

It  had  been  arranged  that  he  should  lecture  on  the 
Thursday  and  Friday  of  each  week,  and  that  the  course 
should  not  begin  until  iith  October,  so  leaving  him  a 
clear  month  after  his  arrival  for  seeing  the  country,  and 
also  enabling  him  to  make  excursions  and  to  undertake 
engagements  in  the  intervals  between  his  lectures. 
Though  the  time  was  short,  and  notwithstanding  the 
intense  heat  that  prevailed  during  September  of  that  year, 
he  was  able  to  cover  a  good  deal  of  ground.  From  New 
York  he  went  northwards  to  Toronto,  Ottawa,  Montreal, 
and  Quebec  ;  thence  to  St.  Louis  and  Chicago,  and  on- 
wards to  Richmond,  Washington,  Baltimore,  and  Phila- 
delphia. Boston  he  was  able  to  visit  from  New  Haven, 
the  city  in  which  the  University  of  Yale  is  situated. 
Much  of  his  time  he  spent  in  the  schools  and  colleges, 
examining  the  American  system  of  education  with  the 
insight  and  the  interest  of  one  who  had  to  deal  with 
similar  problems,  though  under  somewhat  different  condi- 
tions. But  he  saw  a  good  deal  of  American  society  from 
the  inside,  and  came  into  contact  with  all  sorts  of  people. 
Wherever  he  went  he  was  received  with  overwhelming 
kindness.  Busy  men  on  whom  he  had  no  sort  of  claim 
gave  up  hours  of  their  time  to  serve  him,  and  they 
doubled  the  debt  by  taking  him  to  see  what  he  wished  to 
see,  and  not  what  they  would  have  liked  to  show  him. 
Invitations  to  preach,  to  speak,  to  lecture,  poured  in  upon 
him,  as   soon  as  it  was  known  that  he  was  in  the  country. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  333 

If  he  had  accepted  half  of  them,  he  would  have  been  there 
for  a  twelvemonth. 

A  few  extracts  from  his  letters  will  show  the  kind  of 
impression  that  his  various  experiences  left  upon  him. 

To  his  Wife 

Chicago,  2.7th  September  1877. 

We  left  Montreal  about  nine  o'clock  on  Monday  by  rail. 
About  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  reached  Ottawa.  The 
ride  during  the  last  sixty  miles  was  remarkably  interesting.  The 
old  settlements  lie  along  the  St.  Lawrence.  Ottawa  is  more  in 
the  interior,  and  the  country  about  it  has  been  comparatively 
recently  opened.  We  saw  every  stage  of  the  process  of  "  settling  " : 
the  forest  untouched  by  the  axe,  and  standing  as  it  has  stood  for 
thousands  of  years  ;  then  the  first  signs  of  change — the  tall  trees 
felled  and  lying  among  the  brushwood ;  then  the  fires  blazing 
which  are  lit  to  destroy  the  brushwood  ;  then  large  plots  of  ground 
covered  with  burnt  wood,  the  stumps  of  the  big  trees  rising  above 
it  scarred  and  blackened  by  the  fire ;  then  fields  covered  with 
crops,  and  the  stumps  rising  among  the  Indian  corn ;  then  fields 
as  clean  as  in  England.  We  also  saw  the  log  hut  of  the  settler, 
and  sometimes  the  man  at  work  on  a  new  one,  and  the  gradual 
improvements  till  the  house  is  as  snug  as  a  house  at  home.  It 
was  very  striking,  and — what  perhaps,  was  most  striking  of  all — 
after  passing  through  this  country  for  several  hours,  we  suddenly 
saw  the  towers  of  the  great  Government  Buildings  at  Ottawa 
rising  above  the  trees.     It  looked  like  a  dream. 

Philadelphia,  $t/i  October  1877. 

We  have  had  a  very  interesting  day.  The  Secretary  of  the 
Education  Board  came  at  8.30  with  a  carriage  and  pair  and 
drove  us  off  to  the  Girls'  Normal  School.  The  reception 
"  parlours  "  are  large  handsome  rooms,  and  here  we  were  intro- 
duced to  the  Principal  (a  gentleman),  and  to  the  Vice-Principal 
(a  lady),  the  Chairman  of  the  Board  who  had  come  to  meet  us, 
and  also  a  member  of  the  Board.  At  nine  o'clock  we  went  into 
the  great  hall.  Here  were  900  girls  between  fifteen  and  twenty- 
one,  or  a  little  older,  and  350  children,  also  girls,  belonging  to 
the  primary  and  grammar  school  which  is  held  in  the  same 
building.  Ten  verses  of  the  Bible  were  read  by  all  the  girls 
together ;  then  a  hymn  was  sung ;  then  three  of  the  girls, 
according  to  their  invariable  custom,  gave  recitations.  After 
this,  without  any  notice,  the  Principal  announced  that  there  was 


334  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

a  distinguished  visitor,  etc.  The  girls  rose  and  bowed  to  me, 
and  I  found  that  I  was  in  for  a  speech.  After  me  followed  the 
Chairman.  Then  the  girls  filed  out,  and  we  went  over  the 
school.  The  fittings  are  beautiful.  In  the  class-rooms  each 
girl  has  a  separate  desk  of  walnut-wood  with  white  metal  fittings 
— almost  as  good  as  a  devonport.  The  teaching  was  excellent. 
We  heard  lessons  in  history,  literature,  and  arithmetic. 

On  Saturday  morning,  the  Chairman  of  the  Education  Com- 
missioners called  for  us  again  with  the  Secretary  and  drove  us 
about  the  city.  We  went  'to  Independence  Hall,  where  Con- 
gress met  to  proclaim  the  Independence  of  the  States  in  1776; 
to  the  new  city  buildings,  the  Courts,  the  office  of  the  Public 
Ledger  newspaper,  and  to  an  extraordinary  dry-goods  store  kept 
by  a  Mr.  Wanamaker.1  Moody,  when  he  was  in  Philadelphia, 
had  an  old  railway  station  fitted  up  for  his  services — an  immense 
building  of  glass  and  iron.  When  the  services  were  over,  Wana- 
maker bought  it  for  a  store.  It  is  quite  a  unique  place,  and  you 
can  buy  nearly  everything — dresses,  linen,  ribbons,  stationery, 
and  I  do  not  know  what  besides.  Wanamaker  is  quite  a  young 
man,  and  the  Chairman  of  the  Education  Commissioners,  who 
was  anxious  to  introduce  me  to  everybody,  took  me  to  him.  In 
introducing  me  he  said,  "  Dr.  Dale — Manchester  or  Birmingham?" 
"Why,"  said  Wanamaker,  "Dr.  Dale!  I  can  locate  him:  it  is 
Birmingham.  Moody  was  talking  to  me  about  you  at  breakfast 
at  my  house  last  week."  He  was  very  cordial.  He  was  very 
eager  for  me  to  go  down  to  Philadelphia  to  preach. 

There  were  about  a  dozen  gentlemen  at  Dr.  Wallace's — 
medical  men  and  professors  and  lawyers  and  Episcopal  clergymen. 
Such  a  set  of  Tories  I  have  not  been  among  for  years.  They 
are  afraid  that  the  Common  School  system  is  educating  the 
people  too  much  ;  and  one  gentleman  hoped  that  America  might 
be  a  monarchy  fifty  years  hence.  They  were  all  eminent  men 
in  their  way,  and  hated  the  trouble  of  looking  after  their  political 
affairs.  I  had  to  fight  for  American  institutions  as  hard  as  if  I 
had  been  in  the  smoke-room  of  the  Carlton  Club,  and  I  de- 
nounced their  neglect  of  political  duty — denounced  them,  too, 
for  grumbling  at  the  way  things  are  done  when  they  refuse  to 
take  their  fair  share  in  getting  them  done  better. 

New  York,  2>tk  October  1877. 

We  then  went  to  a  primary  school — a  picked  one — which 
utterly  confounded  me.  I  never  saw  anything  like  it  or  anything 
approaching  to  it.     The  vehement  promptness  and  preternatural 

1  Since  Postmaster  in  the  U.S.  Administration. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  335 

precision  of  the  children  were  positively  alarming.  They  shot 
out  their  answers  like  bullets  from  a  rifle  the  moment  the  trigger 
was  touched.  The  precocity  of  the  poor  little  creatures  seemed 
to  me  ominous.  Every  child  seemed  to  me  to  have  been  worked 
up  to  the  highest  possible  pressure.  They  were  trained  to  jump 
up  when  they  answered  and  to  shout  their  reply,  and  to  resume 
their  seat  like  lightning.  I  told  the  mistress  that  in  England 
the  Inspector  would  report  that  the  children  were  impertinent  in 
manner  and  screamed,  and  that  if  the  faults  were  not  corrected 
the  school  would  be  fined  ^10  or  ^£20  of  the  grant.  She  could 
not  understand  it.  Their  quickness  and  vehemence  was,  she 
said,  "  New  York  life."  I  tried  one  of  the  classes  with  a  reading 
lesson  which  they  had  not  seen  ;  they  read  it  with  marvellous 
expression. 

Bridgport,  Connecticut,  \yk  October  1877. 

The  parsonage  is  a  charming  wooden  house ;  you  would  be 
delighted  with  it.  Congregationalism,  you  remember,  was  the 
established  religion  here  in  Connecticut  till  1818,  and  it  seems 
very  odd  to  find  that  the  Congregational  chapel  is  still  described 
as  the  parish  church,  and  to  see  on  all  hands  that  the  Congrega- 
tional minister  occupies  the  same  sort  of  social  position  as  the 
parish  rector  in  England. 

At  Yale  it  would  be  hard  to  say  whether  Dale  was 
more  charmed  by  the  place  or  by  the  people.  New 
Haven  itself  is  a  manufacturing  town,  with  a  population 
of  not  much  less  than  1 00,000.  But  in  that  quarter  of  it 
where  the  university  buildings  are  situated,  and  the  homes 
of  the  professors,  there  is  nothing  to  disturb  the  peace  or 
to  mar  the  beauty.  Spacious  avenues,  majestic  elms, 
houses  that  are  secluded  but  not  solitary,  invested  with 
the  dignity  of  age,  contrast  strangely  with  the  architecture 
and  the  surroundings  of  more  modern  cities.  It  is  a  place 
of  traditions,  but  tradition  has  never  been  allowed  to  hinder 
progress  or  to  strangle  growth.  Among  the  men  with 
whom  Dale  was  brought  into  close  contact  were  Dr. 
Noah  Porter,  then  President  of  the  University  ;  Dr.  Fisher, 
the  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  ;  and  Principal 
Dwight,  the  head  of  the  Theological  Faculty  ;  all  men  ol 
eminence  and  power  whose  friendship  he  never  ceased  to 
treasure. 


336  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Gladstone,1  Dale  gives  an  account  of 
the  college  and  its  character  : — 


To  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone 

l^th  January  1878. 

Yale  is  one  of  the  oldest  colleges  in  the  United  States.  It 
was  founded  early  in  the  last  century,  and  bears  the  name  of  a 
Governor  of  Madras  who  devoted  a  considerable  sum  of  money 
to  the  founding  of  the  college.  Bishop  Berkeley  was  interested 
in  it,  and  gave  it  the  whole  or  part  of  his  library.  It  has  always 
stood  in  the  front  rank  of  American  collegiate  institutions,  con- 
testing the  primacy  with  Harvard.  At  Harvard,  I  think,  Yale 
would  concede  that  there  is  a  richer  variety  of  culture  ;  but  on 
the  other  hand  it  is  my  impression  that  at  Yale  there  is  a  graver 
earnestness — political  and  religious.  At  present,  Yale  has  the 
larger  number  of  undergraduates,  1100,  to  about  800  or  900  at 
Harvard.  I  am  not  sure  whether  your  interest  in  Yale  will  be 
increased  if  I  add  that  educationally  as  well  as  religiously  Yale 
is  more  conservative  than  Harvard.  And  yet  the  modern 
subjects  are  not  neglected.  It  has  a  strong  Scientific  School, 
and  an  Art  School  which  is  gradually  making  its  way.  .  .  .  You 
would,  I  think,  be  interested  in  the  life  that  you  would  see  in 
New  England— so  like  and  yet  so  unlike  our  own.  One  element 
of  interest  which  greatly  attracted  me,  would  indeed  have  less  of 
special  attraction  for  you :  to  me  it  was  very  curious  to  find  my- 
self among  Congregationalists,  some  of  whom  could  remember 
the  time  when  Congregationalism  was  the  established  church  of 
the  State.  There  is  a  permanent  memorial  of  this  in  the  con- 
stitution of  the  governing  body  of  Yale.  The  Governor  of  the 
State  is  one  of  the  ex-officio  members  of  the  College  Corporation, 
and  it  is  provided  that  ten  of  the  members  of  the  Corporation 
shall  always  be  Congregational  ministers  belonging  to  the  State 
of  Connecticut.  Among  the  undergraduates  I  am  told  that  there 
are  the  members  of  all  Protestant  Churches. 

His  lectures  were  a  pleasure  rather  than  a  task  ;  no 
mischance,  no  failure  of  health,  impaired  their  success. 
He  preached  in  the  college  chapel  "  to  the  young  men  " — 

1  The  President  and  the  Corporation  of  Yale  had  set  their  hearts  on 
inducing  Mr.  Gladstone  to  attend  their  college  "Commencement."  Dale 
was  asked  and  undertook  to  plead  their  cause.  But  for  Mr.  Gladstone  the 
time  was  one  of  great  anxiety.  We  seemed  on  the  verge  of  war  with  Russia. 
The  war  fever  was  then  at  its  height ;  and  this,  apart  from  other  difficulties, 
stood  in  the  way  of  his  acceptance. 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  337 

the  kind  of  audience  in  which  he  most  delighted,  and  to 
which  he  could  appeal  with  all  his  strength.  At  a  meet- 
ing of  a  university  club  to  which  he  was  invited,  he  spoke 
at  length  on  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  England,  and  stated 
the  case  for  church  disestablishment.  Elsewhere  he  had 
steadily  refused  to  lecture  on  political  questions,  but  at 
New  Haven  he  was  induced  by  persistent  pressure  to  break 
through  his  rule,  and  to  deliver  an  address  on  British 
politics.  Those  who  heard  him  on  that  occasion,  in 
recalling  the  incidents  of  his  visit,  never  fail  to  refer  to  the 
effect  that  he  produced  on  an  intellectual  and  critical 
audience  drawn  from  the  society  of  a  New  England 
university  town.  Mr.  A.  R.  Kimball,  who  was  at  that 
time  a  student  at  Yale,  gives  a  vivid  account  of  the 
impression  still  left  on  his  memory  after  an  interval  of 
many  years  : — 

At  the  start-off  the  doctor,  who  spoke  without  notes,  had  the 
greatest  possible  trouble  to  command  the  words  he  wanted.  He 
hemmed  and  hawed  and  "  ahed,"  and  floundered  in  the  most 
approved  English  fashion.  It  seemed  for  a  time  as  if  we  were 
not  destined  to  learn  anything  of  moment  in  regard  to  English 
institutions,  so  indistinguishable  and  disjointed  was  the  doctor's 
rhetoric.  But  soon  we  saw  a  miracle  wrought  before  our  eyes. 
So  intense  was  the  earnestness  of  the  man,  so  supreme  was  his 
interest  in  his  subject,  that  his  intellect,  all  on  fire,  compelled 
his  halting  tongue  to  do  its  work.  The  language  soon  rolled  out 
in  a  volume  and  power  that  was  absolutely  astonishing.  Apt 
description  and  eloquent  appeal  followed  each  other  in  swift 
succession.  It  was  a  torrent  of  eloquence  that  had  forced  its 
way  over  the  obstructions  of  a  hesitating  manner  and  a  natural 
slowness  of  utterance.  It  was  a  wonderful  triumph  of  mind  over 
matter. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  give  any  account  of  the  lecture.  That 
would  be  impossible.  But  I  shall  never  forget  the  scorn  with 
which,  to  illustrate  some  point,  he  used  the  offer  of  the  photo- 
grapher to  "take  your  picture  with  Niagara  Falls  for  a  back- 
ground." His  contempt  for  the  supreme  conceit  of  such  an 
offer  is  typical,  as  he  used  it,  of  the  tone  of  the  address. 

When  he  closed,  after  talking  steadily  for  more  than  two 
hours,  his  audience  refused  to  go.  They  sat  in  their  seats  and 
applauded,  and  applauded  again.  Those  coldly  critical,  intellec- 
tual people  were  seized  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  an  audience 
z 


338  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

at  an  opera  after  the  rendering  of  some  wonderful  passage  by  a 
prima  donna.  Dr.  Dale  rose  and  bowed,  but  the  audience  still 
kept  their  seats  and  continued  the  applause.  They  must  and 
would  hear  him  further.  So,  perhaps  after  five  or  ten  minutes 
of  uninterrupted  applause,  Dr.  Dale  responded  to  the  encore, 
and  a  most  fitting  response  it  was.  Greatly  overcome  by  this 
remarkable  demonstration,  he  began  by  saying  that  he  could  not, 
he  feared,  have  hoped  to  receive  it,  had  his  subject  been 
"America  and  American  Institutions."  He  then  begged  of  us 
in  the  name  of  liberalism  the  world  over  to  be  true  to  our 
institutions.  A  blow  struck  at  liberty  in  America  was  a  blow 
felt  wherever  men  were  struggling  in  behalf  of  popular  rights  and 
popular  liberty  That  was  the  responsibility  laid  upon  us  by 
God  when  He  placed  our  America  in  the  van  of  progress,  and  it 
was  a  responsibility,  he  feared,  which  at  times  we  as  a  people 
failed  to  appreciate  at  its  full  significance. 

Again  arose  a  great  volume  of  applause  as  Dr.  Dale  once 
more  sat  down.  Slowly  and  reluctantly  the  audience  left  the 
church.  The  remembrance  of  it  all  is  as  fresh  in  my  mind 
to-day  as  on  the  evening  when  I  walked  along  the  dark  and 
shadowed  Green,  and  talked  it  over  so  excitedly  with  a  friend. 

The  hesitation  to  which  Mr.  Kimball  refers  was 
certainly  not  due  to  "  natural  slowness  of  utterance,"  but 
to  the  fact  that  the  lecture  was  delivered  at  short  notice 
and  without  elaborate  preparation.  A  few  brief  notes, 
hardly  legible,  and  filling  three  or  four  pages  in  a 
small  note-book,  were  all  that  the  lecturer  had  to  guide 
him.  Nor  does  Mr.  Kimball  fully  reproduce  the  tenor  of 
what  we  may  call  the  postscript  of  the  lecture.  Not  at 
Philadelphia  only,  but  in  other  cities  also,  Dale  had  been 
startled  and  dismayed  by  the  political  apathy  which  he 
had  met  with  among  men  whose  ability  and  position 
marked  them  out  for  leadership.  It  had  shocked  him  to 
find  that  in  the  very  home  of  democracy,  among  a  people 
that  had  recoiled  from  no  sacrifice  to  maintain  the  Union 
unbroken,  the  principles  which  are  the  only  sure  foundation 
of  social  security  were  so  widely  disregarded  or  disdained. 
The  City,  the  State,  the  Republic,  he  heard,  were  tainted  by 
political  corruption.  Men  spoke  of  it  with  disgust  and 
contempt.  But  it  was  cheaper  to  tolerate  corruption 
than  to  suppress  it ;  and  the   rich  would   not   put   public 


FROM  EAST  TO  WEST  339 

duty  before  wealth,  while  the  cultured  would  not  give  up 
their  ease  to  undertake  a  distasteful  task.  And  so  in  the 
United  States,  Dale  said,  "  The  rogues  do  public  work  in 
order  to  make  money,  and  the  honest  men  neglect  public 
work  in  order  to  save  money.  Judged  by  the  laws  of 
public  morality,  there  is  not  much  to  choose  between 
them."  In  his  address  at  New  Haven  he  preached  the 
doctrine  that  he  had  preached  for  so  many  years  at  home, 
and  with  the  fervour  of  life-long  conviction  he  vindicated 
the  claims  of  public  duty  on  the  individual  citizen. 

When  the  visit  was  over,  Dale  did  not  lose  touch  with 
his  friends  at  New  Haven.  His  help  and  advice  were  con- 
stantly sought  both  in  securing  successors  in  the  Chair 
that  he  had  held,  and  in  other  matters  also.  He  tried  in 
vain  to  persuade  Mr.  Spurgeon  and  Dr.  Maclaren  to 
undertake  the  task.  Mr.  Spurgeon's  reply  was  character- 
istic. After  stating  various  difficulties  that  stood  in  the 
way,  he  added — "  I  sit  on  my  own  gate,  and  whistle  my 
own  tunes,  and  am  quite  content."  At  Athens,  in  the 
days  of  its  glory,  a  foreign  State  or  city  of  importance 
was  accustomed  to  have  an  unofficial  representative — its 
Proxenos — who  could  be  consulted  in  case  of  need,  through 
whom  business  could  be  transacted,  and  who  could  be 
relied  on  to  show  hospitality  to  visitors  coming  from  the 
place  with  which  he  was  associated.  For  the  rest  of  his 
life  Dale  may  be  said  to  have  been  a  Proxenos  of  Yale, 
and  he  was  proud  of  the  position. 

His  lectures,  when  published,  were  favourably  received. 
Canon  Liddon,  who  had  made  a  lifelong  study  of  the 
science  of  preaching,  was  most  cordial  in  his  praise  ;  and 
it  may  be  doubted  whether  any  other  of  Dale's  books  has 
been  read  with  equal  appreciation  by  men  of  so  many 
theological  schools.  The  lectures — not  without  reason — 
have  been  described  as  a  "  self-revealing "  book  ;  and  a 
stranger,  unacquainted  with  Dale's  history,  would  certainly 
learn  more  about  him  there  than  in  his  other  writings. 
For  although  his  spiritual  and  intellectual  experiences  are 
wrought  into  the  very  substance  of  all  his  works,  he  seldom 
refers  expressly  to  his  own  doings  or  feelings  :   the  personal 


340  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

note  is  rarely  heard.  Those  who  knew  him  well  could  often 
discern  when  he  was  drawing  on  his  past  for  warning  or 
for  encouragement,  although  to  others  the  words  would 
convey  no  such  suggestion.  But  here,  speaking  to 
younger  men,  and  on  a  subject  that  gave  him  a  right  to 
speak  for  himself  and  of  himself,  he  was  less  rigorous 
in  self-repression.  "  I  have  tried  to  hit  hardest,"  he  said, 
"  at  the  evils  which  have  lessened  the  power  of  my  own 
ministry."  He  was  as  good  as  his  word ;  and  if  he  does 
not  spare  others  he  does  not  spare  himself.  Whether  it 
is  of  desultory  habits  in  study  that  he  is  speaking,  or  of 
the  intolerant  temper  of  young  ministers,  or  of  other 
defects  by  which  the  power  of  the  preacher  is  maimed 
and  paralysed,  he  makes  his  own  shortcomings  serve  him 
for  warning  and  for  rebuke.  And  on  the  other  hand,  it 
is  the  methods  that  had  served  him  best  in  the  study  and 
in  the  pulpit — though  the  fact  is  not  obtruded — that  he 
describes  and  commends  for  imitation. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

CONGREGATIONAL    PRINCIPLES 

The  Leicester  Conference — Action  of  the  Congregational  Union — The  ' '  de- 
claration of  faith" — Dale  supports  the  Committee — The  conditions  of 
church  membership  —  Distress  at  Birmingham — A  hard  winter — The 
Wesleyan  Conference  at  Birmingham  :  Dale's  speech  on  the  class-meet- 
ing— The  Evangelical  Revival — The  defects  of  the  movement — Dean 
Church's  letter — Lectures  on  Nonconformist  history — A  campaign  for 
Congregationalism — The  ftlannal  of  Congregational  Principles — Attacked 
for  sacramental  theories — Defends  his  position — Sacramental  teaching — 
The  Lord's  Supper — A  return  to  earlier  Congregationalism  —  Baptism 
— The  Sacraments  and  church  membership — A  Nonconformist  High 
Churchman. 

The  period  of  Dale's  life  that  followed  immediately  on 
his  American  visit,  though  crowded  with  work,  is  com- 
paratively barren  of  incident.  Month  after  month,  year 
after  year,  he  was  living  at  high  pressure  ;  and  even  when 
he  lightened  the  burden  by  resigning  the  editorship  of  the 
Congregatioiialist  in  1878  and  by  retiring  from  the  Bir- 
mingham School  Board  in  1880,  the  relief,  though  material, 
was  not  adequate.  He  was  spending  his  strength  lavishly, 
as  if  its  resources  could  never  be  exhausted.  But  he  was 
mainly  occupied,  not  in  opening  up  new  ground,  not  in 
developing  new  lines  of  theological  speculation,  but  in 
spreading  abroad  among  the  churches  ideas  and  principles 
hy  which  his  mind  was  already  possessed.  The  main 
outline  of  his  thought  is  already  familiar ;  it  is  only 
here  and  there  that  a  fresh  landmark  emerges. 

While  he  was  in  America,  the  Congregational  Union 
was  agitated  by  a  serious  controversy.  During  its 
autumnal  session  at  Leicester,  in  1877,  some  of  its  mem- 
bers convened  an   unofficial   meeting  to  assert  the    prin- 


342  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

ciple  that  religious  communion  "  is  not  dependent  on 
agreement  in  theological,  critical,  or  historical  opinion." l 
The  meeting  was  declared  to  be  open  to  all  those  who 
valued  "  spiritual  religion," — an  indefinite  qualification 
which  gave  rise  to  much  discussion.  No  authoritative 
statement  was  made  to  explain  what  range  of  belief  the 
phrase  was  intended  to  cover.  But  it  was  noticed  that 
in  the  announcements  of  the  conference  the  word  "  Chris- 
tian "  was  studiously  avoided  ;  and  among  those  who 
attended  it  some  denied  our  Lord's  Incarnation  and 
Resurrection,  and  one,  if  not  more,  could  only  be  de- 
scribed as  a  theist.  The  conference  was  so  closely  associ- 
ated with  the  meetings  of  the  Union,  that  it  could  not  be 
ignored.  The  world  at  large  interpreted  it  as  indicating 
a  departure  even  from  Liberal  theology,  and  inferred,  not 
unnaturally,  that  the  leaders  of  the  movement  would  not 
so  boldly  have  courted  publicity  but  for  a  conviction  that 
they  had  a  considerable  following  among  the  churches 
with  which  they  were  identified. 

Whether  wisely  or  unwisely,  the  Committee  of  the  Union 
took  up  the  challenge.  If  they  had  not  moved,  they  knew 
that  the  issue  would  have  been  raised  by  others,  and  prob- 
ably in  such  a  way  as  to  push  matters  to  extremes.  They 
had  no  wish  to  drive  any  one  out  of  the  Union  who  desired 
to  remain  there.  All  they  aimed  at  was  to  make  it  clear 
that  Congregationalists  as  a  body  were  still  loyal  to  the 
fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Evangelical  Faith.  With 
this  end  in  view,  they  submitted  for  acceptance  by  the 
Assembly,  in  May  1878,  a  declaration  of  faith,  reasserting 
in  brief  the  principles  on  which  the  Union  had  been  origin- 
ally established,  and  affirming  its  adhesion  to  certain  great 
articles  of  the  Christian  Faith.  It  did  not  attempt  to 
impose  a  creed  upon  its  members — no  creed,  even  if 
adopted,  could  have  been  enforced,  as  each  church  was 
independent  of  any  external  control.      It  simply  stated  in 


1  The  object  was  otherwise  stated  to  be — "The  promotion  of  religious 
communion  in  worship  and  work  amongst  those  who,  while  retaining  their 
individual  beliefs,  agree  in  recognising  the  existence  of  spiritual  life  outside  the 
limits  of  their  own  creed." 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES  343 

general  terms  the  theological  position  of  those  who  com- 
posed the  Union,  and  so  cleared  itself  of  the  suspicion  in 
which  the  action  of  some  of  its  members  had  involved  it.1 

Dale  was  not  present  during  the  earlier  stages  of  the 
discussion,  but  after  his  return  he  vigorously  supported 
the  policy  of  the  Committee.  He  would  have  resented 
any  attempt  to  enforce  conditions  of  membership  by 
ordinance,  but  he  contended  that  the  Union  was  not  ex- 
ceeding its  rights  in  making  such  a  declaration  as  was 
proposed.  Its  annual  assemblies  were  constantly  passing 
resolutions  expressing  opinions  on  questions  of  various 
degrees  of  importance  ;  and  he  could  not  understand  on 
what  grounds  their  right  to  declare  their  position  in  re- 
lation to  questions  of  supreme  religious  interest  could  be 
impeached.  It  was  one  thing  to  come  together  and  say, 
"  This  is  what  we  believe " ;  and  another  thing  to  come 
together  and  say  to  other  people,  "  This  is  what  you  must 
believe." 2 

In  the  following  letter  he  takes  up  this  ground,  though 
at  the  same  time  it  is  clear  that  he  would  have  welcomed 
the  withdrawal  from  the  Union  of  those  whom  he  regarded 
as  alien  in  spirit  to  the  true  genius  of  Congregationalism  ; 
but  if  they  went,  they  must  go  of  their  own  accord. 

To  Mr.  Henry  Lee 

4ik  February  1878. 

About  the  other  question  which  you  raise  I  wish  I  could  have 
a  talk  with  you.  I  do  not  understand  that  the  Committee  pro- 
pose any  Test  to  be  applied  to  all  who  join  the  Union,  but  simply 
a  Declaration  of  what  the  actual  position  of  the  present  members 
of  the  Union  is  on  certain  great  questions.  The  original  "  De- 
claration " 3  was  not  a  Test  or  a  Creed,  and  the  framers  of  it 

1  Among  the  facts  and  doctrines  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  assembly,  were 
regarded  as  an.  essential  condition  of  religious  communion  in  Congregational 
churches  were  included  "  The  Incarnation,  the  Atoning  sacrifice  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  His  Resurrection,  Ascension,  and  Mediatorial  reign,  and  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  renewal  of  men." 

2  Manual  of  Congregational  Principles,  bk.  iv.  chap.  iii.   1 . 

3  The  Declaration  of  1833.  One  of  the  "  Preliminary  Notes  "  states  : 
"  Disallowing  the  utility  of  creeds  and  articles  of  religion  as  a  bond  of  union, 
and  protesting  against  subscription  to  any  human  formularies  as  a  term  of 


344  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

distinctly  said  so.  No  doubt  the  moral  effect  of  the  new  Declar- 
ation would  be  to  drive  off  or  keep  off  those  who  are  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  central  elements  of  the  Evangelical  Faith ; 
and  for  my  part  I  do  not  see  what  end  is  to  be  answered  by  an 
association  of  men  who  are  not  committed  to  some  common 
belief.  It  is  alleged  that  we  have  in  the  Union  men  who  reject 
the  supernatural  altogether ;  if  the  Union  has  not  vitality  enough 
to  throw  off  men  of  this  kind,  the  sooner  it  is  dissolved  the 
better.  In  churches  and  in  unions  of  churches  I  think  that 
there  may  exist  very  wide  diversities  of  doctrinal  creed,  but  if 
the  diversities  are  so  wide  that  some  admit  and  some  deny  that 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Saviour  of 
mankind  I  am  puzzled  to  know  what  end  is  to  be  answered  by 
fellowship.     But  the  subject  is  too  large  for  a  letter. 

From  this  position  Dale  never  receded.  He  reasserted 
his  opinion  in  his  Manual  of  Congregational  Principles ; 
nor  did  he  refuse  to  act  upon  it  in  what  might  be  re- 
garded as  an  extreme  case — the  admission  of  Unitarians 
to  church  fellowship.  He  recognised  the  difficulty  involved 
in  admission,  but  he  held  that  the  very  desire  to  enter 
a  Congregational  church  implied  a  divergence  between 
intellectual  and  moral  conviction.  The  heart,  he  used  to 
say,  is  often  better  than  the  intellect.  His  friend,  Dr. 
Finlayson,  challenged  his  conclusions  ;  he  replied  as 
follows  : — 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Finlayson 

Malvern,  6th  Febrtiary  1S85. 

Solvitur  ambulando.  —  I  see,  of  course,  very  clearly  that  to 
acknowledge  frankly  that  what  seems  to  me  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  Congregationalism  requires  that  the  gates  of  the  Church 
should  be  open  to  a  Unitarian,  may  cover  our  theory  of  polity 
with  grave  suspicion  and  expose  it  to  dangerous  criticism.  It  is 
equally  true  that  a  theology  which  allows  that  there  may  be  a 
genuine  faith  in  Christ  and  hearty  loyalty  to  Him  where  His 
Divinity  is  denied  is  also  open  to  very  formidable  assault.  But 
those  who  hold  what  would  be  commonly  called  the  Broad 
theology — I  should  prefer  to  call  it  the  Deep  theology — are,  I 
think,  bound  to  accept  the  corresponding  polity. 

communion,  Congregationalists  are  yet  willing  to  declare,  for  general  informa- 
tion, what  is  commonly  believed  among  them,  reserving  to  every  one  the 
most  perfect  liberty  of  conscience." 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES  345 

Can  a  man  have  faith  in  Christ — the  faith  which  saves — and 
yet  deny  the  Divinity  of  His  Person  ?  You  say  Yes :  I  say  Yes. 
And  I  accept  the  logical  result  of  the  position  in  relation  to 
polity.  I  have  no  copy  of  the  Manual  here,  but  I  think  I  re- 
member a  passage,  which  I  suppose  is  the  one  to  which  you 
refer,  in  which  this  is  implicitly  admitted.1 

Those  who  deny  the  Divinity  of  our  Lord  while  holding  a 
spiritual  relationship  to  Him  which  can  find  no  intellectual 
justification  except  in  the  acknowledgment  of  His  Divinity,  are 
of  two  kinds.  First,  there  are  those  who  have  an  intellectual 
life  almost  as  vigorous  or  quite  as  vigorous  as  their  spiritual  and 
ethical  life.  .  .  .  Such  men  will  not,  cannot  ask  for  fellowship 
with  us.  Their  intellect  rises  in  sturdy  revolt  against  our  whole 
intellectual  account  of  our  Lord  and  His  work.  Secondly,  there 
are  those  who  have  an  inferior  degree  of  intellectual  vigour,  at 
least  in  the  theological  and  metaphysical  direction.  If  they  are 
not  alienated  from  us  by  our  speculative  conceptions  of  our 
Lord,  while  they  are  drawn  to  us  by  sympathy  with  our  spiritual 
conception  of  Him,  their  denial  of  His  Divinity  is  a  dead  and 
formal  denial.  As  I  should  not  admit  a  man  to  fellowship  on 
the  ground  of  a  dead  faith,  I  should  not  exclude  a  man  on  the 
ground  of  a  dead  unbelief;  and  I  should  expect  his  intellectual 
differences  from  us  to  melt  away  in  the  fires  of  our  common 
devotion  to  the  Lord.  I  should  think  it  probable  that  his 
denials  would  disappear  before  he  asked  for  fellowship,  though 
his  affirmations  might  not  come  till  later. 

I  am  not  disposed,  therefore,  to  give  any  advantage  to  those 
who  would  build  the  Church  on  a  Creed  instead  of  on  Christ 
by  discussing  publicly  the  question  whether  I  would  admit  a 
Unitarian  to  fellowship.  I  would  leave  them  to  their  own  light 
and  say,  solvitur  ambulando.  I  would  insist  that  they  have  no 
right  to  exclude  from  the  Church  any  that  are  in  Christ.  I 
would  leave  it  to  their  theology  to  determine  whether  any  that 
are  in  Christ  can  deny  that  He  is  Divine. 

But  while  the  controversy  in  the  Union  was  going  on, 
Dale's  mind  was  occupied  by  more  immediate  cares.  In 
Birmingham   the  winter  of   1877-8    was  a   time    of  such 

1  Probably  :  "  A  Christian  society  which  imposes  any  other  condition  of 
membership  than  faith  in  Christ  is  a  sect,  and  not,  in  the  highest  sense  of  the 
term,  a  Christian  church.  It  is  a  private  Christian  club.  It  receives  persons 
into  membership,  not  because  they  are  brethren  of  Christ,  but  because  they 
are  the  brethren  of  Christ  professing  certain  religious  opinions  or  observing 
certain  religious  practices.  .  .  .  It  is  a  society  not  for  all  Christians,  but  for 
a  particular  description  of  Christians.  It  is  a  sect — nof.  a  church  "  {Manual  cf 
Congregational  Principles,  bk-  i.  chap.  hi.  3). 


346  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

distress  as  had  not  been  known  there  for  very  many 
years  ;  and  the  energies  of  all  the  churches  were  engrossed 
by  the  work  of  relief.  Almost  every  letter  that  he  wrote 
during  those  weeks  reflects  the  shadow  by  which  the  town 
was  darkened.      One  will  suffice. 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

ird  January  187S. 

How  darkly  the  year  opens  !  We  are  fighting  with  starvation 
here,  and  at  present,  I  hope,  are  fighting  successfully.  Mrs. 
Dale  spends  a  great  deal  of  time  in  the  depths  of  the  town ; 
she  has  just  come  in  after  five  or  six  hours'  work,  and  seems  to 
have  a  keener  impression  of  the  distress  than  ever.  But  we  are 
incomparably  better  off  than  Manchester  or  Sheffield.  With  us 
the  distress  is  in  patches,  and  the  mass  of  the  decent  working 
people  are  holding  their  own.  The  labourers  and  the  very  poor, 
decent  and  not  decent,  have  given  way. 

For  several  months  in  succession  there  is  no  incident 
to  record.  But  in  the  summer  of  1879  Dale's  influence 
was  suddenly  enlarged.  In  July  and  August  the  Wesleyan 
Conference  met  at  Birmingham.  During  their  session 
they  received  an  address  of  welcome  from  the  Non- 
conformist churches  of  the  town.  It  was  drawn  up  by 
Dale,  and  he  was  one  of  the  deputation  appointed  to 
present  it.  At  this  time  he  was  conspicuous  as  a  political 
leader,  and  among  the  older  members  of  the  Conference 
there  was  no  small  alarm  lest,  by  unwise  words,  he  should 
divide  the  sympathies  of  the  assembly,  or  even  provoke 
a  hostile  demonstration.  Never  was  anticipation  so  com- 
pletely falsified  by  the  event.  The  Rev.  William  Arthur 
and  Dr.  Punshon  spoke  first,  acknowledging  the  courtesy 
that  had  been  shown  them.  Dale  followed.  He  took  as 
his  subject  the  services  that  Methodism  had  rendered  to 
Christianity  in  England,  and  enlarged  on  the  value  of 
some  of  its  characteristic  institutions.  Above  all  he 
admired  and  coveted  the  "  Class-meeting."  Indeed,  he 
said,  he  had  made  more  than  one  experiment  in  his  own 
church  to  secure  what  he  thought  might  be  a  preparation 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES  347 

for  such  an  institution.  "  You  have,"  he  continued,  "  an 
institution  amongst  you  of  which  you  are  in  some  sort 
trustees  ;  we  hold  you  responsible  for  preserving  in  its 
entirety  the  essential  principle  and  genius  of  this  institu- 
tion."     Then  he  struck  a  deeper  note. 

I  think  that  I  am  right  in  saying  that  the  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  had  a  position  in  John  Wesley's  teaching  more 
conspicuous  than  that  which  it  held  in  the  teaching  of  any  of 
his  contemporaries.  That  doctrine  assumed  among  you  many 
forms,  to  which  I  need  not  refer.  It  assumed  prominence  in 
connection  with  the  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection  and  com- 
plete sanctification — which  is  another,  let  me  say,  of  the  great 
truths  which  you  hold  in  trust  for  Christendom.  Now  how 
much  John  Wesley  did  for  you  and  for  us  by  that  part  of  his 
teaching  it  is  impossible  to  compute.  But  there  comes  into  my 
mind  a  characteristic  saying  of  Comte's,  that  the  doctrine  of 
inspiration  crosses  the  development  of  scientific  thought.  He 
says  that  it  is  quite  clear  that,  according  to  the  teaching  of  the 
founders  of  the  Christian  faith,  the  Divine  Spirit  rests  upon 
every  Christian  soul.  He  has  said  that  one  great  service  which 
the  Church  of  Rome  rendered  in  the  Middle  Ages  was  to  restrict 
the  area  of  inspiration  and  centre  it  in  the  Pope.  Brethren,  we 
have  to  undo  that  work,  and  to  assert  in  these  times  all  that  is 
meant  in  the  great  confession  of  the  old  creed,  "  I  believe  in 
the  Holy  Ghost." 

How  much  was  due  to  the  substance  of  the  speech, 
how  much  to  the  effect  of  contrast  between  expectation 
and  reality,  it  is  impossible  to  determine.  But  it  may  be 
said  without  fear  of  challenge  that  the  address  of  that 
morning  placed  Dale  in  an  entirely  new  light  before  the 
leaders  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  ;  that  from  that  day  they 
regarded  him  as  one  of  their  most  loyal  allies  ;  and  that 
for  many  years  there  was  no  man  outside  their  own  body 
who  was  held  in  greater  honour  by  all  sections  of  the 
Methodist  .community. 

Another  passage  in  his  speech,  of  a  less  serious  type, 
was  much  appreciated.  Expressing  his  regret  that  he 
had  known  so  little  of  the  Wesleyan  ministers  who  had 
passed  through  the  town  since  he  had  been  settled  there, 
and  with  a  side-thrust  at  their  system  of  itineracy,  which 


348  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

moves  a  man  to  a  new  post  at  least  once  in  three  years, 
he  said  that  he  could  only  plead  as  an  excuse  the  words 
of  the  text,  "  As  thy  servant  was  busy  here  and  there,  the 
man  was  gone."  1 

It  was  during  the  meetings  of  the  Conference  that  he 
preached  the  sermon  on  the  Evangelical  Revival,  which 
gives  both  keynote  and  title  to  the  volume  that  contains 
it.2  No  one  could  have  been  more  loyal  than  he  to 
the  central  truths  of  the  Evangelical  Faith  and  to  its 
traditions  ;  no  one  would  have  acknowledged  more  heartily 
the  value  of  the  work  accomplished  by  the  Revival  of  the 
previous  century.  Open  almost  any  of  his  books  at 
random  and  you  will  find  some  tribute,  direct  or  implied, 
to  the  service  it  has  rendered  to  the  religious  life  of  the 
nation.  But  long  before  this  time  he  had  come  to  feel 
that  the  Revival  was  incomplete  both  in  conception  and 
in  operation.  The  more  he  felt  that  it  had  done,  the 
more  he  was  conscious  that  it  had  left  undone.  Dis- 
satisfaction and  appreciation  developed  side  by  side. 
And  by  degrees  his  own  teaching  came  to  embody  the 
criticism  to  which  he  now  gave  formal  expression.  The 
shortcomings  to  which  he  drew  attention  were  pre- 
eminently those  which  he  had  endeavoured  to  remedy  and 
to  remove. 

Broadly  speaking,  he  held  the  Evangelical  Revival  to 
have  been  defective  in  two  directions — ecclesiastically  and 
ethically.  It  had  failed  to  assign  to  the  Church  its  due 
place  in  the  spiritual  life  ;  it  had  laid  the  whole  stress  on 
individualism,  disparaging  or  ignoring  the  function  of  an 
organised  religious  society  for  education  and  for  discipline. 
And  further,  the  movement  as  a  whole  had  been  so 
solicitous  for  man's  salvation  as  to  lose  sight  of  the 
necessity  of  his  perfection.  Too  little  thought  had  been 
given  to  character  and  conduct.  In  their  conceptions  of 
duty  the  Evangelical   leaders  had  been   narrow  and  con- 


1  I  Kings  xx.  40. 

2  The  Evangelical  Revival  and  other  Sermons:  with  an  Address  on  the 
Work  of  the  Christian  Ministry  in  a  Period  of  Theological  Decay  and 
Transition,  1 880. 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES  349 

ventional.  At  points  the  conscience  had  been  trained  to 
an  artificial  sensitiveness,  but  without  extending  its  range 
or  ennobling  its  authority.  The  Revival  had  produced 
a  great  reformation  in  morals — it  had  not  produced  a 
new  morality.  In  Dale's  opinion  it  had  helped  to  lead 
Congregationalism,  with  other  churches,  into  a  wrong 
path. 

The  Evangelical  Revival  of  the  last  century,  while  it  conferred 
on  Congregational  churches  blessings  of  immeasurable  value, 
disturbed  the  true  Congregational  tradition  ;  it  led  us  to  think 
that  our  work  was  done  when  we  had  prevailed  upon  men  to 
repent  of  sin,  and  to  trust  in  the  mercy  of  God  revealed  through 
Christ  for  eternal  redemption.  Our  wiser  fathers  thought  that 
when  this  Divine  triumph  was  achieved  their  own  work  had 
only  begun.  It  would  be  an  exaggeration  of  the  truth  to  say 
that  we  have  reversed  the  parts,  which  in  their  judgment  belong 
to  God  and  to  the  Church  in  the  salvation  of  mankind ;  but  it 
might  almost  be  said  that  the  early  Congregationalists  left  the 
conversion  of  men  very  much  in  God's  hands,  and  made  it  the 
chief  duty  of  the  Church  to  discipline  and  perfect  the  Christian 
life  of  those  who  were  already  Christians ;  we  have  thought  that 
for  the  conversion  of  men  the  Church  is  largely  responsible,  and 
we  have  left  them  in  God's  hands  for  the  development  of 
Christian  power  and  righteousness.1 

The  volume  dealt  not  only  with  the  defects  of  the 
Revival  but  with  later  deviations  from  its  teaching,  and  with 
tendencies  injurious  to  the  strength  and  fervour  of  faith 
to  which  those  deviations  had  led.  Here  and  there  also 
it  touched  on  some  of  the  difficulties  raised  by  modern 
criticism,  pointing  to  the  perils  involved  in  the  servile  and 
timorous  use  of  Holy  Scripture.  But  such  problems  as 
these  he  was  content  to  postpone  for  the  present.  He 
did  not  believe  that  the  time  had  come  to  deal  with  them. 
He  was  content  to  wait  until  the  theories  and  speculations 
of  scholars  had  been  sifted  by  experience,  and  to  watch 
how  criticism  would  fare  when  tested  by  its  own  methods. 
There  are  indications  of  his  attitude  in  the  following 
letter. 

1  British  Quarterly  Review,  April  1881,  p.  273. 


350  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 


To  Sir  E.  R.  Russell 

27th  November  1880. 

I  am  very  greatly  obliged  and  gratified  by  your  kindly 
notice  of  the  Evangelical  Revival  in  the  Daily  Post.  With  the 
exception  of  my  book  on  the  Atonement  nothing  I  have 
published  has  been  inspired  with  a  graver  sense  of  responsi- 
bility, or  a  deeper  desire  to  secure  a  hearing.  I  am  curious 
to  see  how  the  Evangelicals  in  the  Church  will  take  it.  The 
Record  has  given  a  notice  which  evades  the  issue.  .  .  .  Beyond 
what  I  have  said  in  the  preface  to  the  seventh  edition  of  the 
Atonement,  I  have  published  nothing  touching  the  critical 
questions  raised  in  recent  times;  and  what  I  said  there  was 
chiefly  and  indeed  exclusively  intended  to  show  that  one  may 
have  a  tolerably  large  and  rich  faith  while  the  critical  questions 
are  still  in  suspense.  It  was  my  original  intention  to  put  two 
sermons  on  the  Bible  in  the  Evangelical  Revival,  but  I  reserve 
them  for  another  volume.  The  whole  drift  of  recent  criticism 
seems  to  me  towards  the  older  position.  Strauss  has  vanished. 
Baur  is  vanishing.  The  gospels  are  receding  to  the  dates  which 
earlier  judgment  assigned  them.  But  as  I  want  Science  to  be 
absolutely  free  from  any  control  of  Faith,  so  I  want  Criticism  to 
be  free  from  any  entanglement  with  questions  concerning  the 
contents  of  the  Christian  Revelation.  If  I  publish  anything 
it  will  be  an  attempt  to  vindicate  the  autonomy  of  Science, 
Criticism,  Faith. 

The  book  received  high  commendation  from  theologians 
and  especially  from  Dr.  Church,  the  Dean  of  St.  Paul's. 


From  the  Very  Rev.  Dean  Church 

The  Deanery,  St.  Paul's, 
1st  November  1880. 

I  have  received  your  volume  on  the  Evangelical  Revival,  and 
I  write  to  offer  you  my  sincere  thanks  for  it.  I  have  read  it 
with  great  interest  and  admiration.  Our  points  of  view  on 
many  important  matters  are  very  different.  But  there  are  great 
elements  of  religion,  both  theological  and  moral,  on  which  it  is  a 
great  happiness  to  feel  myself  at  one  with  you  ;  and  any  one  who 
cares  for  Christianity,  and  has  any  sense  of  what  it  really  must 
mean,  must  be  very  thankful  to  see  some  of  its  more  serious 
truths  brought  to  the  front,  not  only  with  such  force  of  writing, 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES  351 

but  with  such  sense  of  their  reality,  and  with  such  fearless 
conscientious  candour.  Evangelical  theology,  it  has  always 
seemed  to  me,  has  suffered  more  than  any  other  from  verbiage. 
You  have  given  it  life,  and  thrown  into  it  a  high  moral  element 
which  it  has  so  often  wanted.  Once  more  accept  the  thanks  of 
one  who,  if  he  cannot  always  agree  with  you,  can  go  a  long  way 
on  many  points  in  intellectual  agreement,  and  a  much  longer 
way  in  sympathy. 

The  practical  task  to  which  he  set  himself  was  to 
bring  back  the  idea  of  the  Church  into  the  religious  life, 
and  to  enforce  the  necessity  of  an  Ethical  Revival — to 
complete  the  work  that  the  Evangelical  Revival  had 
begun. 

As  regards  ethics  he  had  to  be  content  with  doing 
what  he  could  among  his  own  people  and  those  whom  he 
reached  by  means  of  his  books.  But  in  vindicating  the 
position  of  the  Church  other  methods  were  available.  He 
believed  that  Congregationalists  were  in  danger  of  aban- 
doning their  principles  mainly,  if  not  wholly,  because  they 
were  ignorant  of  their  own  past.  And  so  he  turned  his 
attention  to  early  Nonconformist  history.  In  February 
and  March  1880  he  delivered,  in  London  and  in  Reading, 
a  course  of  lectures  on  the  Rise  of  Evangelical  Noncon- 
formity. The  London  lectures  were  delivered  in  Union 
Chapel,  Islington,  and  attracted  much  attention.  Mr. 
Bright  took  the  chair  at  the  first,  and  as  in  those  days  he 
rarely  spoke  outside  the  House  of  Commons,  his  presence 
drew  an  immense  audience.  At  the  last  lecture  Mr. 
Bryce  presided.  The  excitement  of  the  General  Election 
tended  to  divert  men's  minds  from  questions  of  church 
history,  but  Dale  was  so  far  satisfied  with  the  result  of  his 
experiment  as  to  repeat  the  course  in  the  autumn  at 
Liverpool  and  at  Blackburn.  The  following  year,  1S81, 
was  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  the 
Congregational  Union,  and  the  event  was  celebrated  by 
the  churches  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  Before  the 
commemoration  began,  Dale  published  two  articles  in  the 
British  Quarterly,  dealing  with  the  history  and  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Congregational    system — in    some   respects 


352  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

the  most  effective  of  his  contributions  to  ecclesiastical 
literature.  He  also  undertook  another  task,  far  more 
arduous  and  exhausting.  Two  years  before,  Dr.  Guinness 
Rogers  and  he  had  visited  the  larger  towns  of  the  kingdom 
as  representatives  of  the  Liberation  Society  to  advocate 
the  separation  of  Church  and  State.  At  the  invitation  of 
the  Union  they  now  consented  to  do  for  Congregationalism 
what  they  had  already  done  for  Disestablishment,  and  in 
May  1 88  i  they  held  their  first  meeting  in  London.  For 
the  next  eighteen  months  their  work  went  on  continuously, 
except  during  the  height  of  summer.  A  detailed  account 
of  their  campaign  would  be  tedious  ;  it  will  be  sufficient  to 
indicate  the  extent  of  the  effort  to  which  they  were  com- 
mitted. Between  the  middle  of  February  and  the  end  of 
April  1882  they  spoke  in  London  and  in  Manchester,  at 
Southampton,  Hastings,  Brighton,  at  Colchester  and 
Croydon,  Bradford  and  Leeds,  Huddersfield  and  Hull, 
Southport  and  St.  Helen's,  and  at  Coventry  also.  During 
February  Dale  was  also  lecturing  at  Reading  on  the 
Atonement.  And  all  this  was  in  addition  to  the  Sunday 
and  week-evening  services  and  his  children's  class,  to  say 
nothing  of  incessant  duties  and  claims  of  other  kinds. 
No  wonder  that  at  last  he  gave  way  under  the  strain. 

In  these  addresses,  of  course,  he  did  not  limit  himself 
to  the  conception  of  the  Church  ;  he  discussed  the  prin- 
ciples of  Congregationalism  under  many  aspects.  But  the 
Church  idea  dominated  all  his  teaching,  and  it  was  seldom 
that  he  omitted  to  refer  to  it.  He  took  up  a  positive 
position.  He  cared  more  to  construct  than  to  destroy. 
"  I  am  not  merely  a  Nonconformist,"  he  said  :  "  I  am  a 
Congregationalist  heart  and  soul.  I  believe  that  it  was 
worth  while  to  be  hung  for  Congregationalism.  Men 
were  hung  for  it  three  hundred  years  ago ;  and  if  I  could 
serve  it  in  no  other  way,  I  would  be  hung  for  it  now." 
He  drew  a  distinction  between  the  genius  of  Methodism 
and  the  genius  of  Congregationalism. 

Methodism  is  simply  anxious  to  make  men  Christians : 
Congregationalism    is    anxious    that    men    who    are    Christians 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES  353 

should  realise  in  their  church  life  Christ's  own  conception  of 
what  their  church  life  should  be ;  and  we  believe  that  only  by 
restoring  the  true  conception  of  the  Christian  Church  is  there 
any  chance  of  Christianising  the  English  people,  and  that  the 
Church  exists  at  once  for  the  discipline  of  Christian  perfection 
and  the  evangelisation  of  mankind.  We  believe,  moreover,  that 
knowledge  of  the  higher  forms  of  Christian  life  is  only  possible 
in  a  church  communion  of  the  kind  which  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  Himself  intended  to  establish. 

For  the  most  part  the  addresses  were  not  controversial, 
in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word.  He  avoided  a  direct 
attack  on  conflicting  theories  and  systems  ;  for  he  held 
that  in  dealing  with  sacerdotalism  the  most  effective 
defence  of  the  Faith  was  not  controversy  but  the  creation 
of  a  type  of  religious  life  so  alien  from  the  fundamental 
assumptions  of  sacerdotalism  that  sacerdotalism  within  its 
limits  should  be  impossible.  He  dealt  with  rationalism  in 
the  same  way.  To  effect  his  purpose  he  dwelt  incessantly 
on  the  great  truths  for  which  the  early  Congregationalists 
gladly  suffered  fine,  imprisonment,  and  death, — principles 
which,  he  feared,  were  in  danger  of  being  forgotten,  or 
of  being  buried  under  the  new  treasures  that  had  since 
been  acquired.  One  of  his  favourite  illustrations  is 
worth  recording. 

In  Gibbon's  story  of  the  destruction  of  the  Persian  monarchy 
by  the  Saracens,  he  tells  us  that  the  Persian  standard  captured 
at  Cadesia  was  the  leathern  apron  of  a  blacksmith  who  in  earlier 
times  had  led  the  armies  of  the  Persians  to  glorious  victory. 
When  Persia  fell,  their  ancient  standard,  the  memorial  of  heroic 
poverty,  was  disguised — almost  concealed — by  a  profusion  of 
precious  gems.  It  is  possible  for  us  to  preserve  the  noble  prin- 
ciples and  traditions  of  our  fathers,  but  to  disguise  and  conceal 
them  with  the  new  treasures  which  God  has  bestowed  on  us.1 

He  feared  that  the  adornments  of  religion — music, 
architecture,  eloquence  —  which  gratify  the  taste  and 
stimulate  the  emotions,  were  blinding  men  in  our  times  to 
the  essential  realities  of  faith.  And,  while  he  did  not 
underestimate  the    magnitude  of   the    service  which  the 

1  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  vol.  vi.  p,  293. 
2   A 


354  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Churches  were  rendering  to  civilisation  in  its  moral  and 
material  development,  he  did  not  fail  to  warn  them  that 
these  secondary  blessings  must  never  be  regarded  as  if 
they  were  the  chief  ends  of  the  Christian  gospel  and  of 
Christian  enterprise. 

The  shadow  of  Peter  passing  by  may  heal  the  sickness  of  the 
nations,  but  it  will  only  accomplish  that  beneficent  result  if  Peter's 
heart  is  occupied  with  the  supreme  work  which  the  Master  has 
given  him  to  do. 

As  an  indirect  result  of  this  service  to  Congregational- 
ism, Dale  found  himself  involved  in  a  controversy  of  some 
moment.  It  had  originally  been  proposed  that  he  and 
Dr.  Rogers  together  should  publish  a  volume  containing 
the  substance  of  their  addresses.  This  plan  fell  through  ; 
and  after  some  time  had  elapsed  Dale  was  asked  to  under- 
take the  work  alone  and  in  a  modified  form. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

\2th  November  1883. 

Hannay  l  has  written  to  ask  me  to  do  two  Manuals — one  on 
Congregational  History,  the  other  on  Congregational  Polity.  I 
have  consented — with  a  bar.  I  want  to  know  what  has  become 
of  your  History.  I  suppose  yours  has  grown,  or  is  growing,  to  a 
size  which  will  not  admit  of  a  shilling  sale  :  indeed,  it  was  meant 
to  be,  if  I  remember  right,  a  2s.  6d.  book  or  a  4s.  one.  Even  in 
that  case,  could  there  not  be  an  abridgment  of  yours  ?  Please 
let  me  know  how  this  stands. 

I  cannot  go  out  speaking  much  this  winter,  for  though  my 
throat  is  wonderfully  better  and  bore  a  great  strain  last  night 
very  fairly,  it  requires  care.  The  preparation  of  the  Manuals 
would  therefore  be  a  form  of  service  to  Congregationalism,  if  I  can 
only  do  it  well,  that  may  take  the  place  of  platform  work  for  the 
next  few  months.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  deeply  gratified  I  feel 
that  the  Union  Committee  should  ask  me  to  undertake  this  work. 

As  will  appear  later,  he  was  engaged  in  the  preparation 
of  the  Manual  on  Congregational  Polity — the  task  to 
which  he  set  himself  first — during  a  time  of  sorrow  and 

1  The  Rev.  Dr.  Hannay,  the  Secretary  of  the  Congregational  Union. 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES  355 

prostration.  It  was  a  great  relief  to  him.  "  It  was  the 
one  thing  I  could  think  about,"  he  said,  "  when  the  lightest 
reading  was  too  much  for  me."  But  progress  was  difficult. 
The  book  "  moved  slowly  " ;  he  found  it  hard  to  write  "  in 
Manual  style."  By  the  autumn  of  1884  it  was  completed 
and  published  as  A  Manual  of  Congregational  Principles. 
It  contained  four  books,  with  a  lengthy  appendix — the 
first  on  Congregational  Polity,  the  second  on  Church 
Officers,  the  third  on  the  Sacraments,  and  the  fourth  on 
some  practical  aspects  of  Congregationalism.  The  Manual 
on  its  appearance  was  received  with  some  dissatisfaction. 
A  reviewer  in  the  Nonconformist  and  Independent  expressed 
regret  that  Dale  should  have  thought  it  necessary  to 
include  the  chapter  on  the  Sacraments  and  implied  that 
its  teaching  would  be  resented  ;  then  followed  a  swarm  of 
letters  in  protest,  most  of  them  aimed  at  the  same  mark  ; 
and  only  a  month  after  publication,  the  committee  of  the 
Union,  through  their  secretary,  Dr.  Hannay,  announced 
that  their  forthcoming  examination  in  religious  know- 
ledge would  be  confined  to  the  first  two  books  of  the 
Manual. 

The  precise  extent  of  the  antagonism  there  are  no 
means  of  determining.  But  it  is  probable  that  among 
Congregationalists  Dale  stood  almost  alone  in  his  concep- 
tion of  the  nature  and  office  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  He 
had  the  sympathies  of  Dr.  Barrett  of  Norwich  and  a  few 
others,  but  they  did  not  represent  any  considerable  body 
of  opinion.1  The  outcry,  however,  came  in  the  first 
instance  from  some  London  ministers,  not  including  the 
recognised  leaders  of  Congregationalism.  One  of  these — 
a  man  distinguished  by  practical  piety  rather  than  theo- 
logical attainments — denounced  Dale's  "  sacerdotal  teach- 
ing "  and  declared  it  to  be  "  rank  Romanism."  The  pack 
at  once  broke  into  full  cry.  It  was  not  Dale's  habit  to 
deal  with  misinterpretation  by  letters  in  the  newspapets. 
"  Never  withdraw — never  explain  "  was  not  a  policy  that 
would  have  commended  itself  to  his  judgment ;  but  as  a 
rule  he  preferred  to  endure  misconception,  and  even  mis- 

1   Since  then  Dr.  Berry  of  Wolverhampton  has  spoken  in  the  same  sense. 


356  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

representation,  rather  than  entangle  himself  in  irritating 
and,  for  the  most  part,  futile  controversy.  But  on  this 
occasion — perhaps  because  the  Union  was  to  some  extent 
involved — he  wrote  in  self-defence. 

Allow  me  to  say  that  while  throughout  the  Manual  the  "  Real 
Presence  "  of  Christ  in  the  Church  is  earnestly  maintained,  in  the 
chapter  on  the  Lord's  Supper  His  "  Real  Presence  "  in  the 
Sacramental  elements  is  denied.  The  denial  is  expressed  in  a 
form  which  includes  the  rejection  of  the  Roman  theory,  the 
Lutheran  theory,  the  Anglican  theory,  and  every  other  theory 
that  attributes  to  the  Bread  and  the  Wine  "  any  mystical  and 
supernatural  qualities  or  powers."  It  is  expressly  declared  that 
"the  material  elements  are  only  symbols."  .  .   . 

Those  who  wish  to  give  a  name  to  the  theory  which  I  have 
attempted  to  illustrate  may  call  it,  with  rough  accuracy,  the  theory 
of  the  older  Congregationalists,  or,  if  they  wish  to  describe  it  in  a 
way  that  will  be  less  agreeable  to  me,  the  Calvinistic  theory,  or 
the  theory  of  the  Westminster  Confession  ;  though  both  the  Savoy 
Declaration  and  the  Westminster  Confession  contain  phrases  in 
relation  to  the  Sacraments  in  general,  and  the  Lord's  Supper 
in  particular,  which  I  should  be  unable  to  use  because  they 
seem  to  me  to  be  coloured  with  the  Sacramental  theory  of 
Rome.  .  .  . 

To  identify  the  theory  of  the  Manual  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
"  Real  Presence  "  is  to  misrepresent  my  position  and  to  create  an 
illegitimate  prejudice  against  it.  In  the  chapter  on  the  Lord's 
Supper  each  of  the  main  elements  of  the  doctrine  of  the  "Real 
Presence  "  is  separately  repudiated.  Those  who  find  the  doctrine 
in  the  Manual  ought,  also,  to  find  it  in  the  words  of  our  Lord, 
"  This  is  My  Body,"  and  in  the  words  of  Paul,  "The  bread  which 
we  break,  is  it  not  a  communion  of  the  Body  of  Christ?"  A 
sentence,  a  phrase,  isolated  from  its  context,  lifted  out  of  the 
current  of  thought  to  which  it  belongs,  is  no  fair  representation 
of  the  writer's  meaning.1 

Dale  was  already  in  correspondence  with  Dr.  Rogers, 
whose  opinions  on  this,  as  on  many  other  subjects,  were 
widely  different  from  his  own  ;  indeed,  their  friendship, 
one  might  almost  say,  rested  on  unity  of  spirit  and 
diversity  of  conviction. 

1   Christian  World,  20th  November  1SS4. 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES  357 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

6th  October  1884. 

Hearty  thanks  for  your  warm  and  generous  notice  of  the 
Manual  in  this  month's  Congregafionalist.  I  should  have  written 
before,  but  my  copy  came  late.  It  never  occurred  to  me  that  in 
inserting  a  discussion  of  the  Sacraments  I  was  passing  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  subject  assigned  to  me,  though  I  now  see  that 
your  view  of  the  matter  and  Allon's  in  the  British  Quarterly  is  a 
perfectly  tenable  one.  Johnson's  little  book,  and  Clemance's, 
and  I  think  Conder's — though  I  am  not  quite  sure,  and  I  have 
not  it  at  hand — all  include  an  account  of  our  position  in  relation 
to  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper ;  and  I  went  on  the  same 
lines.  I  do  remember,  indeed,  that  the  question  occurred  to  me 
whether  a  separate  Manual  might  not  be  appropriated  to  the 
subject,  but  I  thought  that,  apart  from  a  strongly  polemical  treat- 
ment, the  subject  was  hardly  large  enough  for  that ;  and  the  only 
question  that  I  really  considered  was  whether  I  could  include  it 
without  unduly  increasing  the  bulk  of  the  bock. 

I  thought  a  great  deal,  of  course,  about  the  other  question 
you  raise— whether  what  I  was  writing  was  sufficiently  element- 
ary. I  decided  in  favour  of  the  plan  I  have  adopted  for  several 
reasons. 

Hannay  said  that  the  Committee  wanted  a  book  which  might 
be  put  into  the  hands  of  intelligent  people  to  explain  our  position 
as  well  as  one  that  might  be  used  as  a  text-book.  A  primer 
would  hardly  have  fulfilled  the  two  conditions.  It  was  hard 
enough  to  make  the  book  as  systematic  and  complete  as  it  is  and 
yet  to  keep  it  fairly  readable.  But  there  was  another  and  a  much 
more  serious  reason  in  favour  of  the  fuller  and  more  thorough 
treatment  of  the  subject.  I  was  doubtful  to  what  extent  those 
who  would  conduct  the  classes  were  familiar  with  the  real  ground 
on  which  our  polity  rests.  The  teachers,  in  some  cases,  had  to 
be  taught.  And,  further,  if  the  book  was  to  be  used  as  a  text- 
book for  classes,  I  had  to  make  my  election  between  writing  a 
text-book  for  the  use  of  teachers  and  a  text-book  for  the  use  of 
scholars  only ;  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  a  book  which  might 
require  elucidation  by  the  teacher,  and  which  would  afford 
opportunities  constantly  recurring,  not  only  for  explanation,  but 
for  serious  and  earnest  religious  appeal,  and  which  would  suggest 
that  kind  of  appeal,  would  be  a  more  interesting  and  useful  class- 
book  than  one  that  the  least  educated  of  our  young  people  could 
'•get  up  "  without  assistance.  My  experience  and  observation  have 
led  me  to  two  conclusions  :  (1)  that  men  think  that  questions  of 


358  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

polity  are  dry  and  unedifying — that  they  have  very  little  relation 
to  central  interests ;  (2)  that  if  they  are  treated  with  some 
fulness  of  illustration,  as  related  to  the  contents  of  the  Christian 
Faith,  they  are  full  of  interest  and  of  profit. 

Now  a  primer — at  least  such  a  primer  as  I  could  have 
written — would  have  been  bones  without  flesh,  heart  and  lungs  ; 
and  it  would  have  confirmed  the  impression  that  the  whole 
subject  is  purely  formal.   .  .   . 

I  have  begun  the  History,  but  am  working  very  moderately. 

Finally,  the  Union  Committee,  with  Dale's  concurrence, 
decided  to  issue  the  Manual  in  two  forms — as  first 
published,  and  also  with  the  third  and  fourth  books 
omitted.1  Those  who  preferred  the  original  unmutilated 
could  still  procure  it ;  those  to  whom  the  section  on  the 
Sacraments  was  an  offence  were  in  some  degree  conciliated. 
Perhaps  no  simpler  way  of  escape  from  a  difficult  position 
could  have  been  devised.  Dale  did  not  feel  himself 
aggrieved  by  the  action  of  the  Committee  ;  they  certainly 
had  no  ground  of  complaint  against  him.  His  sacramental 
theories  were  well  known  when  he  was  asked  to  undertake 
the  work,  and  it  could  hardly  have  been  imagined  that  he 
would  think  the  Manual  complete  without  some  reference 
to  the  Lord's  Supper  and  to  Baptism.  The  precedents 
were  all  on  his  side.  Silence  on  these  points  would  have 
been  regarded  as  strange  and  inexplicable. 

Any  adequate  discussion  of  his  position  in  relation  to 
the  Sacraments,  and  to  the  Lord's  Supper  in  particular, 
would  lead  us  far  afield  ;  and  yet  the  sacramental  element 
in  his  teaching  is  so  distinct,  so  characteristic,  that  it  can- 
not pass  without  some  notice.  All  that  can  be  attempted 
is  to  indicate  the  position  that  he  held,  without  entering 
into  the  arguments  by  which  he  maintained  it.2  The 
great  majority  of  modern  Congregationalists  were,  he 
admitted,  Zwinglians  of  the  purest  type.  They  believed 
the  Eucharist  to  be  a  commemorative  rite  and  nothing 
more.      Or,  preferring  theories  closely  akin  to  Zwingli's, 

1  Congregational  Church  Polity,  1885. 

2  Many  sentences  and  phrases  taken  from  the  essay  in  Ecclesia  (see  p.  216, 
n.  1)  or  from  the  Manual  have  been  used  without  marks  of  quotation  in  the 
latter  part  of  this  chapter. 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES 


359 


they  regarded  the  rite  as  "  didactic " — a  picture  lesson 
showing  forth  the  Sacrifice  of  Christ — or  as  "  impressive  " 
— an  appeal  to  emotions  that  language  unaided  could 
never  reach.  With  such  conceptions  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
Dale  was  dissatisfied.  He  felt  that  the  theory  had  been 
developed  under  hostile  influences,  and  that  most  of  those 
who  accepted  it  had  been  forced  into  that  position  by 
anxiety  to  avoid  giving  any  advantage  to  doctrines  with 
which  they  were  in  conflict.  In  their  eagerness  to  secure 
a  scientific  frontier  they  had  abandoned  large  provinces  of 
truth  to  defend  themselves  more  securely  against  error. 
In  their  recoil  from  materialistic  conceptions  of  the 
Eucharist  they  had  gone  to  the  other  extreme  —  had 
denied  its  objective  character  altogether,  and  had  placed  it 
on  the  same  level  and  in  the  same  class  with  the  ordinary 
acts  of  worship. 

He  himself  held  that  the  Sacraments — the  Lord's 
Supper  and  Baptism — were  not  human  institutions  but 
Divine.  A  Sacrament,  as  he  understood  it,  was  an  act 
originating  with  God,  not  with  man.  Between  the  Lord's 
Supper,  therefore,  and  acts  of  worship  the  difference  was 
fundamental  and  profound.  In  worship,  in  praise  and 
prayer,  we  use  words — which  are  symbols — to  express  our 
relation  to  God  ;  in  the  Eucharist,  Christ — in  a  symbolic 
form — represents  His  relation  to  us.  He  instituted  the 
ordinance  to  represent  Himself  and  His  benefits,  not  to 
represent  our  faith  and  our  love.  Worship  is  a  tribute 
that  man  renders  to  God.  But  when  we  come  to  the 
Lord's  Table  we  come  not  to  give  but  to  receive. 

The  form  of  the  rite  is  symbolic.  The  material 
elements — the  bread  and  the  wine — are  only  symbols  ;  but 
the  rite  itself  is  an  act.  And  the  act  of  Christ  when  He 
places  these  elements  in  our  hands  is  a  spiritual  reality. 
It  represents  a  real  transfer  of  power.  This  distinction 
between  a  symbolic  act  and  an  effective  act  Dale 
illustrated  in  various  ways. 

A  key  is  a  very  natural  symbol  of  possession,  but  when  the 
governor  of  a  city  hands  the  keys  of  the  gates  to  the  general  of  a 


360  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

besieging  army,  he  does  something  more  than  perform  a  mere 
didactic  ceremony ;  by  the  surrender  of  the  visible  symbol  he 
surrenders  the  city  itself.  A  book  is  a  natural  symbol  of  the 
occupations  and  duties  of  the  head  of  a  religious  house,  and  a 
staff  of  the  duties  of  a  bishop  or  shepherd  of  the  flock ;  but  when 
a  book  is  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  man  elected  abbot,  and  a  staff 
in  the  hands  of  a  man  elected  bishop,  the  act  is  not  intended 
simply  to  give  the  abbot  and  the  bishop  symbolic  instruction  as 
to  their  future  duties — it  is  intended  actually  to  convey  to  them, 
by  a  visible  and  impressive  ceremony,  the  duties  and  responsi- 
bilities of  their  office. 

If  the  Lord's  Supper  had  been  instituted  by  ourselves  to  com- 
memorate Christ,  the  whole  service,  and  not  the  elements  alone, 
would  have  been  symbolic.  To  recur  to  the  old  illustration  :  if 
a  soldier  in  the  ranks  of  a  besieging  army  hands  a  great  key  to 
his  own  general,  the  act  is  symbolic  as  well  as  the  key.  It  is 
simply  the  expression  of  the  confidence  and  hope  of  a  man 
having  no  authority  to  surrender  the  city  that  the  city  will  soon 
be  taken.  It  is  a  mere  dramatic  ceremony.  .  .  .  But  when  the 
governor  of  the  city  does  the  same  thing,  the  act  is  a  dramatic 
ceremony  no  longer.  Its  value  does  not  lie  in  the  impressiveness 
and  scenic  solemnity  with  which  it  may  be  accompanied ;  it 
represents  a  real  transfer  of  power.1 

If  the  act  of  Christ  is  a  spiritual  reality  and  not 
symbolic,  what  is  it  that  He  transfers  in  the  Eucharist  ? 
He  communicates  to  the  Church  whatever  is  represented 
by  the  Bread  and  the  Wine — His  Body  and  His  Blood. 
The  rite  expresses  the  truth  which  our  Lord  was  con- 
stantly asserting  during  His  ministry — that  He  had  come 
to  give  men  eternal  life,  and  that  this  life  is  in  Himself. 

When  it  is  said  that  Christ  became  flesh,  it  is  meant  that 
He  became  man  in  the  completeness  of  man's  nature.  In  what 
He  became  He  included  the  lower  as  well  as  the  higher  elements 
of  our  complex  life.  His  very  Flesh  was  penetrated  with  the  life 
of  the  Son  of  God.  And  He  not  only  gave  His  Flesh  for  the 
world  in  sacrifice,  He  gave  His  Flesh  to  the  world  for  its  life. 
What  He  gives  us  is  His  own  eternal  life  as  that  life  was  limited 
and  conditioned  by  the  assumption  of  humanity.  "  The  flesh  " 
itself  " profiteth  nothing"  (John  vi.  63),  but  the  eternal  life  which 
became  flesh,  which  is  known  to  us  through  its  manifestation  in 

1  Manual  of  Congregational  Principles,  book  iii.  chap.  iii.  3,  pp.  153, 
154;  Ecclesia,  first  series,  pp.  387,  388. 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES  361 

the  flesh,  is  the  most  glorious  of  all  blessings.  He  gives  us  this 
in  giving  us  the  symbol  of  His  broken  Body.  As  we  have  sinned, 
the  life  could  not  become  ours  except  through  His  death  as  the 
Sacrifice  for  the  sin  of  the  world. 

The  two  ideas  of  life  and  sacrifice  are,  if  possible,  still  more 
vividly  expressed  by  the  Cup.  It  was  the  belief  of  the  Jews  that 
the  life  of  a  living  creature  is  in  its  blood ;  they  abstained  from 
blood  for  that  reason.  .  .  .  The  life,  they  said,  is  in  the  blood ; 
for  a  man  to  drink  the  blood  of  an  animal  would  be  to  receive  a 
life  baser  than  his  own.  But  it  is  to  this  very  principle  that 
Christ  appeals  in  His  discourse  in  John.1  His  life  is  a  Diviner 
life  than  the  common  life  of  man ;  to  drink  His  blood  is  to 
receive  the  Diviner  life  that  is  in  Him.2 

This  conception  of  the  Sacrament  affects  the  heart  as 
well  as  the  mind.  When  faith  is  strong  and  happy,  our 
theory  of  the  rite  and  its  meaning  does  not  diminish  the 
blessing  that  it  brings.  But  a  defective  theory  may  re- 
press the  freedom  and  cloud  the  joy  of  the  Christian  heart. 
And  Dale  found  in  many  cases  that  the  new  idea,  when 
firmly  grasped,  transformed  the  character  of  the  service  ; 
that  it  created  a  "  delight  in  coming  to  the  service  to 
receive,  not  to  seek  by  intense  and  passionate  desire,  or  to 
realise  by  an  exhausting  effort  of  thought  the  blessings 
represented  by  the  symbols "  ;  that  it  effected  a  happy 
transition  to  the  freedom  of  faith.  He  was  confirmed  in 
this  conviction  by  letters  from  members  of  his  church 
testifying  to  this  experience.      One  wrote  : — 

I  should  like  to  tell  you  .  .  .  how  much  joy  and  relief  the 
explanation  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  you  gave  in  the  spring, 
has  brought  to  me.  [It]  has  transformed  the  whole  service, 
making  it  the  source  of  a  new  and  inexhaustible  gladness.  It 
seems  strange  that  I  should  not  have  thought  of  it  in  that  way 
before ;  for  while  I  was  looking  upon  it  merely  as  a  memorial 
service  to  which  I  must  bring  concentrated  thought  and  effort, 
and  in  which  I  must  appropriate  Christ,  I  was  conscious  of  an 
uneasy  feeling  that  I  did  not  enjoy  it  as  I  ought.3 

This  theory,  as  already  pointed  out,  was  no  new  develop- 

1  John  vi.  53,  54. 

2  Manual  of  Congregational  Principles,  loc.  cit. 

3  The  Congregationalist,  January  1885,  p.  20. 


362  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

ment,  but  a  return  to  the  position  of  the  earlier  Congrega- 
tionalists.  Dale  contrasted  the  Congregational  Union 
Declaration  of  1833  with  the  Savoy  Declaration  of  1658, 
drawn  up  by  the  great  Congregationalists  of  the  Common- 
wealth— Owen,  Goodwin,  Nye,  Bridge,  Caryl,  Greenhill, 
fierce  anti-Romanists,  fierce  anti-Anglicans — and  accepted 
by  the  representatives  of  the  Congregational  churches  of 
England.  He  hoped — he  believed — that  there  were  signs 
of  a  return  to  the  older  theory.  But  he  could  not  adopt 
the  language  of  the  Savoy  theologians  without  qualification, 
and  he  vehemently  protested  against  the  restriction — was 
it  here  that  he  showed  his  "  sacerdotalism  "  ? — that  neither 
Baptism  nor  the  Lord's  Supper  "  may  be  dispensed  by 
any  but  a  minister  of  the  word  lawfully  called." l  The 
Sacraments,  he  held,  belonged  to  the  Church,  not  to  a 
priesthood. 

Dale's  position  with  regard  to  Baptism  may  be  more 
briefly  dealt  with.  He  believed  it  to  be  a  Sacrament — 
a  visible  symbol  of  a  Divine  act  ;  a  revelation  of  the 
authority  and  grace  of  Christ,  not  a  declaration  of  our 
obedience  and  love.  The  rite,  therefore,  could  not  be  a 
dedication — by  the  parent,  in  the  case  of  infants,  or  by 
adults  of  themselves.  In  Baptism  Christ  claims  us  as 
His  subjects,  as  those  whom  He  has  redeemed  :  it  affirms 
a  relation  already  existing ;  it  does  not  create  a  new 
relation. 

Baptism,  when  administered  to  a  child,  is  a  declaration  that 
the  sacrifice  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  atoned  for  its  future 
sins ;  that,  apart  from  its  own  choice,  the  child  belongs  to  Him  ; 
and  that,  by  the  purpose  and  will  of  God,  the  child  is  blessed 
with  all  spiritual  blessings  in  Christ  Jesus.  Baptism  does  not 
make  these  great  things  true ;  it  declares  that  they  are  true ; 
they  are  as  true  before  Baptism  as  after  it.  .  .  .  Baptism,  when 
administered  to  an  adult,  is  a  visible  assurance  of  the  same  great 
blessings  that  it  assures  to  a  child.  It  does  not  confer  on  him 
the  blessings  of  the  Christian  redemption,  but  declares  that  they 
are  his.  It  is  a  wonderful  gospel — a  gospel  to  him  individually. 
If  he  has  genuine  faith  he  will  receive  it  with  immeasurable  joy. 
He  will  look  back  upon  the  day  of  his  baptism  as  kings  look 

1  Ecclesia,  first  series,  p.  368. 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES  363 

back  upon  the  day  of  their  coronation.  It  was  the  visible,  ex- 
ternal transition  from  awful  peril  to  eternal  safety  in  the  love 
and  power  of  Christ.  It  divided  his  old  life  in  sin  from  his  new 
life  in  God.  He  will  speak  of  the  hour  when  he  was  "  baptized 
into  Christ"  (Gal.  iii.  27),  was  "cleansed  by  the  washing  of 
water  with  the  word  "  (Eph.  v.  26),  was  "buried  with  [Christ] 
in  baptism"  (Rom.  vi.  4;  Col.  ii.  12),  and  was  "raised  with 
Him  through  faith  in  the  working  of  God,  who  raised  Him  from 
the  dead"  (Col.  ii.  12).  But  kings  are  not  made  kings  by  being 
crowned ;  they  are  crowned  because  they  are  already  kings : 
their  coronation  is  only  the  assurance  that  the  power  and  great- 
ness of  sovereignty  are  theirs.  And  it  is  not  by  baptism  that  we 
are  made  Christ's  inheritance ;  it  is  because  we  are  Christ's  in- 
heritance that  we  are  baptized.1 

While  Dale  attached  so  large  an  importance  to  the 
rite  of  Communion  and  to  a  true  conception  of  its  nature, 
he  was  not  so  rigid  in  his  sacramental  principles  as  to 
exclude  from  church  membership  those  who  denied  its 
permanent  obligation.  He  thought  that  they  were  in 
error  ;  he  felt  that  they  were  cutting  themselves  off  from 
a  source  of  spiritual  refreshment  and  strength  ;  but  their 
loss,  in  his  opinion,  should  not  be  allowed  to  debar  them 
from  Christian  fellowship.  The  following  letter,  written 
to  a  brother  minister,  discusses  the  question  as  a  whole, 
and  also  in  some  special  applications. 


To  the  Rev.  C.  S.  Horne 

$th  October  1892. 

Whatever  troubles  you  troubles  me.  I  shall  be  very  grateful 
to  you  for  writing  to  me  if  anything  I  can  say  in  answer  is  of 
the  slightest  assistance  in  pointing  the  way  to  a  solution  of  your 
difficulty. 

A  few  years  ago — five  or  six — we  had  a  question  raised  at 
Carr's  Lane  which  in  some  of  its  elements  is  akin  to  yours.  A 
man  who  had  been  for  some  years  in  the  congregation,  who  was 
well  known  and  very  active  in  some  branches  of  church  work, 
applied  to  me  for  membership,  but  stated  that  he  could  not  con- 

1  Lectures  on  the  Ephesians,  pp.  359,  360,  as  modified  in  the  Manual  of 
Congregational  Principles,  book  iii.  chap.  ii.  note  3.  See  also  the  Congre- 
frationalist,  1873,  PP-  64J  foil.:   "The  Relation  of  Children  to  the  Church." 


364  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

scientiously  attend  the  Lord's  Supper.  That  our  Lord  instituted 
the  service  he  had  no  doubt ;  but  he  thought  that  the  cor- 
ruptions and  superstitions  which  have  gathered  round  it  plainly 
indicate  that  the  time  has  come  for  ceasing  to  observe  it.  This, 
he  thought,  must  be  our  Lord's  present  thought.  The  brazen 
serpent  had  been  in  its  time  a  divinely  appointed  symbol  of 
Divine  grace :  when  it  had  become  an  object  of  superstitious 
reverence,  a  wise  king  destroyed  it.  He  said  that  he  himself — 
if  he  came  to  the  Lord's  table — would  be  unable  to  dismiss  the 
feeling  of  awe  and  mystery — superstitious  awe  and  mystery — 
with  which  the  dark  and  evil  days  of  the  Church  had  regarded  it. 

I  was  clear  that  this  ought  not  to  prevent  us  from  receiving 
him  into  membership.  He  was  a  Christian  man,  and  this  was 
enough  in  my  judgment  to  require — not  merely  to  permit — us 
to  receive  him.  But  I  was  beaten  at  the  church  meeting  by  a 
vote  of  ten  or  twenty  to  one.  It  was  a  perfectly  beautiful  meet- 
ing. The  respect  and  affection  of  the  people  for  myself,  person- 
ally and  officially ;  their  resolute  determination  to  walk  in  the 
light  which  came  to  them  ;  their  sense  of  immediate  responsi- 
bility to  Christ ;  their  consideration  for  those  who  differed  from 
them,  touched  the  ideal.  It  is  a  night  on  which  I  look  back 
with  thankfulness  and  joy.  The  man  concerned  was  equally 
admirable ;  he  went  on  with  all  his  work  as  if  nothing  had 
happened. 

I  am  with  you,  therefore,  completely  on  the  first  point — that 
a  man  may  not  only  have  what  most  of  us  would  regard  as  a 
defective  theory  of  the  Sacraments — for  this  is  not  the  question 
at  issue — but  may  refuse  as  a  matter  of  conscience  to  take  part 
in  them  and  yet  have  a  clear  claim  as  a  brother  in  Christ  to  a 
place  in  "the  august  society  of  saints." 

But  the  question  of  office  raises  considerations  of  an  alto- 
gether different  character.  A  man  may  be  disqualified  for  office 
by  very  many  things  which  do  not  disqualify  him  for  membership. 
For  example,  grave  ignorance  of  Christian  truth — or  very  flagrant 
misconceptions  of  particular  elements  of  the  Christian  gospel — 
disqualify  for  the  office  of  pastor.  For  the  pastorate  personal 
faith  and  godliness  are  not  enough,  though  they  are  enough  for 
membership.  In  a  Congregational  church,  accustomed  to  cele- 
brate the  Lord's  Supper  and  believing  in  its  appointment  by 
Christ,  the  uniform  absence  of  the  pastor  would  be  so  severe  a 
loss  and  discouragement  that  the  church  would,  in  my  judgment, 
be  in  the  right  to  regard  a  man  as  disqualified  for  the  office  if 
he  had  conscientious  objections  against  the  institution.  I  do 
not  say  that  the  rule  is  so  rigid  as  to  be  uniformly  applicable. 
If  a  man  had  been  an  effective  pastor  of  a  church  for  many  years 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES  365 

and  was  effective  still,  the  church  might  resolve  to  continue  him 
in  office  though  he  had  come  to  disbelieve  in  the  duty  of 
celebrating  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  had  even,  like  my  friend. 
come  to  believe  in  the  duty  of  abstaining  from  celebration.  Per- 
haps, however,  you  remember — though,  of  course,  I  do  not  quote 
it  as  a  precedent  of  any  authority — that  Emerson  had  to  resign 
the  pastorate  of  the  Second  Church  in  Boston — a  Unitarian 
church — because  he  had  reached  a  position  in  which  he  could 
no  longer  take  part  in  the  service ;  he  found  its  symbolism 
repellent  or  at  least  alien.  I  should  certainly,  however,  except 
in  cases  which  I  could  hardly  imagine,  object  to  the  election  of  a 
man  as  minister  of  a  Congregational  church  who  could  not  take 
part  in  the  Lord's  Supper. 

But  how  about  a  deacon  ? — I  am  less  clear ;  but  I  incline  to 
the  judgment  that  a  church  should  hesitate  to  elect  a  man  as 
deacon  who,  however  conscientiously,  disparages  and  discourages 
by  his  example  the  maintenance  of  what  most  Christian  men 
find  to  be  a  service  of  supreme  blessedness  and  power — a  service 
which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  Church  as  a  whole,  is  a  divinely- 
instituted  declaration  and  protection  of  the  very  substance  of  the 
gospel.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  a  man  had  long  served  the 
church  in  the  diaconate  the  church  might  well  decline  to  dis- 
lodge him  because  he  had,  as  he  thought,  discovered  that  the 
institution  never  had  any  authority  from  Christ  or  had  lost  it. 
As  I  should  hesitate  about  electing  a  deacon  who  held  the  position 
I  have  supposed,  I  should  hesitate  still  more  about  bringing  such 
a  man  into  the  church — however  excellent — with  the  view  of 
electing  him.  If  there  were  no  peculiarity  of  opinion  and  prac- 
tice I  should  hesitate  to  do  it.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be 
quite  in  harmony  with  what  is  due  to  the  church  to  take  a  man 
who  is  out  of  membership  in  order  to  put  him  into  office.  The 
case  is  not  one  in  which  a  man  is  a  member  of  another  church, 
or  has  accidentally  and  recently  dropped  out  of  membership, 
but  of  one,  as  I  understand,  whose  conception  of  the  Church 
and  its  institutions — though  it  does  not  prevent  him  from  shar- 
ing in  your  worship  and  in  much  of  your  work — has  prevented 
him  from  entering  into  membership. 

The  true  course  seems  to  me  to  be  to  withdraw  the  name, 
without  prejudice  to  the  principle  involved  in  proposing  it,  in 
order  that  you  may  all  have  the  opportunity  of  thinking  it  over. 
The  Friends  have,  I  believe,  a  most  excellent  practice :  they  do 
not  act  by  majorities,  but  wait  till  it  is  apparent  that  a  course 
has  been  proposed  which  has  "the  general  judgment"  of  the 
meeting.  At  Carr's  Lane  I  have,  from  the  very  beginning, 
shrunk  from  settling  questions  by  majorities.     In  more  than  one 


366  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

important  matter  about  which  I  cared  a  great  deal  I  waited  till 
the  minority  was  practically  dissolved. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  this  letter  can  be  of  any  service  beyond 
that  of  assisting  your  own  investigation  of  the  subject ;  but  if 
you  think  it  would  be  of  any  good  to  show  it  privately  to  any  of 
your  friends  you  are  at  liberty  to  do  so. 

The  controversy  with  the  Union  and  its  committee,  it 
is  pleasant  to  record,  left  no  unfriendly  feeling.  When, 
after  a  long  interval  of  silence  due  to  broken  health,  Dale 
again  appeared  on  the  Union  platform,  he  received  a 
welcome  that  went  to  his  heart.  His  brethren  knew  that 
he  was  eager  to  serve  them,  even  if  they  could  not  always 
approve  the  service  in  the  form  that  it  took. 

By  his  lectures  on  the  Atonement  Dale  had  joined 
hands  with  Evangelical  Churchmen.  The  sacramental 
teaching  of  his  essay  in  Ecclesia  and  of  the  Manual  gave 
him  a  strong  hold  upon  the  sympathies  of  a  considerable 
section  of  the  High  Church  party.  They  were  very  far 
indeed  from  accepting  his  position.  But  they  felt  that  he 
was  at  one  with  them  in  the  objective  reality  which  he 
attributed  to  the  Sacraments.  And  although  from  their 
point  of  view  they  regarded  his  conception  of  the  Church 
as  both  historically  and  spiritually  defective,  they  were 
conscious  that  he  too  held  the  Church  as  something  higher 
and  nobler  than  any  human  institution,  however  venerable 
and  illustrious,  and  that  in  some  ways  he  approached  more 
closely  to  their  principles  than  those  whose  loyalty  was 
centred  in  the  Establishment  rather  than  in  the  Church. 
They  understood  him  and  respected  him,  though  they  did 
not  agree  with  him. 

He  was  sometimes  described  as  a  High  Churchman, 
and  he  did  not  resent  the  description.  Once  he  was 
identified  with  one  of  their  leaders  in  rather  an  odd  way. 
Mrs.  Dale,  when  making  a  call  on  a  poor  woman  in  her 
district,  whom  she  had  not  visited  for  some  time,  explained 
that  she  had  been  away  from  the  town.  "  Ah  !  yes,"  said 
the  woman  ;  "  you've  been  to  see  your  poor  husband  that's 
in  prison,  I  suppose.  Your  husband's  in  prison  because 
he's  a   Ritualist,  isn't  he?"     "  Why,  no,"  said   Mrs.  Dale. 


CONGREGATIONAL  PRINCIPLES  367 

"  Well,"  said  the  woman,  "  these  parsons  ought  to  obey 
the  laws  as  well  as  other  folks  ;  and  if  they  want  to  carry 
on  their  Ritualising  they  ought  to  go  to  the  Roman 
Catholics,  where  they  can  carry  it  on  much  more  con- 
venient." Mrs.  Dale  was  still  puzzled,  and  it  was  not  till 
she  was  on  her  way  home  that  it  struck  her  that  her 
husband  had  been  confused  with  the  Rev.  T.  Pelham  Dale, 
who  had  been  imprisoned  a  few  months  before. 


CHAPTER    XV 

CHURCH    AND    STATE 

Miall's  influence — The  Establishment  an  obstacle  to  the  true  idea  of  the 
Church — Articles  in  the  Patriot  on  theories  of  Church  and  State — Hooker's 
theory  :  the  identity  of  Church  and  State — Gladstone's  theory  of  national 
religion — Chalmers — Paley — Renewed  activity  of  the  Liberation  Society 
in  1S72 — Campaign  with  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers — Criticism  of  the  Times 
and  of  Matthew  Arnold — The  social  schism — The  Church  as  the  author- 
ised teacher  of  religion — Parliament  and  ecclesiastical  legislation — Stereo- 
typed religion — Church  property  national  property — Personal  responsi- 
bility of  the  citizen  for  the  existence  of  the  Establishment — Letters  on 
disestablishment  and  disendowment — Episcopacy  and  unity — Compre- 
hension— Free  Church  Federation. 

In  the  public  mind  Dale  was  so  closely  associated  with  the 
question  of  disestablishment,  and  his  own  conviction  of  the 
wisdom  and  justice  of  that  policy  was  so  strong  that  some 
reference  must  be  made  to  the  subject.  But  the  materials 
are  comparatively  slight.  He  wrote  few  letters  dealing  even 
indirectly  with  the  question  ;  he  very  rarely  preached  on 
the  principles  involved  in  it ;  he  felt  indeed  that  he  had 
said  less  about  it  than  he  should. 

In  the  early  years  of  his  ministry,  and  before  his 
ministry  began,  Mr.  Miall's  influence,  as  he  has  told  us, 
strongly  affected  him.  When  he  came  to  know  Mr.  Miall 
himself,  he  was  even  more  deeply  impressed  by  his 
character  and  personality.  In  both  men  there  was  an 
element  of  mysticism,  combined  with  a  strong  ethical 
passion.  Both  lived  habitually  under  the  control  of  things 
unseen.  But  in  Miall,  as  Dale  discovered,  there  was  a  rare 
remoteness  and  detachment  from  the  visible  order  ;  and  in 
the  memorial  sermon  preached  after  Miall's  death,  he  laid 
great  stress   on  this  habit  of  mind.      With  most  men,  he 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  369 

said,  God  descends  to  dwell  with  them  ;  in  Miall's  case 
human  thought  and  life  were  lifted  to  loftier  realms  of 
being.  "  Instead  of  God  living  where  he  lived,  he  lived 
where  God  lived."  "  He  looked  upon  the  perpetual  flux 
of  human  affairs  from  the  everlasting  hills.  His  thoughts 
did  not  wander  through  eternity  —  they  dwelt  there." 
Even  in  the  years  of  struggle  and  storm  this  spiritual 
isolation  was  unbroken. 

He  stood  before  his  audience  detached  and  isolated.  It  was 
not  from  them  that  he  received  his  impulse  and  his  strength. 
With  a  great  crowd  about  him,  his  thought  was  still  moving  in 
remote  and  lonely  regions — "  Where  Time's  far-wandering  stream 
has  never  run."  He  gave  one  the  impression  that  he  had 
authentic  tidings  from  unseen  worlds.  His  appeal  was,  there- 
fore, not  so  much  to  his  audience,  as  to  the  individual  men  of 
whom  it  was  composed,  and  to  what  was  highest  in  every  one  of 
them.  He  believed  that  the  human  soul,  if  it  can  be  separated 
from  the  tumults  and  excitements  which  commonly  disturb  it, 
cannot  refuse  to  respond  to  the  voice  of  righteousness  and  truth ; 
and  this  faith  acted  like  a  spell  upon  those  who  heard  him. 
Each  man  felt  that  he  stood  apart  from  the  throng,  and  that  the 
appeal  of  the  speaker  was  to  his  own  conscience  and  judgment.1 

Dale  caught  something  of  this  spirit.  Though  less 
detached  from  human  affairs,  he  was  impelled  by  the 
religious  motive.  He  too  was  wont  to  appeal  to  the 
higher  and  nobler  elements  in  human  character,  and 
instinctively  avoided  those  mean  and  petty  issues  by 
which  a  great  controversy  is  too  often  degraded.  He,  like 
his  leader,  believed  with  his  whole  heart  that  in  attacking 
the  position  of  the  Established  Church,  Nonconformists 
must  aim,  not  so  much  to  right  themselves  as  to  right 
Christianity.  But  he  was  very  far  from  Miall's  individual- 
ism. Miall's  supreme  interest  lay  in  God  on  the  one  hand, 
in  the  individual  soul  on  the  other.  "  Compared  with 
them,  all  institutions,  whether  secular  or  sacred,  were  in- 
significant. Nations  and  churches  existed  for  the  sake  of 
individual  man."  In  Dale's  thought  the  Church  and  the 
nation  held  a  higher  place.      He  considered  them  to  be 

1  Memorial  sermon  at  the  Weigh- House  Chapel,  Nonconformist  and  Inde- 
pendent, 19th  May  1 88 1. 

2  B 


370  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

essential,  not  secondary.  And  attaching,  as  he  did,  the 
highest  importance  to  the  true  conception  of  the  Church 
and  its  functions,  he  contended  against  the  maintenance 
of  a  national  church,  because  in  his  view  it  stood  in  the 
way  of  the  true  idea  of  the  Church  ;  and  only  as  that  idea 
prevailed  had  he  any  hope  of  the  nation  becoming  Christian 
in  reality  as  well  as  in  name. 

He  believed,  therefore,  that  if  Christianity  were  to  exert 
its  full  power  over  the  English  people — not  for  civilisation 
but  for  conversion — the  Church  as  by  law  established  must 
cease  to  be. 

He  became  a  member  of  the  Liberation  Society  about 
the  year  i860,  and  took  some  part  in  its  operations. 
His  first  appearance  in  its  larger  assemblies  was  at  the 
conference  in  London  in  1862.  Those  early  speeches  have 
long  since  ceased  to  have  either  interest  or  importance. 
But  in  a  series  of  articles  contributed  to  the  Patriot  in 
the  year  1863,  Dale  discussed  some  of  the  theories  pro- 
pounded by  representative  advocates  of  the  union  of 
Church  and  State  ;  and  his  criticism  clearly  indicates  the 
basis  on  which  he  rested  his  objection  to  established 
churches  and  to  schemes  of  ecclesiastical  comprehension.1 
The  theories  examined  are  those  of  Hooker,  Gladstone, 
Paley,  Chalmers,  and  Warburton,  each  representing  a 
different  school  of  thought. 

Hooker,  in  his  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  contended  that  the 
Church  has  power  to  decree  rites  and  ceremonies  ;  and 
further,  that  this  power  may  rightly  be  vested  in  the 
Crown  and  Parliament.  He  distinguished  between  the 
visible  and  the  invisible  Church.  Of  the  visible  Church, 
all  men  who  profess  the  Christian  faith,  whatever  their 
varieties  of  spiritual  condition,  are  members  ;  and  when  a 
nation  by  external  profession  acknowledges  Christ  as  its 
Lord  and  Head,  the  nation  itself  becomes  a  Church.  So 
in  the  realm  of  England,  the  Church  and  the  State  cannot 
be  described  as  being  in  alliance  with  one  another  ;  they 
are  really  identical.  As  the  State  represents  the  common- 
wealth in  relation  to  secular  affairs,  so  the  Church  represents 

1   The  Patriot,  1S63  :  January  8,  22  ;  February  5,  26  ;   March  19. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  371 

the  commonwealth  in  relation  to  spiritual  affairs.  The  will 
of  the  Church,  therefore,  as  Hooker  conceived  it,  acts  through 
the  same  government  as  the  will  of  the  nation  :  ecclesi- 
astical laws  and  secular  laws  alike  express  the  will  of  the 
nation  in  its  two  functions  ;  and  legislative  authority  in 
either  case  is  originally  vested  in  all  the  members  of  the 
community.  "  Our  laws,"  he  says,  "  made  concerning 
religion  do  take  originally  their  essence  from  the 
power  of  the  whole  realm  and  Church  of  England." 
The  nation,  therefore,  can  exercise  its  authority  through 
its  representatives. 

Such  a  theory,  Dale  argued,  is  wholly  inconsistent 
with  the  ideas  and  principles  of  the  New  Testament,  in 
which  the  Christian  Church  is  an  essentially  religious 
organisation.  Hooker's  theory  destroys  Christian  Churches, 
and  replaces  them  by  nominally  Christian  nations.  So 
radical  a  change  cannot  be  defended  as  a  mere  develop- 
ment of  polity,  such  as  may  be  justified  by  altered  con- 
ditions and  circumstances ;  it  involves  the  transfer  of 
powers  and  prerogatives  from  one  community  to  another, 
differing  from  it  in  characteristics  so  fundamental  as  the 
conditions  of  membership,  the  ends  of  its  activity,  the 
sanction  on  which  it  rests,  and  the  methods  on  which  it 
relies  for  support. 

The  churches  founded  by  Apostles  were  societies  constituted 
of  persons  who  by  their  free  and  voluntary  act  entered  into 
religious  fellowship  with  each  other ;  a  nation  is  a  society  con- 
stituted of  persons  who,  only  by  a  fiction  constructed  for  the  sake 
of  a  theory,  can  be  said  to  have  entered  it,  or  to  remain  in  it  of 
their  own  free  will.  The  churches  founded  by  Apostles  were 
established  for  strictly  spiritual  purposes  ;  a  nation  has  a  thousand 
inferior  objects  to  secure,  and  its  entire  organisation  is  con- 
structed with  a  view  to  these  inferior  ends.  The  churches 
founded  by  Apostles  exercised  no  secular  and  political  power  in 
maintaining  the  authority  of  spiritual  law;  but  a  nation  cannot 
divest  its  acts  of  a  secular  and  political  character.  The  churches 
founded  by  Apostles  derived  their  pecuniary  support  from  the 
voluntary  liberality  of  their  members  ;  a  nation  must  derive  its 
revenues  from  the  forced  contributions  of  all  its  subjects. 

If  in   any  society  membership   ceases  to  be  voluntary  and 


372  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

becomes  compulsory ;  if  the  original  objects  of  the  society  are 
so  extended  and  multiplied  as  to  include  very  many  which  are 
essentially  different  from  those  for  which  it  was  first  founded ;  if 
the  sanctions  on  which  its  laws  originally  rested  are  changed  for 
sanctions  of  a  fundamentally  different  character ;  if  its  funds, 
which  were  first  derived  from  love,  are  now  exacted  by  force — 
you  have  not  modified  the  original  institution,  you  have  destroyed 
it  altogether. 

Have  we  any  right  thus  to  annihilate  the  visible  churches  of 
Christ  ?  Have  we  any  right  to  constitute  in  their  place,  and  to 
call  by  their  name,  a  society  composed  not  of  voluntary  ad- 
herents, but  of  all  the  members  of  a  commonwealth  ;  a  society 
existing  not  merely  to  sustain  the  worship  of  God  and  to  save 
the  souls  of  men,  but  to  protect  the  lives,  the  wealth,  and  the 
secular  greatness  of  a  people ;  a  society  relying  for  its  peace  and 
for  its  safety,  not  on  the  reverence  of  its  members  for  the  august 
authority  of  the  throne  of  Christ,  but  on  the  prison  and  the 
gallows,  the  truncheon  of  the  policeman  and  the  bayonet  of  the 
soldier;  a  society  which  dares  not  trust  to  the  love  of  its 
members  for  the  revenues  it  requires,  but  compels  the  contribu- 
tions of  the  reluctant  giver  ? 

By  the  change  in  the  terms  of  membership  you  change  the 
relations  of  individual  members  to  each  other  and  to  the  whole 
community ;  by  the  change  in  the  objects  of  the  society  you 
change  its  entire  constitution ;  by  the  change  in  the  principles 
and  sanctions  of  its  government  you  change  the  whole  genius 
and  spirit  of  its  public  life ;  by  the  change  in  the  sotirce  of  its 
pecuniary  strength  you  change  an  act  of  religious  homage  into  a 
tax  paid  to  a  political  power.  Change  the  membership  of  a 
society,  change  its  objects,  change  its  government,  and,  though 
you  may  preserve  its  name,  you  have  lost  everything  besides. 


And  while  such  a  theory  involves  a  revolution  in  the 
conception  of  the  Church,  it  provides  no  security  for  the 
right  administration  of  ecclesiastical  government.  Even 
granting  that  a  nation  becomes  a  church  by  the  simple 
process  that  Hooker  describes,  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
authorities  in  whom  political  power  is  vested  are  fit  to  be 
entrusted  with  spiritual  power  also.  The  organisation  of 
the  State  has  been  framed  for  other  ends.  Men  rise  to 
authority  by  other  than  spiritual  gifts ;  they  may  owe 
their  advancement  to  their  vices  rather  than  their  virtues. 
They  may  reach  the  summit  of  power  without  any  faith 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  373 

in  God,  and  without  any  apprehension  of  the  laws  which 
govern  the  right  development  of  the  spiritual  life  of  a 
community. 

The  vesting  of  the  government  of  the  Church  in  the  hands  of 
statesmen  has  resulted  in  this  :  the  Church,  instead  of  purifying 
and  exalting  the  habits  and  laws  of  nations,  has  herself  been 
miserably  degraded  and  corrupted ;  she  herself  has  sunk  under 
the  control  of  those  bad  passions  and  bad  principles  which  it  was 
her  lofty  mission  to  expel  from  national  communities  and  from 
the  heart  of  man.  By  Hooker's  theory  you  first  corrupt  the 
communion  of  the  Church,  and  you  then  place  the  government 
of  the  Church  in  the  hands  of  men  who  are  almost  sure  to  be 
altogether  unfit  for  the  task.  You  destroy  that  purity  of 
membership  which  is  essential  to  the  strength  and  weight  of  the 
testimony  of  the  Church  to  the  Divine  relations  and  immortal 
destiny  of  the  human  soul ;  and  you  place  the  control  of  a 
society  which  is  intended  to  purify  and  regenerate  the  human 
race  in  the  hands  of  men  who  may  have  no  desire  that  these 
great  spiritual  objects  should  be  accomplished.  You  destroy  the 
very  existence  of  that  distinct  spiritual  community  which  was 
instituted  by  Christ  to  be  the  visible  guardian  of  His  truth,  the 
vindicator  of  His  laws,  and  the  human  agent  for  achieving  the 
salvation  of  the  human  race. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  theory,  as  set  forth  in  his  treatise  on 
"  The  State  in  its  Relations  with  the  Church,"  did  not  in- 
volve any  such  assumption  as  Hooker's.  He  did  not 
regard  the  nation  and  the  Church  as  conterminous,  but 
contended  that  duties  which  bind  men  individually  bind 
them  also  collectively.  A  government,  therefore,  should 
both  profess  and  propagate  a  religion  :  it  should  maintain 
religious  institutions,  for  the  purpose  of  affording  oppor- 
tunities of  religious  instruction  and  worship  to  every 
individual  within  the  nation.  Macaulay,  in  a  characteristic 
essay,  still  memorable  for  a  famous  sentence,  attacked  this 
position  with  all  the  resources  of  his  rhetoric.  But  he  was 
content  to  expose  the  consequences  involved  in  such  a 
doctrine,  and  he  did  not  seriously  concern  himself  with  the 
abstract  principle  at  issue.  Dale  in  his  criticism  took  the 
opposite  course  ;  with  the  results  of  the  theory  he  dealt  in 
a  few  sentences,  and  passed  at  once  to  examine  the  theory 


374  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

itself — that  individual  profession  of  faith  necessitates  a 
collective  profession  of  faith  ;  that  a  nation  constitutes  a 
personality ;  and  that  this  personality  entails  religious 
responsibilities. 

Is  it  true,  he  asked,  that  when  men  are  associated  in 
public  acts,  they  are  guilty  of  atheism  unless  they  publicly 
and  unitedly  profess  their  faith  in  God  and  worship  Him  ? 
It  is  true  that  the  individual  man  does  not  throw  off  his 
moral  character  or  lose  his  moral  responsibility  when  he 
becomes  a  statesman  :  it  is  true  of  the  devout  believer  ;  it 
is  equally  true  of  the  unbeliever  who  is  destitute  of  all 
religious  faith.  And  if  this  public  and  official  recognition 
of  God  is  compulsory  upon  a  statesman,  the  unbelieving 
statesman  must  either  withdraw  from  public  life — a  de- 
mand that  is  both  impracticable  and  unjust — or  he  must 
play  the  hypocrite  by  professing  to  accept  the  truth  that 
he  in  his  heart  rejects.  Atheism,  rightly  understood,  in 
such  a  case  as  this,  lies,  not  in  withholding  the  public  pro- 
fession of  faith,  but  in  professing  a  faith  that  is  unreal. 

The  atheism  lies  not  in  omitting  to  enforce  the  public  pro- 
fession of  a  religious  creed  and  the  public  observance  of  religious 
forms  on  men  who  have  no  religious  belief  and  no  religious  life, 
but  in  enforcing  these  things  on  these  men.  An  earnestly 
spiritual  person  co-operating  with  others  who  are  destitute  of 
faith  in  his  creed  and  reverence  for  his  God  will  feel  it  a 
desecration  of  things  sacred,  instead  of  a  consecration  of  things 
secular,  to  implicate  them  in  the  acknowledgment  of  truth  they 
do  not  believe,  and  in  the  outward  participation  in  acts  of  wor- 
ship which  they  inwardly  despise.  He  will  remember  that,  while 
in  the  discharge  of  his  political  duties  he  remains  a  devout 
Christian,  they  in  the  discharge  of  the  same  duties  remain 
unspiritual,  and  that  for  them  as  politicians  formally  to  profess  a 
creed  or  to  engage  in  worship  which  as  men  they  utterly  reject 
is  hypocrisy  and  blasphemy  in  the  sight  of  Him  that  searcheth 
the  heart ;  nor  will  he  suppose  that  his  own  obligations  to 
acknowledge  God  in  all  his  acts  can  require  him  to  compel  his 
colleagues  to  commit  these  grievous  sins. 

He  then  proceeds  to  examine  Mr.  Gladstone's  con- 
ception of  the  nation  as  a  personality. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  375 

There  are  some  particulars  in  which  a  nation,  in  the  unity  of 
its  action  and  responsibilities,  resembles  a  person ;  there  are 
many  other  particulars  in  which  it  does  not.  A  nation  corre- 
sponds to  a  person  in  the  unity  of  its  outward  acts,  but  not  in 
the  unity  of  its  inward  life.  The  acts  of  a  nation  are  like  the 
acts  of  an  individual,  but  there  the  analogy  ceases.  In  the 
same  national  act  different  individuals  may  concur  under  the 
control  of  opposite  motives  and  at  the  impulse  of  opposite 
affections.  One  statesman  may  engage  in  a  war  to  promote  the 
cause  of  freedom  ;  another  may  engage  in  the  same  war  to  baffle 
the  schemes  of  a  political  opponent ;  another  to  vent  his  hatred 
against  a  foreign  nation  ;  another  because  he  may  suppose  that 
the  kindling  of  military  ardour  among  the  people  may  destroy 
the  mutual  animosities  and  suspicions  which  may  have  arisen 
between  different  ranks  and  orders  in  the  State,  by  inspiring  all 
with  the  same  passions,  subjecting  all  to  a  common  danger,  and 
covering  all  with  a  common  glory.  The  external  act  of  a  nation 
has  a  certain  moral  unity ;  but  even  if  all  the  people  concur  in 
the  act,  there  are,  I  repeat,  infinite  diversities  in  the  motives 
which  impel  them  to  it.  And  it  is  precisely  where  the  outward 
act  ceases  that  religious  responsibility  begins.  It  is  not  against 
a  nation  as  such  that  we  denounce  the  everlasting  penalties  of 
wrong-doing ;  and  a  nation  as  such  cannot  trust  in  Christ,  and 
so  obtain  eternal  life.  A  State,  as  distinguished  from  the  in- 
dividuals composing  it,  cannot  repent  of  sin,  cannot  be  renewed 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  cannot  hold  communion  with  the  Father, 
cannot  be  mystically  united  with  Christ ;  but  the  capacity  for  all 
these  things  is  essential  to  religious  life  and  religious  responsi- 
bility. If,  then,  the  personality  of  the  State  is  destitute  of  pre- 
cisely those  characteristics  which  entail  religious  responsibilities 
on  the  individual,  and  render  the  individual  capable  of  a  religious 
life,  Mr.  Gladstone's  argument,  founded  on  the  personality  of  the 
State,  for  the  necessity  of  a  national  profession  of  religion,  falls 
to  the  ground.  No  religious  obligations  can  be  inferred  from 
the  theoretical  personality  of  the  State,  if  the  State  do  not  possess 
those  particular  characteristics  which  bind  real  persons  to  the 
discharge  of  religious  duties. 

I  believe,  indeed,  in  the  possibility  of  a  nation  becoming 
Christian,  as  I  believe  in  the  possibility  of  railway  companies 
becoming  Christian.  Let  all  ranks  in  the  State  discharge  their 
secular  duties  under  the  influence  of  the  spirit  and  law  of  Christ ; 
let  commerce,  let  social  habits,  let  those  mutual  relations  of  the 
different  classes  of  the  community  which  civil  legislators  cannot 
regulate,  all  be  moulded  and  penetrated  by  the  principles  of  the 
Divine  law  enthroned  in  individual  consciences,  and  the  spirit 


376  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

of  the  Gospel  diffused  through  individual  hearts ;  let  statesmen 
come  from  the  sanctity  of  private  communion  with  God  to  the 
great  tasks  of  legislation  and  of  diplomacy,  and  without  any 
formal  profession  of  a  national  faith  the  national  acts  will  be 
harmonious  with  the  will  of  God.  Since  a  nation  must  act  as  an 
individual,  those  Christian  men  who  conduct  its  affairs  will 
endeavour  to  regulate  national  acts  by  Christian  law ;  but,  since 
it  cannot  believe  or  worship  as  an  individual,  they  will  not  require 
from  it  the  profession  of  a  faith  which  is  the  expression  of 
individual  conviction,  or  the  observance  of  forms  which  are  the 
expression  of  individual  devoutness. 

The  two  other  articles  which  completed  the  series  may- 
be briefly  dismissed.  The  most  effective  reply  to  Chalmers's 
advocacy  of  union  between  Church  and  State,  as  Dale  was 
not  slow  to  point  out,  might  be  found  in  that  magnificent 
secession  from  the  Scottish  Establishment,  of  which 
Chalmers  himself  was  the  most  prominent  leader.  But  as 
Chalmers  had  based  his  argument  upon  the  alleged 
inadequacy  of  the  voluntary  system  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  nation,  he  set  himself  to  examine  the  case  in  detail, 
showing  reason  to  modify,  if  not  to  reject,  the  conclusions 
at  which  Chalmers  had  arrived.  The  facts  and  figures 
with  which  he  was  concerned  are  now  out  of  date,  and 
have  lost  their  value ;  to  reproduce  the  details  ol  the 
analysis  would  be  to  spend  labour  in  vain.  With  the 
"  unimaginative  and  practical  archdeacon  "  he  dealt  more 
summarily.  Paley's  contention,  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
magistrate,  even  in  religious  matters,  is  limited  by  no  con- 
sideration but  that  of  general  utility,  that  the  form  of  Church 
government  which  we  find  in  the  New  Testament  possesses 
only  a  historic  interest,  and  that  convenience  should  be 
our  only  guide,  is  now  almost  universally  discarded.  And 
both  Churchmen  and  Nonconformists  agree  that  his  concep- 
tion of  the  Church  as  "  a  scheme  of  instruction,"  whose  sole 
end  is  "  the  preservation  and  communication  of  religious 
knowledge,"  omits  those  elements  and  characteristics  to 
which  both  the  advocates  and  the  opponents  of  Church 
establishment  in  our  days  attribute  supreme  importance. 
To  assail  a  position  already  abandoned  by  every  man  of 
religious  earnestness  would  have  been  superfluous,  and  he 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  377 

did  not  war  with  shadows  ;  but  some  of  Paley's  incidental 
arguments  seemed  to  him  to  deserve  attention.  The  plea 
for  an  Established  Church  as  guaranteeing  "  a  learned 
ministry  "  he  meets,  not  by  disparaging  the  importance  of 
learning,  nor  by  any  ungenerous  appeal  to  experience — 
Paley  himself  had  acknowledged  that  "  we  sow  many  seeds 
to  raise  one  flower  " — but  by  showing  that  the  demands  of 
theological  scholarship  might  be  met  in  other  ways,  and 
also  by  recalling  the  fact  that  some  of  the  noblest  contri- 
butions to  theological  literature  had  been  made  by  men 
bearing  the  ordinary  burden  of  pastoral  duty.  The  object- 
tion  that  with  a  voluntary  system  preaching  would  soon  be 
degraded  "into  a  kind  of  begging  " — an  objection  that  does 
duty  still  —  he  treats  with  a  touch  of  scorn.  "  It  only 
indicates  the  religious  indifference  and  heartlessness  with 
which  Paley  had  been  surrounded,  and  which  made  him 
incredulous  of  the  animating  power  of  a  genuine  and  deep 
religious  life."  "  There  are  still  some  persons  who  under- 
stand by  voluntaryism  the  right  to  give  nothing,  but  men 
are  coming  to  understand  that  it  really  means  the  having 
to  give  in  the  spirit  and  in  the  measure  that  will  satisfy 
God." 

The  series  was  completed  by  an  article  in  which  he 
discussed  Bishop  Warburton's  theory,  and  also  showed  to 
what  extent  Nonconformists  were  in  agreement  with  the 
various  writers  whose  principles  had  been  examined. 

For  several  years  after  1862  he  was  seldom  seen  on  the 
platform  of  the  Liberation  Society  ;  if  he  did  not  avoid  its 
meetings  he  did  not  seek  them,  and  he  had  other  duties  to 
occupy  him.  The  education  conflict,  when  he  was  drawn 
into  it,  fully  engaged  his  time  and  his  strength.  But  the 
current  that  carried  him  away  helped  in  the  end  to  bring 
him  back.  The  disruption  of  the  Liberal  party  in  1870, 
the  alienation  of  the  Nonconformists  from  its  official 
leaders,  and  Mr.  Gladstone's  challenge  to  Mr.  Miall  to 
take  his  support  elsewhere  if  he  distrusted  those  with 
whom  he  had  been  accustomed  to  act,  all  combined  to 
bring  the  disestablishment  question  to  the  front.  The  Non- 
conformists, so  rebuffed,  felt  that  the  time  had  come  to 


378  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

assert  themselves,  and  that  they  would  get  nothing  except 
by  pressure  ;  and  although  Mr.  Miall  and  his  friends  made 
no  demand  that  a  man's  Liberalism  should  stand  or  fall 
by  the  disestablishment  test,  they  showed  themselves 
resolved  to  assert  the  right  of  their  principles  to  practical 
recognition  and  to  withhold  their  support  from  candidates 
who  professed  their  loyalty  to  the  cause  of  religious  equality 
but  consistently  voted  for  measures  involving  religious 
injustice.  To  strengthen  their  organisation  and  to  make 
known  their  claims,  a  great  conference  was  held  at 
Birmingham  in  the  autumn  of  1872.  Dale  acted  as  one  of 
the  secretaries,  and  addressed  the  public  meeting  held  in  the 
Town  Hall  at  night.  He  spoke  on  several  other  occasions 
during  the  next  two  or  three  years.  But  the  platform  of 
the  Liberation  Society  was  not  altogether  to  his  mind. 
He  sometimes  found  himself  in  uncongenial  company — 
associated  with  men  who  had  neither  his  confidence  nor 
his  esteem.  And  though  he  felt  the  truth  of  the  proverb : 
"It  is  better  to  do  right  with  a  sinner  than  wrong  with  a 
saint  " — he  found  that  their  presence  made  it  impossible  to 
discuss  a  great  religious  question  on  religious  principles. 
What  he  heard  at  such  meetings  often  jarred  and  some- 
times offended.  He  did  not  see  his  way  to  withdraw  from 
the  work  ;  but  he  and  his  friend,  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers, 
thought  that  they  might  do  their  share  of  it  under  different 
conditions,  and  they  arranged  to  address  a  series  of  meet- 
ings subject  entirely  to  their  own  control  and  at  which 
they  would  be  the  only  speakers. 

So  in  the  winter  of  1875  they  visited  Bradford,  Liver- 
pool, Leeds,  Manchester,  Norwich,  and  Derby,  and  closed 
their  campaign  with  a  meeting  and  a  dinner  in  London. 
Twelve  months  later,  a  second  series  of  meetings  was  held 
at  Hull,  Bristol,  Plymouth,  Brighton,  Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
Swansea,  Cardiff,  and  Carnarvon.  On  the  whole  they 
had  reason  to  be  satisfied  with  the  success  of  their 
experiment.  Their  audiences  were  always  large  and 
generally  enthusiastic,  especially  where  they  had  been 
stimulated  by  opposition.  At  two  or  three  places  there 
was  some  disturbance,  but  of  no  account  to  men  accustomed 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  379 

to  the  turbulence  of  popular  assemblies.  The  London 
meeting  called  forth  an  article  in  the  Times,  throwing  cold 
water  on  the  agitation,  but  warning  the  defenders  of  the 
Church  that  "  a  body  of  able  and  resolute  men "  had 
entered  upon  a  systematic  warfare  with  the  Establishment, 
and  suggesting  that  the  Bishops  would  act  wisely  if  they 
gave  their  minds  to  matters  of  greater  moment  than  those 
which  they  were  then  discussing  in  Convocation.  Mr. 
Matthew  Arnold  also  thought  it  an  occasion  to  pay  off  an 
old  score  left  over  from  an  earlier  encounter  provoked  by 
his  St.  Paul  and  Protestantism}  and  in  one  of  his  essays 
he  described  Dale  as  "  a  brilliant  pugilist."  "  He  has  his 
arena,"  said  Mr.  Arnold,  "  down  at  Birmingham,  where  he 
does  his  practice  with  Mr.  Chamberlain,  and  Mr.  Jesse 
Collings,  and  the  rest  of  his  band  ;  and  then  from  time  to 
time  he  comes  up  to  the  metropolis,  to  London,  and  gives 
a  public  exhibition  of  his  skill.  And  a  very  powerful 
exhibition  it  often  is."  He  went  on  to  express  his  concern 
for  Dale's  "  religious  temper,"  and  suggested  that  although 
his  "  intellectual  muscle  "  might  be  braced,  his  cultivation 
of  grace  and  peace — which  are  the  essence  of  religion — 
could  be  none  the  better  and  "  must  naturally  be  something 
the  worse  for  the  time  and  energy  given  to  his  pugilistic 
interludes."2  Such  banter — if  not  in  the  best  taste — broke 
no  bones  ;  and  Dale  had  humour  enough  to  relish  Mr. 
Arnold's  self-confidence  as  an  exponent  of  the  inner 
secret  of  the  devout  life. 

To  deal  with  fourteen  speeches — each  an  hour  long — 
by  summary  is  impracticable.  It  will  be  simpler  to  indicate 
in  the  briefest  way  some  of  the  points  with  which  Dale 
dealt,  in  addition  to  the  general  theories  of  the  relations  of 
Church  and  State  that  have  already  been  noticed. 

The  social  grievance  he  dismissed  with  contempt.  It 
is  very  silly,  he  said,  of  Churchmen  to  plume  themselves  on 
their  social  superiority;  it  is  very  silly  of  Dissenters  to  care 
for  it.      But  the  social  schism  which  divides  men  into  two 

1  "Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  and  the  Nonconformists":    The  Contemporary 
Review,  July  1870,  pp.  540-571. 

2  Last  Essays  on  Church  and  Religion,  pp.   185,  186. 


38o  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

camps  in  every  part  of  the  land — those  who  are  Church- 
men and  those  who  are  not — he  treated  as  a  serious  evil. 
The  strength  of  a  nation  comes  from  the  unity  of  the 
people  ;  anything  that  tends  to  split  and  to  sever  is 
hurtful.  As  matters  now  stand,  there  are  some  who  are 
conscious  that  they  are  privileged,  others  who  are  conscious 
that  they  are  wronged  ;  and  the  two  parties  are  necessarily 
separated  by  the  policy  of  the  State.  For  the  State  takes 
sides  in  the  conflict  of  churches.  It  has  ceased  indeed  to 
sustain  the  Established  Church  by  the  methods  of  the  past 
— by  the  infliction  of  pains  and  penalties  on  those  who 
dissent  from  it.  But  though  the  method  has  been  modified, 
the  policy  remains.  The  State,  as  the  late  Bishop  Wilber- 
force  insisted,  confers  an  exceptional  authority  on  the 
Anglican  Church  as  compared  with  other  religious  bodies, 
and  treats  it  as  a  favoured  faith. 

By  the  providence  of  God  this  much  is  certain,  and  must  be 
admitted  by  every  one,  that  the  Church  of  England,  as  treated  at 
present  by  the  State  and  the  nation,  is  the  religious  teacher  of 
the  people.  Mark  you  that  this  is  so.  There  has  been  given, 
and  I  think  very  properly  given,  perfect  liberty  to  all  other 
religious  bodies — and  I  for  one  would  not  see  that  liberty 
infringed  upon  by  prerogative  or  other  legislation  in  the  least 
degree.  But  that  is  not  in  the  least  degree  giving  up  the  claim 
that  the  Church  of  England  is  the  teacher  of  the  people.  It  is 
saying :  We  provide  what  we  believe  to  be  the  properly  consti- 
tuted system  of  teaching,  but  if  others  think  differently,  we  do 
not  enforce  upon  their  consciences  that  which  they  condemn,  but 
leave  them  to  provide  another  for  themselves  if  their  conscience 
dictate  to  them  to  do  so.1 

The  quotation  is  a  long  one,  but  it  represents  with 
exceptional  accuracy  the  policy  against  which  Dale  con- 
tended. The  Church  of  England  claims  to  be  the  teacher 
of  the  English  people.  The  constitution  treats  it  as  such. 
Its  bishops  sit  by  right  in  the  legislature ;  its  clergy 
represent  the  State  in  the  ceremony  of  marriage.  Their 
other  privileges,  arising  by  prescription  out  of  this  position 
of  authority,  though  curtailed  of  late,  are  still  considerable. 

1  Life  of  S.   Wilberforce,  vol.  iii.  p.  151. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  381 

Although  the  people  are  openly  divided  in  religious  opinion, 
the  State,  the  country  through,  takes  sides  with  one 
community  against  the  rest,  and  clothes  its  ministers  with 
the  moral  authority  derived  from  the  special  sanction  of 
law.  It  meets  the  Unitarian  with  its  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  ;  the  Baptist  with  its  theory  of  baptismal  regenera- 
tion ;  the  Presbyterian  with  its  system  of  Episcopacy. 
Against  each  and  all  it  asserts  its  claim  to  be  the  only 
authoritative  teacher  recognised  by  the  State  in  matters 
of  religious  belief.  The  authority  of  the  State  is  so  exerted 
as  to  obstruct  and  discourage  the  free  growth  of  religious 
conviction. 

The  present  system,  from  another  point  of  view,  is 
anomalous  and  unjust.  Parliament,  representing  the 
nation  as  a  whole,  is  the  legislative  authority  of  the 
English  Church.  Without  the  sanction  of  Parliament  no 
change  can  be  made  in  doctrine,  ritual,  or  administration. 
To  adopt  a  new  lectionary,  to  carve  out  a  new  diocese,  to 
revise  the  laws  that  regulate  the  tenure  of  livings  and  the 
discipline  of  the  clergy,  the  Church  must  go  to  Parliament. 
When  Hooker's  theory — that  there  is  not  "  any  member 
of  the  commonwealth  which  is  not  also  a  member  of  the 
Church  of  England " — fairly  tallied  with  the  fact,  the 
Parliament  of  the  nation  might  be  justified  in  legislating 
for  the  Church  of  the  nation.  But  it  cannot  be  right  that 
Parliament  representing  the  whole  of  the  nation  should 
legislate  for  a  Church  that  now  represents  only  a  portion 
of  it.  Still  more  irrational  is  it  that  a  Parliament  con- 
taining men  of  every  variety  of  creed — Jews,  Independents, 
Baptists,  Wesleyans — and  some  who  have  broken  away 
from  religious  faith  altogether,  should  legislate  for  a 
Church  whose  office  it  is  to  contend  against  the  opinions 
which  they  hold. 

Further,  the  interests  both  of  the  nation  and  of  the 
Church  require  that  Parliament  should  be  relieved  of  the 
responsibility  of  administering  the  ecclesiastical  business 
of  the  Church.  The  burden  resting  upon  the  legislature 
is  already  so  heavy  and  so  complex  that  it  cannot  find 
time  to  do  its  own  work  as  it  should.     To  compel  it  to 


382  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

undertake  other  duties  for  which  it  is  manifestly  unfit  is 
absurd  ;  and  at  the  same  time  Parliament  is  incapacitated 
for  the  discharge  of  its  proper  functions. 

A  more  serious  objection  remains.  To  embody  defini- 
tions of  religious  doctrine  and  forms  of  religious  worship 
in  Acts  of  Parliament,  is  to  stereotype  religious  thought 
and  to  stereotype  the  expressions  of  the  religious  life  in  a 
disastrous  manner.  At  Liverpool  he  referred  to  this  point 
in  some  detail. 

There  are  indeed  certain  great  theological  ideas  and  con- 
ceptions which  have  been  handed  down  by  the  Christian  Church 
from  age  to  age  practically  and  substantially  unchanged.  To 
use  an  illustration  which  I  remember  Remusat  applies  to  great 
philosophical  ideas,  these  enduring  truths  of  the  Christian  faith 
are  like  precious  family  jewels — jewels  which  descend  as  heir- 
looms from  one  generation  to  another.  In  one  age  they  may  be 
set  in  a  coronet,  and  in  another  age  in  a  necklace,  and  in  another 
they  may  glitter  in  the  hilt  of  a  sword.  The  setting  varies  from 
time  to  time,  but  the  jewels  remain  untouched.  So  it  is  with 
certain  great  theological  conceptions.  But  to  perpetuate  the 
human  framework  by  which  these  theological  ideas  are  surrounded 
is  a  different  thing  altogether  from  preserving  the  jewels  which 
the  framework  is  intended  to  enshrine. 

Let  us  see  how  the  perpetuating  of  certain  theological 
definitions  by  Act  of  Parliament  has  affected  the  theological 
life  and  thought  of  the  English  Church.  You  all  remember 
what  an  outburst  of  indignation  there  was  forty  years  ago,  when 
John  Henry  Newman  wrote  Tract  Ninety  in  order  to  prove  that 
the  articles  of  the  Church  of  England  did  not  condemn  certain 
doctrines  which  nearly  every  one  before  had  supposed  that  they 
did  condemn.  I  am  not  going  to  say  whether  I  think  that  Dr. 
Newman's  ingenuity  was  legitimate  or  not,  but  it  seems  to  me 
that  if  the  articles  really  do  not  express  the  faith  which  nine 
Englishmen  out  of  ten  have  supposed  they  express,  it  is  time  so 
to  change  the  articles  as  to  make  them  express  that  faith.  You 
remember,  too,  how,  again  and  again,  the  Evangelical  party  in 
the  Church  of  England  has  been  charged  with  disloyalty, 
because  it  has  not  accepted  the  High  Church  theory  concerning 
baptismal  regeneration.  If  the  Church  were  free  to  discuss 
these  questions  in  a  convocation  in  which  its  clergy  and  laity 
were  fairly  represented,  and  if  Parliament  had  nothing  to  do 
either  with  its  articles  or  its  offices,  theologians,  instead  of 
having  to  resort  to  a  thousand  ingenious  devices  which  are  alien 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  383 

to  the  habits  of  Englishmen  in  order  to  show  that  their  opinions 
are  in  harmony  with  the  authentic  documents  of  the  Church, 
would  simply  endeavour  to  convince  the  mind  of  the  Church  of 
the  truth  of  their  opinions,  and  the  Church  would  be  able  to 
define  afresh  in  what  sense  it  held  the  articles  and  what  meaning 
it  attached  to  the  offices.  You  all  know  perfectly  well  that  there 
is  not  the  slightest  chance  of  Parliament  discussing  the  question 
of  baptismal  regeneration  in  order  to  readjust,  if  necessary,  the 
baptismal  office.  There  is  not  the  slightest  possibility  of 
Parliament  investigating  Ritualist  doctrines  in  order  to  readjust, 
if  necessary,  the  Thirty-nine  Articles.  The  articles  and  offices 
are  bound  upon  the  Church  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  and  there 
can  bs  no  possible  revision  of  either  until  the  affairs  of  the 
Church  are  administered  by  Parliament  no  longer,  but  by  a  free 
assembly  representing  the  faith  and  the  piety  of  the  English 
Church.  No  matter  what  changes  may  pass  upon  the  faith  and 
the  religious  life  of  the  adherents  of  the  English  Church  they 
can  make  no  change  in  the  articles  or  in  the  prayers  in  which 
that  faith  and  life  ought  to  receive  a  perfect  expression,  and  the 
reason  of  this  is  that  the  articles  and  prayers  are  in  the  schedule 
of  an  Act  of  Parliament. 

The  system  leaves  no  liberty  to  the  working  of  the 
Spirit ;  it  perpetuates  that  which  should  be  temporary, 
and  fetters  that  which  should  be  left  free.  The  same  evil 
— obstruction  of  the  natural  course  of  development  and 
the  play  of  activity — makes  itself  felt  in  other  ways  also, 
less  hurtful,  perhaps,  to  the  religious  life  of  the  Church,  but 
not  less  real. 

In  these  addresses  Dale  does  not  avoid  the  thorny 
question  of  church  property.  He  discusses  with  some 
fulness  the  origin  and  the  growth  of  the  wealth  of  the 
English  Church,  examines  the  "  pious  ancestor  "  theory  of 
church  endowment,  and  asserts  the  right  of  the  nation  to 
dispose  of  the  buildings  erected  for  the  use  of  the  nation.1 

One  principle  he  enforced  with  great  earnestness. 
Separation  from  the  national  church  can  be  justified  only 
by  the  gravest,  deepest,  and  most  solemn  objections 
against  its  order  and  doctrine.  Every  place  of  worship 
built  by  those  who  have  separated  themselves   from   the 

1  e.g.  "  Parish  Churches.     To  whom  do  they  belong?" — Congregationalist, 
January  1 876,  pp.  38-43. 


3^4  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Church  of  England  is  an  embodied  protest.  Those  whom 
conviction  has  compelled  to  withdraw  from  the  Church 
established  and  maintained  by  the  State,  if  their  faith  is 
genuine,  are  bound  to  use  their  political  influence  to 
deprive  that  Church  of  the  authority  which  it  derives  from 
the  national  sanction.  For  those  who  perpetuate  a  law 
are  equally  responsible  for  its  existence  with  those  who 
enacted  it ;  and  those  who  suffer  an  Established  Church 
to  hold  its  place  are  responsible  for  the  influence  that  it 
exerts  by  reason  of  its  official  position.  Those  who  dis- 
sent from  the  Established  Church  but  acquiesce  in  its 
existence,  sanction,  as  citizens,  the  very  teaching  which,  as 
individuals,  they  solemnly  reject. 

The  campaign  was  a  serious  enterprise,  and  Dale 
shrank  from  it.  He  knew  that  it  would  provoke  resent- 
ment and  hostility  ;  that  he  would  be  misunderstood  by 
men  whose  regard  he  valued.  He  never  forgot  an  incident 
that  occurred  at  Bristol  about  the  time  of  the  education 
conflict.  He  had  been  speaking  or  preaching  in  the 
Colston  Hall  for  the  Bible  Society,  and  as  he  passed  out 
through  the  crowd  he  heard  a  man  say  to  a  friend — 
"  Was  that  Dale  of  Birmingham  ?  Why,  I  always  under- 
stood that  he  was  an  atheist."  Slander  of  that  kind  cut 
him  to  the  quick  ;  and  the  disestablishment  question 
could  not  fail  to  stir  the  most  bitter  prejudice.  There 
were  difficulties  on  his  own  side  too.  While  he  was  at 
one  with  the  leaders  of  the  Liberation  Society  upon  the 
principles  at  issue,  he  had  his  own  opinion  as  to  the  way 
in  which  the  principles  should  be  applied  in  legislation. 
As  will  appear  in  the  letters  that  follow,  the  differences 
between  him  and  them  were  at  one  time  so  grave  as  to 
place  him  in  a  position  of  extreme  delicacy. 

The  vigour  and  firmness  which  he  maintained  through- 
out this  controversy  exposed  him  to  special  hostility.  A 
favourite  mode  of  attack  was  to  contrast  him  with  his 
predecessor  at  Carr's  Lane,  and  to  lament  over  his 
degeneracy  from  the  "  saintly "  John  Angell  James. 
Sometimes  it  annoyed  him  ;  and  he  would  quote  from 
Mr.  James's  writings  to  show  that  he  had  never  spoken  as 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  385 

strongly  as  Mr.  James  about  the  evils  of  an  Established 
Church ;  sometimes  it  amused  him  ;  and  he  had  no 
difficulty  in  proving  that  those  who  canonised  Mr.  James 
when  dead  had  not  always  been  as  reverential  to  him 
when  living.  One  description  of  Mr.  James  by  a  Tory 
reviewer  he  greatly  appreciated.  "  Wealthy,  fat,  and  saucy, 
he  lords  it  over  his  heritage  in  Carr's  Lane,  and  preaches 
to  some  four  thousand  persons  against  the  laws  and 
government  of  his  country,  which,  according  to  him,  are 
the  sole  cause  of  emigration."  This  passage  he  quoted 
with  genuine  enjoyment,  adding  that  no  doubt  his  own 
successor  would  be  abused  as  he  had  been,  and  that  the 
time  would  come  when  Conservatives  and  Churchmen 
would  remind  him  that  Mr.  Dale  was  a  religious,  not  a 
political  Dissenter,  and  exhort  him  to  copy  his  predecessor's 
Christian  charity,  the  gentleness  of  his  spirit,  and  the 
moderation  of  his  language. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

\st  January  1876. 

.  .  .  We  have  put  our  hands  to  a  great  work  together,  and  I 
trust  that  we  shall  both  be  able  to  carry  it  through  as  a  part  of 
the  service  to  which  Christ  has  called  us — with  the  one  object 
present  to  us  always  of  getting  His  will  done  on  earth  as  it  is 
done  in  Heaven.  And  in  this  work  it  is  a  cause  of  special 
thankfulness  that  we  are  in  every  sense  sure  of  each  other. 

To  Sir  E.  R.  Russell 

October  1875. 
.  .  .  Thanks  for  the  article  of  yesterday.1  It  hit  the  weak 
side  of  my  speech  very  properly ;  but  it  lies  in  my  line  to  appeal 
to  the  strong  religious  sentiment  and  conviction  that  exist  in  the 
Establishment.  And  I  have  not  much  faith  in  popular  move- 
ments which  are  not  sustained  by  religious  intensity. 

To  Mr.  J.  F.  Alexander 

25*7*  November  1875. 

.  .  .  While  I  was  speaking  a  curious  and,  to  me,  inexplicable 
affection  came  upon  me,  from  which  I  only  gradually  escaped. 

1  In  the  Liverpool  Daily  Post. 
2  C 


386  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

It  was  just  as  if  I  was  speaking  in  my  sleep,  and  going  on  without 
any  kind  of  voluntary  effort.  For  a  few  moments,  too,  I  had 
the  feeling  that  the  hall  was  gradually  being  filled  with  the  morn- 
ing light,  and  when  I  looked  up  and  saw  the  gas,  I  felt  as  though 
it  were  burning  in  the  light  of  the  dawn.  Queer,  wasn't  it  ?  I 
expected  to  find  clearer  signs  of  the  odd  experience  in  the 
speech. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

$thjuly  1876. 

I  am  in  despair  about  the  Liberation  scheme.1  The  two 
main  questions — compensation  and  appropriation — were  de- 
termined last  week  by  a  large  majority  in  a  way  which  seems  to 
me  ruinous.  I  have  written  a  private  note  to  Williams,2  begging 
him  not  to  hurry  the  publication.  If  the  publication  came  at 
once  I  should  feel  obliged  to  repudiate  the  scheme  at  Carnarvon 
and  Swansea — which  would  be  disloyal  to  the  Society ;  or  else  I 
should  have  to  throw  up  both  engagements.  If  the  publication 
is  delayed  till  after  the  Welsh  conferences  I  shall  have  time  to 
think  whether  I  can  take  any  future  engagements  for  the  Society 
or  whether  I  shall  have  to  work  independently. 

The  proposal  relating  to  compensation,  as  it  stands,  means 
that  except  in  the  case  of  very  old  men  the  income  should  be 
cut  down  on  the  ground  of  dismissal  from  service.  In  cases 
where  men  could  find  other  employment,  this  would  be  just 
enough  :  but  cases  of  the  other  sort  would  be  innumerable ;  and 
in  them  the  proposal  would,  if  carried  out,  be  robbery.  Of 
course  I  see  very  well  what  was  not  mentioned  last  week,  that 
Churchmen  might  complain  at  the  nation's  releasing  the  whole 
of  their  clergy  from  the  pecuniary  necessity  of  continuing  their 
clerical  work.  On  the  other  hand,  so  far  as  the  mass  of  the 
clergy  are  concerned,  their  incomes,  if  they  received  them  in  full, 
are  so  small  as  to  leave  them  under  sufficiently  strong  motives 
for  taking  duty. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

\yhjuly  1876. 

It  was  very  good  of  you  to  write.  The  issue  of  the  discussion 
last  week  was  to  some  extent  reassuring,  but  the  whole  character 

1  An  outline  scheme  for  a  measure  of  disestablishment  and  disendowment 
drafted  by  a  sub-committee  of  the  Liberation  Society. 

2  Mr.  Carvell  Williams,  then  Secretary  of  the  Liberation  Society. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  387 

of  the  previous  meeting  was  to  me  very  discouraging.  There 
seemed  a  total  failure  to  grasp  the  real  conditions  of  the  problem. 
No  doubt  the  two  points  on  which  I  differed  from  the  majority 
of  the  Committee  are  unlike  —  essentially  unlike.  But  one 
suggestion  seemed  the  grossest  possible  violation  of  justice,  the 
other  the  grossest  possible  violation  of  expediency  ;  and  these 
two  points  are  capital  points  of  the  scheme.  I  do  not  see  how 
I  could  have  pretended  to  regard  the  two  matters  as  unimpor- 
tant, or  how  I  could  have  yielded  my  judgment  to  that  of  the 
majority.  However,  on  one  of  them  the  scheme  was  modified 
at  the  last  sitting,  and  the  publication  of  the  whole  scheme  is 
delayed.     So  far,  so  good. 

The  campaign  closed  under  conditions  very  different 
from  those  of  its  beginning.  In  1877  foreign  affairs 
engrossed  men's  minds  and  the  disestablishment  question 
receded  to  an  obscure  position.  The  effect  produced  by 
Dale  and  his  colleague  in  the  towns  that  they  visited  was 
effaced  by  the  rising  tide  of  indignation  and  alarm  pro- 
voked by  Lord  Beaconsfield's  policy  ;  feeling  was  strong 
enough  to  submerge  all  differences  of  opinion  among  the 
various  sections  of  the  Liberal  party.  At  the  time  of  the 
election  of  1880  the  Liberal  catechism,  it  has  been  said, 
was  confined  to  one  question — Will  you  renounce  Lord 
Beaconsfield  and  all  his  works  ?  A  year  before  the  election, 
Dale  refused  to  undertake  a  fresh  campaign  ;  he  had  other 
work  in  hand,  and  he  believed  the  time  to  be  unfavourable 
for  such  an  appeal.  When  the  issue  between  the  Ministry 
and  the  people  was  fought  out  at  the  polls,  he  refused  to 
raise  the  question  in  any  shape  or  form  ;  at  such  a  crisis 
the  interests  of  Nonconformity,  he  felt,  must  give  place  to 
the  necessity  of  the  nation. 

The  letters  that  immediately  follow  deal  with  other 
aspects  of  the  question.  Some  of  them  may  seem  to  bear 
more  directly  on  the  principle  and  system  of  Congrega- 
tionalism ;  but  they  were  written  with  special  reference  to 
the  conflict  between  the  Established  and  the  Noncon- 
formist churches,  and  they  may  fitly  stand  in  this  con- 
nection. 

In  the  first  letter  Dale  refers  to  a  conference  of  London 
clergy  to  which  he  had  been  taken  by  his  friend  Dr.  Wace. 


388  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

The  subject  for  discussion,  introduced  by  Professor  E.  H. 
Plumptre,  the  late  Dean  of  Wells,  was — "  Are  Dissenting 
ministers  to  be  regarded  by  the  clergy  as  schismatics,  or 
as  fellow-labourers  in  the  gospel  ?  "  Dr.  Wace,  writing  to 
Dale  after  the  debate,  criticised  the  position  of  the  Noncon- 
formist Churches  as  a  violation  of  the  unity  which  was 
recognised  as  essential  by  the  primitive  Church.  Unity, 
whether  in  a  church  or  in  a  nation,  can,  in  practice,  be 
secured  only  by  allegiance  to  persons  who  govern  or 
represent  it.  The  system  of  Episcopacy  secured  that 
unity,  and  should  on  that  ground,  if  on  no  other,  be 
accepted.  It  is  to  this  argument  that  Dale  replies.  The 
letter  to  Mr.  Bunting,  the  editor  of  the  Contemporary,  was 
written  at  a  time  when  the  movement  for  Free  Church 
Federation  had  not  reached  even  its  infancy.  But  the 
idea  was  in  the  air  ;  and  Mr.  Bunting  had  suggested  that 
the  Free  Churches  should  federate  with  each  other  and 
with  the  Scotch  Churches,  each  church  preserving  its 
autonomy,  but  "  with  enough  collective  action  to  present  a 
spectacle  of  Christian  unity  and  of  a  religious  body  that 
could  claim  the  allegiance  of  Christian  men  not  definitely 
pledged  to  exclusive  Episcopacy." 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wace 

2$th  May  1875. 

The  discussion  to  which  you  were  good  enough  to  take  me 
was  really  very  interesting  and  instructive,  and  to  me  very  enter- 
taining ;  although  what  entertained  me  most  had  also  a  certain 
element  of  sadness  in  it  which  I  have  felt  more  deeply  since  than 
I  felt  it  at  the  time.  The  unsatisfactory  side  of  it  was  the  in- 
evitable result  of  the  great  variety  of  causes  which  have  led  to 
the  separation  between  Nonconformists  and  Churchmen.  The 
Erastian  cause  would  have  been  enough  for  one  evening,  and 
more  than  enough.  So  would  the  jure  divino  authority  and 
necessity  of  the  Episcopal  polity.  Your  own  position  would 
also  have  given  the  opportunity  for  a  far  more  fruitful  discussion. 
The  opener  ought  to  have  been  a  man  on  the  other  side,  with 
a  definite  theory.  I  think  I  understand  your  position ;  and  as  I 
suppose  that  you  do  not  hold  the  high  doctrine  of  Episcopacy 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  389 

and  the  succession,  I  think  that  I  should  have  no  difficulty  in 
accepting  your  fundamental  proposition  that  it  was  "an  essential 
principle  of  the  early  Church  that  all  parts  of  the  Christian  com- 
munity should  hold  together,  and  that  Episcopacy  was — I  should 
say,  gradually  came  to  be — the  embodiment  of  the  principle  in  a 
manner  similar  to  that  in  which  loyalty  to  the  Queen  is  now  the 
practical  first  principle  of  English  national  life."  This  principle, 
that  all  parts  of  the  Church  or  Christian  community  should  hold 
together,  is  the  essential  thing  with  you.  That  Episcopacy 
happened  to  be — from  whatsoever  cause — the  form  under  which 
unity  came  to  be  asserted  is  a  secondary  matter.  Had  the 
Church  assumed  a  Presbyterian  organisation  like  that  of  the 
Scotch  Church,  your  case  against  separation  would  have  been 
equally  strong.  But  Episcopacy  was  the  actual  polity  in  which 
the  unity  of  the  Church  was  asserted.  Your  appeal,  if  I  rightly 
understand  you,  is  to  history.  It  has  so  happened  here  in 
England  that  the  throne  is  the  symbol  and  guarantee  of  our 
national  unity.  It  so  happened  that  Episcopacy  became  the 
symbol  and  guarantee  of  the  unity  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The 
authority  of  Episcopacy  rests,  therefore,  on  historic  grounds.  It 
is  in  possession,  however  it  came  there.  But  if  this  is  your  case, 
it  must  submit  to  historic  criticism.  Has  it  fulfilled  the  con- 
ditions which  any  system  of  church  polity  ought  to  satisfy  ?  Has 
it  historically  vindicated  its  position  ?  We  can  imagine  conditions 
under  which  loyalty  to  the  throne  would  be  destructive  of  the 
very  ends  of  national  life,  and  we  might  be  required  to  suppress 
the  throne  in  order  to  preserve  the  nation.  I  think  that  in 
Western  Christendom  analogous  conditions  had  arisen  in  relation 
to  the  authority  of  the  Roman  See  long  before  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  very  ends  for  which  the  Church  exists  were 
imperilled  by  the  formal  union  of  the  West  under  the  See  of 
Rome.  Even  granting — which  I  should  be  disposed,  and  more 
than  disposed  to  deny — that  there  was  ever  any  sufficient  religious 
reason,  as  distinguished  from  reasons  relating  to  the  civilisation 
and  culture  of  Europe,  for  the  kind  of  unity  which  was  broken 
up  by  the  Reformation,  I  should  contend  that  those  reasons  had 
long  disappeared.  At  what  point  in  the  development  of  the 
Episcopal  polity  any  number  of  individual  Christians  would  have 
been  justified  in  breaking  away  from  it  and  returning  to  the 
simpler  order  of  earlier  times  I  do  not  think  it  is  easy  to  say. 
The  right  of  possession  goes  a  very  long  way  with  me.  But  there 
was  superabundant  justification  of  the  English  "schism  "  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  and,  as  I  think,  of  the  Nonconformist  "schism  " 
in  the  seventeenth.  We  were  all  forced  out  of  Rome  together ; 
and  we  Nonconformists  were  forced  out  of  the  English  Church 


390  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

in  1662.  [The  justification  of  the  earlier  Nonconformists  rests 
on  less  obvious  grounds,  although  they  are  grounds  which,  to  me, 
are  not  less  real.] 

Having  thus  been  obliged  to  secede,  the  whole  question  of 
ecclesiastical  authority  becomes,  in  a  sense,  an  open  question  to 
us.  We  are  free  to  criticise  it.  The  conclusions  at  which  we 
arrive  are  such  as  these : — 

1.  The  Church  "held  together"  when  there  were  no  organic 
relations  between  distant  Christian  communities — between  Rome 
and  Corinth,  for  instance,  when  Clement  wrote  to  the  Corinthians; 
between  Smyrna  and  Philippi,  when  Polycarp  wrote  to  the 
Philippians. 

2.  The  development  of  diocesan  as  distinguished  from  congre- 
gational Episcopacy  (a)  tends  to  suppress  the  free  life  of  the 
separate  congregations,  to  diminish  their  sense  of  responsibility, 
to  lessen  the  motives  to  vigorous  exertion,  and  (b)  tends  also  to 
create  occasions  of  strife. 

Had  I  lived  in  Smyrna,  in  Polycarp's  time,  I  should  not  have 
felt  free  to  establish  an  "  Independent  "  church  in  a  suburb  of 
the  city.  To  have  done  it  would  have  been  schism  in  the  actual 
condition  of  Christian  thought  and  life.  To  have  established  an 
"  Independent  "  church  three  or  four  miles  out  of  Smyrna  would 
also,  I  suppose,  have  been  schism.  It  seems  to  me  and  other 
Congregationalists  that  this  extension  of  the  authority  of  the 
central  church  over  a  considerable  geographical  area,  and  the 
subsequent  development  of  archbishoprics  and  patriarchates,  has 
historically  failed  to  secure  real  unity,  and  that  what  was  intended 
to  hold  the  Christian  community  together  has  been  the  fruitful 
cause  of  bitter  divisions.     We  therefore  try  another  way. 

Take  my  own  case.  In  the  year  1859,  when  I  succeeded  to 
the  sole  pastorate  of  my  present  church,  I  was  in  a  position 
which  enabled  me  to  understand  the  development  of  diocesan 
Episcopacy.  Two  mission  stations  established  by  the  church  of 
which  I  was  pastor  had  grown  to  considerable  strength.  I  forget 
the  precise  number  of  communicants  at  each,  but  I  think  there 
were  about  120  at  one  and  about  150  at  the  other.  All  were 
admitted  into  the  fellowship  of  the  central  church  ;  all,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  had  the  franchise  in  the  central  church ;  all 
cases  of  discipline  were  submitted  to  the  central  church.  Each 
station  had  its  missionary  or  minister,  who  baptized  and  presided 
at  the  Lord's  Supper,  he  having  been  appointed  to  these  functions 
by  the  vote  of  the  central  church,  which  raised  him  from  the 
position  of  a  missionary  to  that  of  a  missionary  pastor.  I  thought 
I  saw  that  each  of  these  stations  had  become  vigorous  enough  to 
look  after  its  own  affairs,  and  that  if  it  were  left  to  do  so   it 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  391 

would  become  more  vigorous  still.  I  was  young  and  I  had  some 
fear  that  if  any  trouble  arose  in  the  church  the  votes  of  each  of 
these  mission  stations  would  be  given  en  bloc  under  the  influence 
naturally  belonging  to  its  local  leaders — the  members  being  more 
vitally  associated  with  each  special  mission  than  with  the  church 
as  a  whole. 

I  therefore  proposed  that  they  should  become  "independ- 
ent." They  accepted  the  proposal  very  cordially.  We  have 
continued  till  within  the  last  four  or  five  years  to  aid  them  both 
with  money ;  one  of  them  we  aid  still,  the  other  no  longer  needs 
our  help.  Morally  and  religiously  we  "  hold  together  "  just  as 
much  as  before ;  and  I  am  tolerably  clear  that  but  for  the  formal 
separation  there  would  have  been  chafing  and  irritation  again 
and  again,  by  which  the  existing  unity  of  spirit  would  have  been 
disturbed. 

The  kind  of  unity  we  maintain,  and  which  exists  between  all 
the  Congregational  churches  in  this  town,  is  very  real.  If  one 
church  excommunicates  a  member,  no  other  church  will  receive 
him  into  fellowship  without  conference  with  the  church  from 
which  he  was  expelled.  It  would  be  a  grave  offence  to  admit  a 
man  into  one  church  after  he  had  been  expelled  from  another, 
until  he  had  shown  adequate  penitence  for  his  offence. 

In  foreign  missions,  country  work,  and  many  other  forms  of 
Christian  usefulness,  we  work  together.  No  church  in  the  town 
would,  I  think,  invite  a  minister  when  the  pastorate  was  vacant 
if  there  was  reason  to  believe  that  he  was  regarded  with  distrust 
by  the  other  churches.  The  mutual  moral  influence  of  the 
churches  over  each  other  is  very  considerable  wherever  there  is 
healthy  life.  Their  organic  independence  of  each  other  renders 
it  possible  at  once  to  assert  liberty  of  action  when  there  is  any 
disposition  to  use  this  influence  for  selfish  purposes. 

Your  conception  of  the  Congregational  principle  is  both  true 
and  false.  No  doubt  it  happens  too  often  that  half  a  dozen 
people  fall  out  with  their  minister  and  go  off  to  establish  a 
separate  church.  There  is  nothing  to  hinder  them,  except  the 
moral  influence  of  neighbouring  churches.  If  there  is  wealth 
and  zeal  they  can  build  their  chapel  and  invite  their  minister ; 
but  it  does  not  follow  that  they  get  recognised  as  a  Congre- 
gational church.  They  may  remain  for  a  long  time  as  isolated 
as  a  Ritualistic  priest  in  a  town  which  is  in  possession  of  the 
Evangelicals.  Such  a  church  applies  for  admission  into  the 
County  Association.  Its  right  to  establish  itself  is  challenged  as 
a  matter  of  course  by  the  original  church,  and  the  challenge  is 
not  unfrequently  sustained.  The  church  is  then  left  out  in  the 
cold.     We  have  a  rule,  for  instance,  in  our  college  here  that  no 


392  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

such  church  shall  be  "  supplied "  by  students  from  the  college 
until  the  county  recognises  it.  It  has  broken  unity,  and  there  is 
no  "communion"  with  it.  I  have  been  a  minister  in  Birming- 
ham twenty-two  years.  No  case  has  arisen  during  the  whole 
time  of  the  illegitimate  establishment  of  a  Congregational 
church.  Church  after  church  has  been  established;  in  every 
case  the  movement  has  been  promoted  by  the  existing  churches. 

This  is  our  idea.  Often,  I  suppose — though  I  don't  know  many 
cases — the  idea  is  violated ;  and  when  it  is  violated,  I  think  it 
generally  happens  that  after  a  long  quarantine  the  revolting 
church  is  received  into  the  informal  fellowship  of  its  sister 
churches  and  its  original  sin  is  forgotten.  The  second  Congre- 
gational church  in  Birmingham — as  the  Americans  would  call  it 
— was  created  by  a  "schism  "  from  my  own  church  about  seventy 
years  ago ;  no  relations  could  be  more  cordial  than  those  which 
have  existed  between  us  ever  since  I  have  been  a  minister  here. 

In  short,  I  believe  that  history  shows  that  churches  will  "  hold 
together  "  better  on  the  Congregational  system  than  on  any  other; 
and  since  by  exclusion  from  the  Church  which  is  still  the  largest 
church  in  the  country  I  am  free  to  consider  what  church  polity 
is  most  in  harmony  with  the  genius  of  Christianity,  and  most 
conducive  to  the  ends  for  which  Christianity  exists,  I  am  a 
Congregationalist ;  and  my  reply  to  you  would  be,  Your  system 
never  had  anything  but  a  historical  justification,  and  historically 
it  has  broken  down  ;  it  has  proved  unequal  to  its  professed  end ; 
the  great  mass  of  those  who  serve  Christ  cannot  be  included  in 
one  organised  system,  therefore  you  have  no  right  to  refuse 
fraternal  recognition  to  those  who  are  not  included  in  it. 

What  a  letter  I  have  inflicted  on  you  !  I  am  afraid  that  there 
is  not  much  method  in  it ;  but  perhaps  it  may  suggest,  if  it  does 
not  express,  the  line  which  I  think  might  be  taken.  Pray  forgive 
my  prosiness. 


To  Mr.  E.  Stiff 

\\th  March  1887. 

I  noticed  a  week  or  two  ago  that  Mr.  Foxley  had  suggested 
some  scheme  for  reunion,  but  the  claims  upon  my  time  from 
the  Education  Commission  and  the  project  for  establishing  a 
Congregational  college  at  Oxford  are  so  heavy  that  I  read  nothing 
I  am  not  obliged  to  read  for  practical  purposes  or  to  keep  one's 
life  a  little  fresh  and  calm ;  and  as  I  have  no  confidence  in  the 
possibility  of  any  scheme  for  drawing  us  all  into  the  Establish- 
ment, I  passed  over  Mr.  Foxley's  proposals. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  393 

The  anxiety  created  by  the  drifting  of  some — perhaps  many — 
of  our  wealthier  young  people  into  the  Establishment  is,  as  you 
are  aware,  not  new.  It  was  probably  more  keen  and  intense 
about  1730  than  it  has  ever  been  since.  The  fact,  to  whatever 
extent  it  exists,  should  be  considered  with  earnestness,  and  its 
causes  investigated.  We  know  very  little  of  it  here,  though  of 
course  cases  sometimes  occur. 

For  myself,  the  Congregational  ideal  of  the  Church — an  ideal 
shared  by  both  branches  of  Congregationalists — is  so  august  and 
lofty,  that  I  cannot  surrender  it.  I  have  been  very  familiar 
with  the  best  High  Church  literature  for  thirty  years,  and  have 
had  personal  friends  among  the  High  Church  clergy.  From 
some  of  the  leaders  of  that  section  of  the  Church  I  have  received 
many  expressions  of  friendliness.  There  have  been  times  when 
I  have  felt  the  charm  of  their  position.  But  God  has  revealed 
"  some  better  thing  "  to  us,  and  to  that  we  must  be  faithful.  No 
doubt  the  vision  of  the  ideal  Church  which  came  to  our  fathers 
has  almost  faded,  but  it  has  not  been  altogether  lost.  It  has 
returned  to  some  in  these  days  of  agitation  and  trouble.  And 
what  has  particularly  struck  one  lately  is,  that  among  the  men 
who  have  been  most  powerfully  attracted  by  it,  are  young  men 
who  have  received  the  highest  culture,  who  are  exceptionally 
devout,  and  who  at  the  universities  have  had  the  best  means  of 
knowing  what  the  English  Church  really  is. 

And  so  I  am  of  good  heart.  Possibly  we  may  have  many  losses 
— I  cannot  tell.  The  wonder  to  me  is,  considering  that  the 
Congregational  ideal  has  been  almost  forgotten  for  several  genera- 
tions, and  its  place  taken  by  a  system  of  individualism,  that  our 
churches  have  survived.  Their  survival  is  an  illustration  of  the 
power  of  Evangelical  truth;  as  apart  from  a  great  polity  no  Church 
survives  long. 

To  "  The  Guardian  " 

January  1886. 

Canon  Fremantle  l  can  know  nothing  of  the  main  body  of 
Nonconformist  opinion,  if  he  imagines  that  his  proposals  would 

1  Canon  Fremantle  published  a  scheme  for  the  nationalisation  of  the  Church 
and  the  recognition  of  Nonconformists.  He  proposed  to  afford  them  oppor- 
tunities of  holding  services  of  a  freer  kind  than  those  of  the  Prayer-Book,  in 
the  Church  fabric,  and  within  the  Church  system.  He  declared  himself  opposed 
to  any  test  for  membership  of  the  Parochial  Councils  and  Church  Boards 
included  in  his  scheme.  The  Editor  of  the  Guardian  sent  the  scheme  to  Dale, 
asking  him,  as  a  representative  Nonconformist,  to  pass  an  opinion  on  it.  He 
replied  as  above. 


394  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

secure  much  Nonconformist  support.  They  would  be  resisted 
with  all  the  religious  enthusiasm  and  energy  of  the  party  in  the 
Establishment  that  cares  for  the  idea  of  the  Church  ;  and  to  be 
successful  would  require  the  support  of  equal  religious  earnestness 
on  the  other  side.  But  they  are  absolutely  destitute  of  any 
element  that  could  create  religious  enthusiasm  among  Noncon- 
formists. They  are  a  scheme  for  destroying  the  Church  to 
preserve  the  Establishment. 

One  of  Canon  Fremantle's  proposals  might  obtain  political 
support  if  he  were  willing  to  make  it  alone — the  proposed  vesting 
of  all  church  property  in  a  council  elected  by  all  the  ratepayers ; 
this  would  be  a  long  step  taken  towards  disendowment.  If  the 
Bishop  of  Worcester's  scheme  for  a  national  representative 
Council  of  Churchmen  were  also  adopted,  this  would  be  an 
equally  effective  movement  towards  disestablishment.  The  two 
together  would  make  the  future  work  of  the  Liberation  Society 
extremely  simple. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  attempt  to  confer  statutory  powers  on 
parochial  or  national  councils,  consisting  only  of  persons  described 
as  bona  fide  Churchmen,  would  meet  with  firm  resistance.  I  do 
not  think  that  many  Nonconformists  would  consent  to  a  scheme 
that  lessened  their  control  over  any  national  institution.  It 
would  be  a  measure  of  disfranchisement.  As  long  as  the  English 
Church'  is  politically  and  legally  the  Church  of  the  nation,  the 
whole  nation  must  share  in  the  government  of  it. 


To  Mr.  P.  W.  Bunting 

Llanbedr,  \\th  August  1889. 

.  .  .  On  what  I  suppose  to  be  your  main  point  I  think  that 
I  agree  with  you.  A  Church  should  be  an  institution  that  is 
formed  for  man,  like  the  State  and  the  Family,  not  an  organisation 
that  he  creates  for  himself.  In  this  sense  it  should  have  a  public 
character.  The  Church  of  England  has  this  public  character  in 
a  sense  in  which  our  churches  have  not.  I  remember  an 
observation  of  a  Radical  member  of  Parliament  which  struck  me 
at  the  time,  and  which  I  have  often  turned  over  in  my  mind 
since:  he  said,  "  I  do  not  approve  of  the  establishment  of  religion, 
but  I  go  to  Church  ;  and  the  reason  is  that  if  I  went  to  a 
Nonconformist  church  my  attendance  would  imply  acceptance 
of  its  creed,  but  my  attendance  at  Church  implies  nothing."  Put 
in  another  way,  I  suppose  that  this  is  equivalent  to  saying  that 
a  man's  English  citizenship  does  not  imply  approval  of  the 
monarchy.     The  monarchy  is  a  public  institution,  with  authority  ; 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  395 

a  man  may  submit  to  the  authority  without  any  intellectual 
approval  of  the  special  form  in  which  it  is  organised.  But  if  a 
man  joins  the  National  Liberal  Federation  he  professes  faith  in 
Liberalism.  His  adhesion  adds  to  the  authority — if  it  can  be 
called  authority — of  the  organisation.  In  the  case  of  the  State 
his  submission  has  no  such  effect.  In  the  one  case  he  makes  no 
choice ;  in  the  other  he  does.  To  me  there  is  in  the  Church, 
according  to  its  true  idea,  an  authority  analogous  to  that  which 
belongs  to  the  State.  So  far,  I  suppose  that  my  thought  runs  in 
the  current  of  yours.  Schism,  therefore,  or  the  dividing  of  the 
organic  unity  of  the  Church — the  setting  up  of  an  organisation 
which  a  company  of  Christian  men  suppose  to  be  in  nearer 
conformity  to  the  mind  of  Christ  than  the  existing  community — 
is  one  of  the  gravest  and  most  perilous  of  acts.  And  yet  there 
have  been  times  when  this  was  necessary,  and  when  the  seceders 
had  a  right  to  believe  that  the  presence  of  Christ  with  two  or 
three  gathered  together  in  His  name  justified  their  separation. 
Wace  pressed  me  some  years  ago  with  the  argument  for  Epis- 
copacy derived  from  the  historic  development  of  the  Church.1 
He  did  not  claim — if  I  understood  him — a  formal  Divine 
institution  for  Episcopacy,  but  said  that  it  must  be  the  will  of 
God  that  the  Church  should  hold  together,  and  that  as  a  matter 
of  fact  it  had  come  to  hold  together  under  Episcopacy,  as  England 
held  together  under  the  monarchy.  He  anticipated  the  obvious 
reply  that  England  had  broken  away  from  Western  Christendom 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  parried  it  by  saying,  If  you  are 
compelled  in  conscience  to  separate  from  us  as  we  were  compelled 
to  separate  from  Rome,  of  course  the  precedent  justifies  you ; 
but  are  the  evils  so  grave  that  separation  is  imperative  ? 

But  while  I  feel  the  force  of  your  plea  for  a  public  Church  I 
do  not  see  how  we  are  to  get  it.  Suppose  that  all  Evangelical 
Nonconformists  were  not  merely  to  federate  but  to  combine  in 
one  great  ecclesiastical  organisation,  they  would  not  become  a 
public  Church  in  the  sense  in  which  the  Anglican  Church  can 
now  be  so  described.  If  the  Catholic  worship  had  not  been 
suppressed  at  the  Reformation,  Anglicanism  would  have  had  to 
fight  through  generations  for  its  public  position — even  the 
adhesion  of  the  Sovereign  and  Parliament  would  not  have 
impressed  upon  it  a  public  character  as  against  the  older  institu- 
tion supported  still  by  a  large  part  of  Europe.  It  would  have 
taken  several  generations,  even  with  King  and  Parliament  on  its 
side,  to  have  made  good  its  position.  In  our  case  the  new 
Church  would  remain  for  a  very  much  longer  period  a  creation 
of  merely  private  persons,  not  the  historic,  authoritative  Church. 
1  See  above,  pp.  388  foil. 


396  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

This  argument  rests  on  the  assumption  that  combination  is 
possible  ;  but  even  Federation  seems  to  me  to  be  out  of  reach. 
I  was  at  Barmouth  yesterday.  We  Congregationalists  have  a 
wooden  church,  holding  perhaps  150  people;  the  Baptists,  three 
years  ago,  opened  a  church — stone,  however — holding  about  as 
many ;  your  people 1  have  also  a  church.  The  Baptists  and 
Wesleyans  conduct  English  service  only  in  the  season ;  it  is  the 
same  with  the  Presbyterians.  In  the  winter,  I  believe,  they  are 
all  with  us.  It  is  of  no  use  saying  that  such  a  policy  as  this  is 
hateful — I  could  swear  when  I  think  of  it.  It  exists.  It  is  far 
too  strong  to  be  suppressed.  Even  the  different  Methodist 
communities — with  a  common  creed,  common  institutions,  a 
common  ?}6o<s,  a  common  history,  and  with  the  causes  of  the 
original  divisions  gradually  disappearing — can  neither  combine 
nor  confederate ;  how  can  we  dream  of  a  more  general 
confederation  ? 

For  myself,  as  you  know,  I  believe  that  Congregationalism — 
not  in  its  actual  form,  but  in  its  principle — is  the  highest 
Christian  ideal.  Had  the  discovery  come  to  me  in  Elizabeth's 
time,  I  doubt  whether  I  should  have  had  the  courage  to  attempt 
to  realise  it.  My  conception  of  church  authority  would  probably 
have  restrained  me.  And  yet — I  might ;  for  in  those  days  the 
Anglican  Establishment  had  revolted  too  recently  to  have  the 
kind  of  public  position  which  it  has  acquired  since,  and  there 
was  the  tradition  of  a  long  line  of  secret  assemblies — virtually 
Congregational  churches — extending  from  Wiclifs  time  down- 
wards, and  there  were  traces,  perhaps,  of  still  earlier  assemblies 
of  the  same  kind.  But  now,  the  argument  has  another  shape. 
Historically,  the  Separatist  Churches  have  contributed,  in  evil 
times,  to  maintain  a  nobler  faith  and  a  deeper  life.  Christendom 
has  not  held  together.  The  West  separated  from  the  East ; 
England  separated  from  the  West;  at  the  very  time  of  the 
separation  the  Christian  life  of  England  struggled  for  expression 
and  organisation  in  other  forms  than  that  which  claims  our  sub- 
mission. The  "  world "  has  obstructed  and  suppressed  the 
Divine  life  of  the  Church,  and  the  "  unity  "  has  been  necessarily 
broken.  And  now  we  can  but  hope  for  its  restoration.  Mean- 
while we  contribute  most  to  realising  our  hope  by  loyally  serving 
what  seems  to  us  to  be  the  true  ideal  of  the  Church — recognising 
at  the  same  time  our  spiritual  unity  with  those  from  whom  we 
are  most  widely  separated,  Catholics  and  Anglicans  among 
them. 

There  is  clearly  no  word  of  guidance  in  me  for  the  movement 

1  The  Wesleyan  Methodists. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  397 

which  has  seemed  to  you  possible.  And  if  fusion,  or  even 
confederation,  is  ever  to  come,  it  must  come,  I  think,  under  a 
baptism  of  fire — either  from  God  or  the  passions  of  bad  men ;  a 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit  or  of  persecution — the  latter  assisting 
us  to  receive  the  former. 


CHAPTER    XVI 

A    MUNICIPAL    GOSPEL 

Politics  and  religion — God's  will  to  be  done  on  earth — Alderman  White  and 
his  work  in  the  Town  Council — A  municipal  gospel — New  standards 
for  public  men — The  Mayor  and  the  "Woodman" — Mr.  Chamberlain 
and  municipal  statesmanship  —  Dale  supports  the  new  school  —  His 
speeches  in  the  wards — The  character  of  public  men — The  Sunday 
evening  lectures  ;  an  unjust  monopoly — Dale's  protest  and  its  result — 
Mr.  Bunce's  estimate  of  his  position  and  influence  in  the  public  life  of 
Birmingham. 

When  Dale  first  began  to  take  an  active  part  in  politics, 
not  merely  asserting  principles  but  sharing  in  the  conflict 
through  which  principles  are  applied  in  action,  his  thought 
was  dominated  and  his  action  prescribed  by  the  idea  of 
the  Living  Christ.  For  him  the  Living  Christ  was  a 
reigning  Christ,  the  Prince  as  well  as  the  Saviour  of  men, 
whose  will  is  to  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven. 
On  His  head  are  "  many  crowns  "  ;  His  authority  extends 
to  every  province  of  human  energy.1  To  make  that 
authority  effective  and  supreme  is  the  duty  of  the  true 
Christian,  who  must  live  in  the  world  and  not  apart  from 
it,  in  the  world  but  not  of  it,  a  force  to  leaven  and  to 
purify.  If  at  any  point  in  the  domain  either  of  thought 
or  of  action,  Christ's  authority  is  not  asserted — whether 
in  art,  literature,  commerce,  or  politics — the  failure  to 
assert  it  is  criminal,  and  must  be  retrieved.  And  a 
Christian  minister — so  it  then  appeared  to  him — may  be 
bound   to  enforce  the  duty  not  by  precept  only  but  by 


1  See  The  Laws  of  Christ  for  Common  Life,  pp.  255  foil,  and  especially 
pp    266-269. 


A  MUNICIPAL  GOSPEL  399 

example.  His  conception  of  the  religious  life  was  essenti- 
ally Protestant ;  it  recognised  no  priesthood  save  the 
universal  priesthood  of  all  Christians  ;  it  ignored  the 
conventional  distinction  between  things  sacred  and  things 
secular  ;  all  work,  it  held,  is  sacred  in  which  a  man  can  do 
the  will  of  God,  and  God's  thought  and  purpose  are  as 
wide  as  life  itself.  In  politics,  therefore,  whether  national 
or  municipal,  Dale  felt  himself  to  be  an  "  ambassador  for 
Christ." 

Many  of  his  friends  found  it  difficult  to  understand  his 
position.  Canon  O'Sullivan,  for  instance,  the  Roman 
Catholic  Vicar-General  of  the  diocese,  would  often  banter 
him  in  private  about  his  political  ardour.  Sometimes  he 
would  take  a  graver  tone.  One  afternoon  when,  as  their 
way  was,  they  had  gone  to  the  Central  Nonconformist 
Committee  Room,  after  a  School  Board  meeting,  for  a  talk 
and  a  smoke,  O'Sullivan  suddenly  broke  short  the  con- 
versation and  said  in  his  sharp,  abrupt  tone  :  "  Dale,  when 
do  you  mean  to  quit  politics  and  look  after  your  soul  ? " 
The  precise  words  of  the  reply  cannot  be  recalled,  but 
this  was  their  substance  :  "  I  have  given  my  soul  to  Christ 
to  look  after,"  he  said  ;  "  He  can  do  it  better  than  /  can  : 
my  duty  is  to  do  His  will,  and  to  leave  the  rest  with 
Him." 

Frequently  criticism  and  counsel  took  another  form. 
Good  and  sometimes  kindly  people  who  wished  him  well 
and  were  distressed  by  his  public  action  would  send  him 
letters  of  remonstrance — often  unsigned — or  little  books 
of  a  devotional  and  contemplative  type.  In  one  of  these 
the  sender  had  written  :  "  There  are  no  politics  in  heaven  ; 
there  is  where  your  heart  should  be  ;  sad,  sad,  that  it  is 
otherwise  ! "  The  intention  might  be  kind,  but  the  argu- 
ment was  absurd.  The  same  protest,  and  in  the  same 
words — as  Dale  pointed  out  in  referring  to  the  incident 
— might  have  been  addressed  to  the  physician  of  a  hospital, 
or  to  the  chairman  of  a  railway  company  ;  it  might  have 
been  addressed  even  to  those  who  try  to  convert  the 
world  by  tea-meetings  and  tracts.  There  are  no  politics 
in  heaven  :  true  enough — in  the  partisan  sense.      But  in 


4oo  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

heaven  there  is  no  poverty,  no  crime,  which  unjust  or 
unwise  laws  have  helped  to  create  ;  there  are  no  social 
wrongs  to  redress.  Heaven  as  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
.the  ideal  and  final  polity.  But  on  earth  it  is  otherwise,  and 
the  Christian  man  is  bound  so  to  bear  his  part  here  that 
good  shall  prevail  over  evil  ;  he  may  serve  Christ  in  the 
polling-booth  or  on  the  platform,  in  Parliament,  in  the 
Town  Council,  or  on  the  Board  of  Guardians.  That  was 
a  truth  which  Dale  never  wearied  of  asserting.  He  would 
never  admit  that  religious  devotion  can  excuse  any 
neglect  of  private  or  public  duty. 

God's  commandments  are  much  broader  than  some  good 
people  imagine,  and  to  fulfil  them  properly  they  must  surrender 
their  whole  heart  and  will  to  Him.  .  .  .  His  commandments 
cover  your  municipal  life,  and  no  devoutness  can  be  an  excuse 
for  not  paying  your  rates,  neither  can  it  be  an  excuse  for  keeping 
away  from  the  polling-booth  at  the  time  of  an  election.  If  you 
neglect  looking  after  property  over  which  you  are  trustees,  and 
as  a  result  of  that  neglect  others  are  deprived  of  a  portion  of 
that  property,  you  commit  a  grave  sin ;  and  you  also  commit  a 
grave  sin  if  you  neglect  using  your  municipal  vote,  and  as  a 
result  of  that  neglect  the  town  is  badly  governed. 

According  to  the  Divine  order,  civil  authority  is  necessary  to 
the  existence  of  civil  society.  Civil  rulers  are  "  ministers  of 
God  " ;  but  they  are  not  designated  to  their  office  by  a  voice 
from  heaven.  .  .  .  (They)  have  to  be  selected,  directly  or 
indirectly,  by  those  who  possess  the  franchise.  It  is  surely  a 
part  of  God's  service  to  determine  who  shall  be  God's  "  ministers," 
and  for  the  manner  in  which  we  discharge  this  service  we  are 
responsible  to  God.  Not  to  vote  is  to  act  the  part  of  the  un- 
faithful servant  who  hid  his  talent  in  the  earth  and  made  no  use 
of  it.  To  vote  corruptly  is  felony  ;  it  is  to  appropriate  to  our 
own  purposes  what  we  have  received  as  trustees  for  the  town  or 
the  nation.1 

He  often  illustrated  the  principle  by  reterence  to  the 
case  of  Alderman  White,  well  known  throughout  the 
country  as  a  prominent  member  of  the  Society  of 
Friends. 

1   The  Laws  of  Christ  for  Common  Life,  p.  20 1. 


A  MUNICIPAL  GOSPEL  401 

Two  years  ago  a  friend  of  mine  in  Birmingham,  who  for  very 
many  years  has  had  a  large  Bible  Class  of  young  men  on  Sunday 
mornings — I  am  afraid  to  say  how  large  the  class  is,  but  if  I  say 
two  hundred  men  attended  every  Sunday,  I  think  I  should  fall 
short  of  the  number, — this  gentleman  stood  for  the  Town  Council 
when  a  vacancy  occurred  in  one  of  the  worst  wards  in  the 
borough.  There  were  two  or  three  thousand  voters  in  that 
ward ;  they  were  a  very  rough  set ;  we  fought  hard,  and  we 
carried  him.  Ten  days  ago  he  rose  in  the  Council.  He  was 
able  to  say  that  he  had  visited  every  street,  every  court  in  his 
ward.  He  told  an  appalling  story  of  the  condition  of  the  people 
in  that  ward  and  in  some  adjacent  wards.  He  spoke  of  the 
squalid  homes  in  which  they  were  living,  destructive  to  health, 
and  rendering  all  high  moral  Christian  life  almost  impossible. 
He  submitted  to  the  Council  an  elaborate  scheme  for  sweeping 
all  the  wretched  district  away  at  a  cost  of  four  and  a  half 
millions.  The  Council  accepted  the  proposal  unanimously. 
Now  I  believe  that  my  friend  was  trying  to  get  the  will  of  God 
done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven  just  as  much  when  he  was 
fighting  St.  Mary's  ward,  just  as  much  when  he  was  speaking  in 
the  Town  Council,  as  when  he  was  teaching  his  Bible  Class  on 
the  Sunday  morning. 

In  the  sketch  contributed  to  the  Life  of  his  friend  and 
fellow- worker,  Dr.  Crosskey,  Dale  described  the  growth 
and  progress  of  the  new  idea  of  municipal  duty  by  which 
Birmingham  has  for  long  been  distinguished.  The  change 
was  not  brought  about  in  a  day,  nor  without  resolute 
effort  and  patient  self-sacrifice. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  sixties  a  few  Birmingham  men  made 
the  discovery,  that  perhaps  a  strong  and  able  Town  Council 
might  do  almost  as  much  to  improve  the  conditions  of  life  in  the 
town  as  Parliament  itself.  I  have  called  it  a  "  discovery  "  ;  for 
it  had  all  the  freshness  and  charm — it  created  all  the  enthusiasm 
— of  a  "discovery."  One  of  its  first  effects  was  to  invest  the 
Council  with  new  attractiveness  and  dignity.  Able  men  and 
men  of  considerable  social  position  had  already  discharged 
municipal  duties,  but  very  many  of  their  colleagues  were  of  a 
very  inferior  order.  It  now  became  the  ambition  of  young  men, 
and  cultivated  men,  and  men  of  high  social  position,  to  repre- 
sent a  ward  and  to  become  aldermen  and  mayors.  The  weaker 
and  less  effective  members  of  the  Corporation  were  gradually 
dropped,  and  their  places  filled  by  men  of  quite  a  new  type. 
2  D 


402  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

The  November  ward  meetings  assumed  a  new  character.  The 
speakers,  instead  of  discussing  small  questions  of  administration 
and  of  economy,  dwelt  with  glowing  enthusiasm  on  what  a  great 
and  prosperous  town  like  Birmingham  might  do  for  its  people. 
They  spoke  of  sweeping  away  streets  in  which  it  was  not  possible 
to  live  a  healthy  and  decent  life ;  of  making  the  town  cleaner, 
sweeter,  and  brighter;  of  providing  gardens  and  parks  and 
music  ;  of  erecting  baths  and  free  libraries,  an  art  gallery  and  a 
museum.  They  insisted  that  great  monopolies  like  the  gas  and 
water-supply  should  be  in  the  hands  of  the  Corporation  ;  that 
good  water  should  be  supplied  without  stint  at  the  lowest  possible 
prices ;  that  the  profits  of  the  gas-supply  should  relieve  the 
pressure  of  the  rates.  Sometimes  an  adventurous  orator  would 
excite  his  audience  by  dwelling  on  the  glories  of  Florence  and 
of  the  other  cities  of  Italy  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  suggest  that 
Birmingham,  too,  might  become  the  home  of  a  noble  literature 
and  art. 

The  original  creation  of  this  new  spirit  was,  I  believe,  due  to 
the  late  Mr.  George  Dawson,  more  than  to  any  other  man.  For 
many  years  he  had  been  teaching  that  unless  the  best  and  ablest 
men  in  a  community  were  willing  to  serve  it,  new  laws  could 
not  work  any  great  reformation ;  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
those  who  derived  their  prosperity  and  opportunities  of  culture 
from  the  community  to  become  its  servants. 

Mr.  Dawson  was  the  "  prophet  "  of  the  new  movement.  But 
Mr.  Dawson  had  not  the  kind  of  faculty  necessary  for  putting 
his  generous  faith  into  practice.  This  was  largely  done  by  Mr. 
Joseph  Chamberlain,  who  began  to  show  proof  of  those  great 
powers  which  have  since  been  recognised  by  the  nation.  Mr. 
Chamberlain  gave  himself  to  the  municipal  work  with  a  contagious 
enthusiasm.  He  did  not  merely  enter  the  Council,  give  a  large 
amount  of  time  and  strength  to  its  committees,  make  striking 
and  eloquent  speeches  on  the  new  municipal  policy ;  he  used  his 
social  influence  to  add  strength  to  the  movement.  He  appealed 
in  private  to  men  of  ability  who  cared  nothing  for  public  life,  and 
he  showed  how  much  they  might  do  for  the  town  if  they  would 
go  into  the  Council ;  he  insisted  that  what  they  were  able  to  do, 
it  was  their  duty  to  do.  He  dreamt  dreams  and  saw  visions  of 
what  Birmingham  might  become,  and  resolved  that  he,  for  his 
part,  would  do  his  utmost  to  fulfil  them.  The  new  movement 
was  fortunate  in  securing,  from  the  first,  the  able  support  and 
wise  guidance  of  the  Birmingham  Daily  Post.  Its  editor,  Mr. 
Bunce,  was  the  trusted  friend  and  adviser  of  the  leaders,  and  the 
intimate  personal  friend  of  the  most  important  of  them.  Through 
the   columns  of  the  most  powerful   newspaper  in  the   Midland 


A  MUNICIPAL  GOSPEL  403 

Counties  the  new   ideas  about  municipal  life  and   duty  were 
pressed  on  the  whole  community.1 

By  slow  degrees  the  change  was  wrought.  The  new 
spirit  made  itself  felt  in  many  ways.  For  instance,  ward 
meetings  were  no  longer  held  in  public  -  houses.  The 
councillors  themselves  found  a  new  standard  of  dignity 
prescribed  for  them. 

It  is  all  so  remote  now  that  perhaps  without  any  risk 
of  offence  one  other  illustration  of  the  change  in  the  public 
feeling  may  be  recalled.  It  was  the  custom  in  those  days 
for  several  prominent  members  of  the  Town  Council  to 
meet  at  the  "  Woodman,"  a  well-known  tavern  in  the  town, 
and  to  discuss  Council  business  in  a  kind  of  informal  caucus. 
There  was  nothing  against  the  house,  but  the  habit  was,  to 
say  the  least,  undignified,  and  was  strongly  resented  by  those 
of  the  new  school.  Direct  protest,  of  course,  would  have 
done  more  harm  than  good  ;  but  at  last  an  opportunity 
came.  It  was  at  the  time  when  the  country  rose  in  arms 
to  support  Mr.  Plimsoll's  demand  that  the  Government 
should  take  action  against  unseaworthy  ships.  A  town's 
meeting  was  held  at  Birmingham,  presided  over  by  the 
Mayor.  Mr.  Vince,  the  minister  of  Graham  Street  Chapel, 
was  one  of  the  speakers  ;  a  man  of  genial  humour,  who 
always  fought  smiling.  In  his  speech  he  reminded  the 
meeting  that  the  sailor's  whole  life  was  bounded  by  his 
ship.  The  ship  was  the  sailor's  home,  and  at  the  same 
time  his  prison,  from  week  to  week  and  from  month  to 
month.  It  was  his  Free  Library  and  his  Art  Gallery  ; 
"  and  if,  Mr.  Mayor,"  he  continued,  "  he  wants  to  spend  an 
hour  in  the  parlour  of  the  Woodman,  the  ship  must  be  his 
Woodman  too."  The  Mayor  of  the  day  was  generally 
understood  to  be  one  of  the  most  regular  frequenters  of 
the  tavern  in  question,  and  the  sally  was  received  with 
tumultuous  laughter.  Then  suddenly  the  laughter  stopped  ; 
the  audience  saw  the  reproof  veiled  in  the  jest,  and  with 
one  impulse  they  began   to  applaud,  steadily — one  might 

1  R.   W.    Dale    in    Henry   William   Crosskey :    his  Life  and   Work,    by 
Richard  Acland  Armstrong,  B.A.,  pp.  248  foil.      1895. 


4c4  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

almost  say  seriously — for  several  minutes.  The  significance 
of  the  demonstration  was  clear — the  town  had  set  up  a 
new  standard  of  dignity  for  its  public  men. 

Dale,  as  a  minister  of  religion,  was  disqualified  by  law 
for  election  to  the  Council — a  disability  that  he  was  some- 
times disposed  to  resent.  But  even  from  outside  he  was 
able  to  make  his  influence  felt,  in  supporting  those  who 
had  given  themselves  to  municipal  work,  and  in  urging 
men  of  position  and  ability  to  undertake  the  public  duty 
that  lay  nearest  to  them  and  that  was  most  effective  in  its 
results,  even  if  it  involved  sacrifice  and  drudgery.  In  the 
contests  at  the  November  elections  he  went  into  the  wards, 
year  after  year,  especially  where  the  fight  was  close,  often 
addressing  two  or  three  meetings  a  night  in  support  of  the 
policy  that  he  believed  would  promote  the  welfare  and  the 
security  of  his  fellow-townsmen.  He  has  described  the 
enthusiasm  with  which  the  "  municipal  gospel "  was  pro- 
claimed by  Dr.  Crosskey  and  others,  who  related  every- 
thing to  the  great  principles  that  regulate  the  destiny  of 
nations,  and  heralded  the  advent  of  a  new  millennium. 
His  own  temperament  was  less  sanguine.  He  had  less 
faith  than  some  of  his  friends  in  the  power  of  any  change 
in  the  social  order  to  transform  the  world,  but  he  was  con- 
vinced that  the  new  policy,  if  it  could  not  do  everything, 
might  do  much. 

But  though  often  weary  and  sometimes  despond- 
ent, he  had  a  genuine  and  hearty  delight  in  conflict — 
for  high  ends  and  great  issues.  He  threw  himself  into 
the  struggle  with  exultant  energy.  On  the  platform  of 
the  Town  Hall  the  vigour  with  which  he  pulled  off  his 
overcoat  as  he  rose  to  speak  was  a  sure  sign  of  what  was 
coming  ;  and  when  the  meeting  was  tempestuous,  as  often 
happened  when  both  political  parties  were  present  in  force, 
he  ploughed  along  through  the  storm  with  the  steady  rush 
of  an  Atlantic  liner  as  it  shoulders  its  way  through  blus- 
tering seas.  He  would  fight  a  campaign  in  the  same 
persistent  spirit,  night  after  night,  week  after  week,  without 
pause  or  check.  He  kept  to  the  work  until  it  was  done, 
and  until  he  felt  that  it  was  done.      He  was  a  formidable 


A  MUNICIPAL  GOSPEL  405 

antagonist.  Once  a  candidate  after  defeat  ruefully  com- 
plained that  all  was  going  well  in  his  division  till  Dale 
came  down.  Then  there  was  a  change.  "  He  swept 
through  it  like  a  simoom,"  said  the  poor  man,  "  and  so  far 
as  my  chances  went  he  left  it  a  desert."  That  was  the 
kind  of  conflict  that  Dale  enjoyed  :  he  had  a  friendly 
feeling  for  the  Greek  hero  who  did  "  no  retail  fighting." 

No  public  man  ever  treated  his  audiences,  however 
insignificant,  with  greater  respect.  His  one  aim  was  to 
instruct  and  to  convince  those  who  had  come  to  hear  him. 
The  very  fact  of  their  presence  implied  an  obligation  on 
his  part  to  do  his  best  for  them  ;  and  his  speeches  on 
such  occasions,  though  simple,  had  the  simplicity  that 
comes  only  by  study  and  care.  During  those  years  a 
succession  of  serious  questions  came  before  the  burgesses 
— the  acquisition  of  the  gas  and  the  water-supply  by  the 
community,  the  provision  of  public  parks  and  public  build- 
ings, a  more  efficient  system  of  sanitary  measures,  a  costly 
sewage  scheme,  the  establishment  of  free  libraries  and  an 
art  gallery,  a  plan  for  sweeping  away  the  slums  in  the 
heart  of  the  town — great  measures  conceived  and  advocated 
on  broad  lines  of  municipal  statesmanship,  but  of  a  kind 
to  provoke  prejudice  and  to  call  forth  a  false  cry  of 
economy.  In  dealing  with  such  questions,  Dale  spoke 
with  full  and  exact  knowledge.  He,  too,  could  see  visions 
and  dream  dreams ;  he  never  hesitated  to  set  forth  a 
loftier  ideal  than  could  be  reached  at  the  moment,  for  he 
believed  in  aiming  high.  But  he  was  ready  to  meet 
critics  and  opponents  on  the  ground  of  solid  fact ;  to  show 
that  increased  expenditure,  if  wisely  directed,  was  not 
extravagant,  and  that  it  did  not  necessarily  involve  the 
raising  of  the  rates,  since  all  that  tends  to  lessen  sickness 
and  crime,  and  to  lift  the  general  level  of  well-being, 
more  than  repays  the  cost.  And  against  the  prejudice 
which  all  social  progress  encounters — the  selfishness  that 
asks,  Why  may  I  not  live  as  I  like?  May  I  not  do  what 
I  will  with  my  own  ? — he  swept  with  a  stern  and  fiery 
indignation.  But  he  never  lost  himself  in  declamation. 
The  success  he  sought  was  to  kindle  the  enthusiasm  that 


406  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

spreads    converts,    to   win    their  votes    rather    than    their 
applause. 

He  believed  in  the  dignity  as  well  as  in  the  duty  of 
municipal  life.  Accustomed  as  he  was  in  his  own  ex- 
perience to  misrepresentation  and  slander,  which  for  the 
most  part  he  bore  without  resentment,  he  was  very  jealous 
for  the  honour  of  those  who  were  doing  their  best  to  serve 
the  town.  Reckless  attacks  on  personal  character,  malig- 
nant aspersion  of  public  integrity,  stirred  him  to  the 
depths.  Once  when  unfounded  charges  of  this  kind  had 
been  made,  he  startled  the  company  at  the  annual  dinner 
given  to  the  outgoing  Mayor  by  the  vehement  passion  of 
his  protest. 

Those  who  are  entrusted  with  the  tasks  of  municipal  govern- 
ment are  invested  with  the  gravest  responsibilities.  To  permit 
personal  motives  or  the  interest  of  any  political  party  to  affect 
municipal  appointments  or  the  discharge  of  public  duty,  would 
be  to  betray  one  of  the  gravest  trusts  with  which  men  can 
entrust  their  fellows.  I  venture  to  say  that  when  trusts  of  that 
sort  are  discharged  honourably  and  faithfully,  it  is  a  scandal  and 
a  shame  and  a  peril  to  a  town  to  impeach  the  integrity  of  those 
public  men  who  are  faithfully  serving  it.  Slander  honest  men  in 
public  service,  and  by  and  by  we  shall  have  no  honest  men  to 
serve  the  public.  Slander  those  who  try  to  discharge  their  public 
duties  faithfully,  and  we  shall  have  men  in  office  before  long 
whom  it  will  be  impossible  to  slander,  because  they  will  be  guilty 
of  all  the  evil  that  will  be  said  of  them. 

For  the  most  part  he  worked  in  unbroken  accord  with 
the  Liberal  party  in  the  Council,  but  he  showed  himself 
ready  to  oppose  them  with  his  whole  strength  on  one 
occasion  when  they  seemed  likely  to  perpetuate  what  he 
considered  an  act  of  religious  injustice.  The  conflict  arose 
in  connection  with  the  Sunday  evening  lectures  organised 
in  the  town.  For  a  time  these  lectures,  restricted  to 
secular  subjects,  had  been  held  in  a  Board  School  ;  but  in 
the  autumn  of  1880  the  attendance  had  so  increased  as 
to  require  larger  accommodation,  and  the  Town  Hall  was 
granted  by  the  Mayor  for  their  use  during  a  limited 
period.      This  was  in   itself  a   departure  from   established 


A  MUNICIPAL  GOSPEL  407 

custom.  It  had  not  been  usual  to  allow  any  monopoly  of 
the  Hall  for  a  series  of  Sundays.  Sometimes,  when  a 
congregation  were  temporarily  unable  to  meet  in  their  own 
place  of  worship,  and  could  not  find  a  suitable  building 
elsewhere,  the  concession  had  been  extended  through  a  few 
weeks.  But  such  cases  were  rare  and  exceptional,  and 
although  a  young  minister,  Mr.  Leach,  had  been  granted 
the  use  of  the  Hall  for  religious  services  on  Sunday  after- 
noons not  long  before  this  time,  the  precedent  had  already 
been  found  inconvenient,  and  the  Mayor,  whose  personal 
sympathy  with  the  Lectures  Committee  was  well  known, 
announced  that  for  reasons  of  a  practical  kind  he  had 
decided  not  to  grant  the  Hall  for  future  use  on  Sundays 
except  under  very  special  circumstances.  This  decision 
was  strongly  resented  by  the  supporters  of  the  lectures. 
A  private  memorial  was  presented  to  the  Mayor,  requesting 
him  to  reconsider  his  determination,  but  without  effect. 
Then  a  member  of  the  Council,  Mr.  Baldwin,  gave  notice 
of  a  resolution  granting  the  free  use  of  the  Hall  to  the 
Lectures  Committee  for  four  months  to  come.  The 
resolution  was  neither  courteous  to  the  Mayor  nor  reason- 
able in  itself ;  it  settled  no  principle  :  it  opened  the  Hall 
to  the  lectures  while  it  left  the  Mayor's  decision  to  stand 
good  against  all  other  applicants. 

The  announcement  gave  the  signal  for  a  keen  and 
excited  controversy.  On  New  Year's  Day,  1881,  Dale 
published  a  letter  in  the  Daily  Post,  protesting  against  the 
policy  which  the  Town  Council  were  asked  to  adopt, 
declining  to  discuss  the  relative  merits  of  lectures  and 
sermons,  but  asking  that  the  municipal  authorities  should 
not  take  sides  with  one  as  against  the  other,  and  that 
they  should  deal  equitably  both  between  persons  and 
principles.  He  stated  his  objection  in  the  following 
way : — 

If  a  couple  of  thousand  persons  who  hold  one  theory  about 
the  religious  uses  of  Sunday,  want  to  assemble  week  after  week 
to  listen  to  sermons  and  to  unite  in  religious  worship,  they  have 
to  raise  ,£15,000  or  £20,000  to  erect  a  building,  and  they  have 
to  incur  a  heavy  annual  expense  in  keeping  it  in  repair.      If  a 


4o8  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

couple  of  thousand  people  who  hold  another  theory  about  the 
religious  uses  of  Sunday,  want  to  assemble  week  after  week  to 
listen  to  lectures,  it  is  inequitable  for  the  municipal  authorities 
to  step  in  to  relieve  them  of  similar  responsibilities.  It  would 
be  unjust  for  the  town  to  place  its  one  great  building  at  the 
service  of  those  who  believe  that  the  best  hours  of  Sunday  should 
be  used  for  religious  purposes ;  it  is  equally  unjust  for  the  town 
to  place  its  one  great  building  at  the  service  of  those  who  think 
differently.  The  duty  of  reserving  Sunday  for  religious  purposes 
is  a  principle  held  very  tenaciously  by  tens  of  thousands  of  the 
ratepayers  of  Birmingham.  The  promoters  of  the  Sunday  even- 
ing lectures  are  agreed  in  renouncing  this  principle,  and  they 
are  giving  effect  to  their  conviction.  Two  principles  are  in 
open  conflict.  The  Town  Council  should  decline  to  give 
any  advantage  to  one  principle  which  it  cannot  give  to  the 
other. 

He  referred  to  his  own  action  when  an  attempt  had 
been  made  by  some  of  the  local  clergy  to  close  the  Board 
Schools  against  the  lectures,  and  to  allow  the  school-rooms 
to  be  used  on  a  Sunday  for  religious  services  alone.  That 
demand  he  had  resisted  as  a  violation  of  the  principle  of 
religious  equality.  Some  of  the  rooms  were  let  for 
religious  services  and  for  Sunday  Schools  ;  it  was  unjust, 
therefore,  to  exclude  those  who  wanted  rooms  for  secular 
lectures.  There  was  accommodation  for  both  parties,  and 
in  dealing  with  buildings  erected  and  maintained  at  the 
public  expense,  it  would  be  gross  unfairness  to  deny  to 
one  section  of  the  community  a  privilege  conceded  to  the 
other.  He  applied  the  same  principle  to  the  present  case. 
The  Town  Hall — the  one  building  of  its  kind — ought  to 
be  at  the  disposal  of  all  parties,  and  the  only  way  of 
securing  that  end  was  to  grant  the  use  of  it  only  in 
emergencies.  The  fact  that  Mr.  Leach  had  been  allowed 
to  use  it  on  Sunday  afternoons  for  many  weeks  in 
succession  did  not  solve  the  difficulty,  but  raised  it  in  a 
new  form.  Other  ministers  who  had  made  a  similar 
request  had  been  refused  ;  why  should  one  man  be 
admitted  while  others  were  excluded  ?  As  the  spokesman 
of  the  general  opinion  among  the  Nonconformists  of  the 
town,   and    supported   in    his   contention   by   a    ministers' 


A  MUNICIPAL  GOSrEL  409 

memorial,  he   urged   that   Mr.  Baldwin's  resolution  should 
be  rejected. 

For  several  days  the  controversy  continued  without 
any  abatement  of  interest.  The  newspapers  were  filled 
with  letters  from  partisans  of  either  side.  Dale  was 
violently  attacked  by  the  supporters  of  the  lectures  for 
the  part  that  he  had  taken.  He  had  made  up  his  mind  ; 
his  blood  was  up  ;  he  would  not  budge  an  inch.  Two 
days  before  the  Council  met,  on  the  Sunday  evening,  he 
discussed  the  issue  placed  before  the  town  and  its  repre- 
sentatives, preaching  from  the  text,  "  That  which  is  alto- 
gether just  shalt  thou  follow,  that  thou  mayest  live." l 
The  question  of  Sabbath  observance  had  been  raised  in 
the  controversy.  One  over-zealous  friend  of  the  move- 
ment had  expressed  a  hope  that  he  might  live  to  see  the 
time  when  two  teams  from  St.  Martin's  and  Carr's  Lane 
would  play  a  football  match  on  a  Sunday  afternoon, 
while  the  rector  and  the  minister  looked  on.  Some  had 
denounced  Dale  and  his  supporters  as  narrow-minded 
Sabbatarians.  In  his  discourse  he  took  occasion  to  state 
his  real  opinions  on  that  subject,  which  were  by  no 
means  in  accordance  with  rigid  tradition.  But  this,  as 
Dale  pointed  out,  was  altogether  beside  the  question. 
The  wisdom  or  the  futility  of  Sabbath  observance  was 
not  a  matter  with  which  the  Town  Council  had  anything 
to  do.  Its  members  had  not  been  elected  to  decide  such 
questions  ;  it  was  not  a  matter  in  which  their  opinion 
could  have  any  authority.  Two  distinct  theories  as  to  the 
right  use  of  the  Sunday  prevailed  in  the  community  ;  the 
duty  of  the  Council,  as  trustees  for  the  community,  was  to 
dispense  justice  evenly  to  all  sections  of  those  whom  they 
represented.  Mr.  Baldwin's  resolution  he  objected  to  as 
unjust  ;  he  also  demurred  to  an  arrangement  suggested 
as  a  compromise,  which  would  have  made  it  possible  to 
interrupt  any  continuous  occupation  of  the  Hall  by  any 
one  portion  of  the  community. 

It  would  be  in  my  power,  no  doubt,  to  give  early  notice  that 
I  should  want  the  Hall  to  preach   in  for  two  Sundays  in  the 
1  Deuteronomy  xvi.  20. 


4io  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

middle  of  next  September,  and  by  doing  this  I  should  break  the 
continuous  use  of  the  Hall  by  the  lecturers  during  that  month ; 
and  Mr.  Platten x  might  apply  for  the  Hall  for  two  or  three 
Sundays  in  October,  and  so  break  the  continuous  use  of  the 
Hall  during  the  next  month.  The  same  process  might  be  re- 
peated month  after  month,  and  those  who  go  to  the  lectures  in 
the  Hall,  because  they  are  unable  to  attend  any  existing  place 
of  worship,  would  be  subjected  to  perpetual  disturbance  and 
annoyance.  Some  of  them  might  even  go  to  the  Hall  expecting 
to  be  instructed  and  edified  by  a  lecture  on  the  War  in  Afghan- 
istan, by  Major  Bond,  and  to  their  distress  might  find  me  preach- 
ing some  obsolete  evangelical  superstition,  and  telling  men  that 
"  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only-begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him  may  not  perish,  but  have  ever- 
lasting life." 

My  first  impulse  when  I  heard  of  Mr.  Baldwin's  resolution 
was  to  challenge  the  justice  of  the  Council  by  applying  for  the 
use  of  the  Hall  for  a  month  for  religious  services;  and,  of  course, 
under  the  amendment  which  I  am  now  discussing,  I  could  make 
the  application  and  so  prevent  that  continuous  use  of  the  Hall 
by  the  lecturers  to  which  I  object.  There  is  a  great  deal  of 
the  old  Adam  in  me  yet.  I  like  peace,  and  yet  when  provoked 
to  a  fight,  the  fire  is  apt  to  kindle  at  a  touch  and  to  break  out 
into  a  sudden  blaze.  And  it  would  be  perfectly  legitimate  for 
those  of  us  who  want  the  Hall  used  fairly,  to  break  the  con- 
tinuity of  the  lectures  by  these  recurring  interruptions.  But  it 
would  be  singularly  ungracious  to  do  it.  It  could  not  be  done 
without  continual  irritation.  It  would  produce  division  and 
animosity  among  men  who,  whatever  their  religious  differences, 
have  in  past  years  not  only  observed  in  public  those  kindly 
courtesies  which  sweeten  public  life,  but  have  been  cordial 
friends  in  private.  It  would  imperil  their  harmonious  co-opera- 
tion in  municipal  anH  philanthropic  movements. 

To  state  the  case  in  a  single  sentence :  This  amendment 
would  either  leave  to  the  lecturers  the  usual  occupancy  of  the 
Hall,  disturbed  only  by  emergencies,  which  is  the  favoured 
position  of  the  Musical  Association,  or  it  would  require  the 
"  sects  "  to  break  up  their  occupancy  by  arranging  for  special 
religious  services. 

I  object  to  both  alternatives. 

The  continuous  use  of  the  Hall  by  the  lecturers  identifies 
the  whole  town  with  the  movement ;  if  in  order  to  prevent  this 
continuous  use  the   "  sects  "  are  required  to  interfere  with  the 

1  Minister  of  Graham  Street  Baptist  Chapel,  and  of  the  "Church  of  the 
Redeemer." 


A  MUNICIPAL  GOSPEL  411 

regular  delivery  of  the  lectures  in  the  same  building,  this  is  to 
impose  on  us  a  most  ungracious  task. 

It  had  been  alleged  that  Sabbatarian  prejudice  was 
the  real  source  of  the  opposition,  and  that  the  protest 
should  therefore  be  ignored.  In  the  closing  passages  of 
the  sermon  he  dealt  with  this  view,  not  attempting  to 
disguise  his  indignation  and  his  pain. 

The  brief  summary  of  several  letters  which  have  been  pub- 
lished during  the  last  week  is  this :  We  are  not  sure  that  we 
can  answer  the  argument  that  for  the  lecturers  to  have  the 
continuous  use  of  the  Hall  is  unjust,  but  the  energy  with  which 
the  argument  is  urged  receives  all  its  inspiration  from  Sabbatarian 
zeal ;  and  therefore  we  are  resolved  not  to  listen  to  it. 

And  have  we  come  to  this  ?  Is  there  any  section  of  the 
community  so  despised,  so  loathed,  so  hated,  that  even  when  it 
asks  for  bare  justice  from  the  Liberals  of  Birmingham  it  is  not 
to  be  listened  to  ?  If  there  be,  then  whether  it  consists  of  my 
theological  and  political  opponents,  or  of  my  theological  and 
political  friends,  I  for  my  part  am  resolved  to  stand  by  it 
against  every  storm  of  abuse,  and  to  press  its  righteous  demands 
on  the  town  until  they  are  conceded  to  the  uttermost  farthing. 

No  doubt  the  present  demand  for  justice  at  the  hands  of  the 
Town  Council  derives  immense  force  from  the  strength  of  that 
attachment  to  the  traditional  Sunday  which  is  offended  by  the 
secular  lectures.  What  then  ?  This  does  not  make  the  de- 
mand less  just ;  and  it  is  the  grossest  intolerance  to  refuse  the 
demand  for  justice  merely  because  it  comes  from  a  theological 
antagonist.  But  it  is  not  the  Sabbatarians  alone  who  press  this 
demand.  It  is  pressed  by  large  numbers  of  men  who  do  not 
share  Sabbatarian  opinions,  but  who  are  resolved  that  if  they 
can  prevent  it  the  Town  Council  shall  not  deal  unjustly  with 
men  of  any  religious  opinions. 

The  mere  apprehension  that  even  unconsciously  and  un- 
intentionally the  Town  Council  should  do  this  wrong,  wounds 
me  like  a  dagger.  For  that  fair  ideal  of  municipal  life,  which 
for  many  years  past  we  have  been  trying  to  realise  in  this 
borough,  I  have  felt  a  passionate  enthusiasm.  Restrained  by 
law  from  being  a  candidate  myself  for  a  seat  in  the  Council — 
for  an  Act  of  Parliament  imposes  this  disability  on  all  ministers 
of  religion — and  prevented  by  the  pressure  of  other  engage- 
ments from  rendering  all  the  public  service  I  would  willingly 
have  rendered  in  other  ways,  it  has  been  my  happiness  and  my 
pride   to  be   permitted    to    sustain,    according    to    the    limited 


4i2  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

measure  of  my  strength  and  resources,  those  whose  powers  and 
whose  zeal  have  made  them  the  leaders  of  this  movement.  They 
have  been  good  enough  to  accept  me  as  a  comrade.  I  have 
shared  their  hopes ;  I  have  accepted  their  principles ;  I  have 
watched  their  work  with  admiration ;  I  have  exulted  in  their 
triumphs.  When  I  was  in  America  three  years  ago,  there  was 
no  subject  connected  with  English  life  of  which  I  spoke  to  my 
American  friends  more  frequently  than  of  our  dreams  of  what 
might  be  achieved  by  municipal  government ;  there  was  no 
subject  on  which  I  was  listened  to  with  keener  interest.  I  told 
them  that  in  Birmingham,  we  had  come  to  think  it  one  of  the 
proudest  distinctions  to  be  entrusted  with  municipal  office ;  that 
many  of  the  wealthiest,  the  ablest,  the  most  cultivated,  the  most 
honourable  of  our  citizens  were  inspired  with  a  generous  loyalty 
to  the  town,  which  made  them  willing  and  eager  to  accept  the 
tasks  of  local  administration  and  government;  that  the  great 
mass  of  the  ratepayers  were  gradually  being  penetrated  by  the 
same  spirit ;  that  we  were  resolved  to  spare  no  strength  and  no 
cost  that  might  be  necessary  to  improve  and  ennoble  the  condi- 
tions of  life  for  the  whole  people.  It  would  be  the  fading  away 
of  one  of  the  most  charming  and  animating  visions  that  I  have 
cherished,  if  this  municipal  enthusiasm  were  to  be  quenched, 
or  if  its  achievements  were  impaired  by  division  and  strife. 
You  have  already  done  much  ;  but  very  much  remains  to  be 
done. 

The  whole  condition,  the  very  appearance,  of  the  town  has 
been  transfigured  during  the  last  ten  years.  You  have  built 
noble  schools  ;  other  great  schemes  of  educational  reform  are 
being  projected ;  and  in  a  few  years  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
whole  community  will  be  raised  to  a  loftier  level.  You  have 
erected  libraries ;  and  the  loveliest  and  most  majestic  songs  of 
famous  poets,  the  passion  and  sorrow,  the  humour  and  wisdom 
of  great  dramatists,  the  largest  and  the  deepest  speculations  of 
the  ancient  and  the  modern  world,  are  brought  within  reach  of 
all  the  people.  You  will  soon  make  noble  paintings  and  noble 
sculpture — hitherto  the  exclusive  possession  of  the  wealthy — 
the  joy  of  the  poorest  man  among  us  that  has  the  eye  to  discover 
their  dignity,  their  grace,  and  their  beauty.  The  fires  of  private 
munificence  have  been  kindled  by  the  fervour  of  public  zeal. 
We  may  not  rival,  we  may  not  reproduce,  the  splendid  and 
brilliant  civic  life  of  the  great  cities  of  Italy ;  for  the  history  of 
every  great  and  powerful  community,  like  the  history  of  every 
vigorous  individual,  is  always  fresh,  unprecedented,  and  original. 
But  if  we  are  true  to  each  other,  and  true  to  the  town,  we  may 
do  deeds  as  great  as  were  done  by  Pisa,  by  Florence,  by  Venice 


A  MUNICIPAL  GOSPEL  413 

in  their  triumphant  days.  What  has  been  done  already  has  been 
done  by  the  maintenance  of  mutual  respect  among  men  who 
have  had  a  common  love  for  the  town,  but  who,  on  questions  of 
the  deepest  and  most  vital  interest  to  the  human  race,  were 
widely  separated  from  each  other.  It  has  been  done  by  the 
cultivation  of  courtesy  and  consideration  for  the  conflicting 
beliefs  of  those  who  were  animated  by  a  common  zeal  for  the 
improvement  of  the  general  condition  of  the  community.  We 
have  tried  to  be  fair  to  each  other ;  we  have  tried  to  be  generous. 
And,  notwithstanding  the  heat  of  recent  discussions,  I  have  a 
strong  confidence  that  the  same  wise  and  equitable  and  con- 
siderate spirit  which  has  found  a  satisfactory  solution  for  diffi- 
culties which  have  troubled  us  before,  will  find  a  solution  equally 
satisfactory  for  the  difficulty  I  have  been  discussing  to-night. 
We  shall  be  most  likely  to  find  it  if  all  parties  in  this  controversy 
listen  to  the  ancient  words,  "  That  which  is  altogether  just  shalt 
thou  follow,  that  thou  mayest  live." 

Copies  of  the  sermon  and  of  the  letter  to  the  Daily 
Post  were  sent  to  every  member  of  the  Town  Council. 
It  was  clear  that  if  defeated  at  the  moment  he  would  not 
abandon  the  struggle,  and  that  he  would  strike,  when  the 
time  came,  with  all  his  force.  When  the  Council  met  on 
the  Tuesday,  the  issue  was  already  decided.  Mr.  Baldwin's 
resolution  was  withdrawn  without  discussion,  and  an 
immediate  adjournment  was  voted  by  an  overwhelming 
majority.  It  was  a  striking  testimony  to  the  power  of 
Dale's  public  influence  and  leadership. 

Mr.  J.  Thackray  Bunce,  one  of  his  oldest  colleagues 
in  public  work,  and  in  later  life  the  closest  of  his  friends 
in  Birmingham,  has  been  good  enough  to  add  the 
following  estimate  of  Dale's  position  and  influence  in  the 
life  of  the  city  : — 

It  is  very  difficult  to  describe  in  terms  at  all  adequate  Mr.  j. 
to  its  duration,  extent,  and  variety,  the  influence  which  Bunce™7 
Dr.  Dale  exerted  upon  the  political  and  municipal  life 
of  Birmingham.  There  was  no  phase  of  public  work  in 
which  his  great  personality  was  not  manifested,  or  in 
which  his  powerful  influence  and  consistent  example  were 
not  felt.  Religious  movements  of  course  claimed  his 
first   care  :    and  with    them   were    linked    charitable    and 


414  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

social  organisations  and  efforts  for  the  relief  of  suffering, 
and  the  brightening  of  the  lives,  purifying  the  homes, 
and  enlarging  the  opportunities  of  the  labouring  classes 
among  his  fellow -citizens.  Municipal  affairs  engaged 
much  of  his  attention  ;  he  helped  to  raise  the  quality  of 
the  Town  Council,  to  lift  its  ideals  of  duty,  and  to 
mould  its  progressive  policy.  When  any  considerable 
question  affecting  the  welfare  of  the  town  was  prominent, 
he  argued  it  out  frankly  and  boldly  by  speaking  at  ward 
meetings  held  for  the  choice  of  candidates  for  seats  in 
the  governing  body,  and  he  took  a  large  and  influential 
share  in  the  councils  of  those  who  strove  to  guide  the 
municipal  policy  into  broader  and  purer  channels.  He 
was  active  also,  and  foremost,  in  the  conduct  of  the 
imperial  politics  which  interested  Birmingham  people, 
and  in  regard  to  which  Birmingham  often  set  the  lead 
for  the  country.  For  many  years  he  was  a  chief  speaker 
at  the  greater  political  assemblies  ;  and  he  also  took  a 
principal  and  often  a  deciding  part  in  the  management 
of  the  Liberal  Association,  of  which,  from  its  commence- 
ment, he  was  a  member  of  the  inner  council,  and  from 
which  he  reluctantly  separated  only  when  Mr.  Gladstone's 
Irish  policy  made  further  co-operation  impossible.  As 
an  estimate  of  the  position  he  held  in  regard  to 
Birmingham  life  the  following  sentences,  written  by  one 
who  knew  him  intimately,  and  who  for  many  years  had 
worked  with  him  in  municipal  and  national  politics, 
may  be  quoted.  They  appeared  in  an  article  in  the 
Birmingham  Daily  Post  on  the  morning  after  Dr.  Dale's 
death. 

Nearly  fifty  years  of  Dr.  Dale's  life  were  spent  amongst  us  ; 
for  more  than  forty  years  he  was  prominent  amongst  the 
vivifying  forces  of  the  town ;  there  was  hardly  any  part  of  our 
life  as  a  community  which  he  did  not  touch,  and,  in  touching, 
which  he  did  not  strengthen  and  brighten  and  elevate.  In 
religious  effort,  in  politics,  in  education,  in  social  movements, 
in  charity,  in  the  administration  of  great  institutions,  in  the 
cultivation  of  literature,  he  was  ever  amongst  the  most  earnest, 
the  most  laborious,  and  the  most  renowned.  He  was  known 
to  all  his  fellow-citizens,  he  was  familiar  and  friendly  with  all, 


A  MUNICIPAL  GOSPEL  415 

he  sympathised  with  all,  by  his  confidence  he  won  theirs,  and  Mr.  J. 
with  confidence  they  gave  him  a  full  tribute  of  admiration.  Thackray 
Whenever  a  Birmingham  man  spoke  of  those  who  did  honour 
to  the  town,  the  name  of  Dale  was  earliest  on  his  lips ;  when- 
ever strangers  came  here,  he  was  one  of  the  men  whom  they 
most  desired  to  see.  From  these  sentences  may  be  gathered 
our  general  sense  of  the  loss  under  which  we  now  suffer ;  but 
only  those  who  were  in  closer  association  with  him — his  own 
people,  who  mourn  a  beloved  pastor,  his  intimate  personal 
friends  who  found  in  his  society  an  unceasing  source  of  strength 
and  refreshment — only  those  can  estimate,  and  even  they 
cannot  express,  the  pain  of  separation,  and  the  depth  of  the 
void  which  his  removal  has  created.  There  are  many  amongst 
us  to  whom  life  will  never  be  the  same  in  its  brightness  and 
fulness  and  hopefulness  and  tenderness,  now  that  we  no  longer 
have  him  to  share  it  with  us. 


Something  must  be  said  of  the  causes  which  in  the 
course  of  years  built  up  the  commanding  influence  which 
Dr.  Dale  exerted  in  the  political  and  municipal  life  of 
Birmingham.  First  and  deepest  of  these  was  the  con- 
viction of  duty  which  animated  him,  and  the  sense  of 
combined  obligation  and  responsibility  under  which  this 
duty  was  fulfilled.  With  him  service  to  the  country  and 
to  the  community  was  part  of  his  religion.  In  his  Yale 
Lectures,  when  speaking  of  "  the  law  of  Christ  in  relation 
to  public  duty,"  he  put  this  with  force  and  clearness. 
"  For  men,"  he  said,  "  to  claim  the  right  to  neglect  their 
duties  to  the  State  on  the  ground  of  their  piety,  while 
they  insist  on  the  State  protecting  their  homes,  protecting 
their  property,  and  protecting  from  disturbance  even  their 
religious  meetings  in  which  this  exquisitely  delicate  and 
valetudinarian  spirituality  is  developed,  is  gross  un- 
righteousness." This  dictum  expresses  the  rule  of  his 
public  life.  By  this  standard  he  measured  the  claims  of 
whatever  work  opened  itself  before  him.  If  it  was 
clearly  for  the  good  of  the  community,  then  he  felt  it  to 
be  his  duty,  as  part  of  his  religion,  to  take  part  in  it, 
without  any  thought  of  the  time  occupied,  or  the  labour 
involved,  of  opposition  to  be  encountered,  of  misrepresenta- 
tion to  be  endured,  or  of  personal  sacrifices  to  be  made. 


416  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

In  doing  such  work  two  of  his  most  notable  characteristics 
were  brought  into  play — his  judgment  and  his  independ- 
ence. He  weighed  all  questions  with  deliberation  before 
deciding  upon  his  own  course.  No  merely  sentimental 
feeling  influenced  his  line  of  action.  Before  he  com- 
mitted himself  to  writing  or  speech,  he  satisfied  himself  of 
the  right  of  the  cause  which  claimed  his  advocacy,  and  in 
so  doing  he  invariably  gave  full  weight  to  whatever  could 
be  said  against  as  well  as  for  the  conclusions  which 
gradually  formed  themselves  in  his  mind.  Of  course 
there  were  matters — such  as  religious  and  political  and 
personal  freedom — which,  so  to  speak,  made  themselves  ; 
on  which  the  arguments  were  all  one  way  ;  in  regard  to 
which  hesitation  would,  in  his  view,  be  a  crime.  But  on 
all  questions  which  in  any  reasonable  sense  were  debat- 
able, his  decisions  were  slowly  formed,  were  tested  in  all 
possible  ways,  and  were  announced  only  after  the  most 
anxious  deliberation.  In  a  word,  his  judgments  were 
sagacious,  and  were  so  recognised.  When  his  mind  was 
made  up,  those  who  followed  his  leadership,  or  who  were 
influenced  by  his  counsels,  knew  that  he  knew  what 
ought  to  be  aimed  at,  and  how  far  it  could  be  ac- 
complished. Then,  as  driving  his  conclusions  practically 
home,  came  the  effect  of  his  independence.  Absolutely 
fearless  and  perfectly  candid,  he  never  failed  to  state  his 
views  with  clearness,  or  to  maintain  them  with  steadfastness 
and  courage,  whether  they  were  popular  or  unpopular. 
When  he  had  mastered  the  truth,  he  never  wavered  in 
proclaiming  it :  nothing  would  move  him,  no  timid 
counsels  influenced  him,  he  admitted  no  compromise 
even  for  a  moment.  With  him  the  clear  apprehension 
of  a  truth,  and  of  the  means  to  be  taken  to  enforce  it, 
involved  the  fulfilment  of  a  sacred  obligation,  a  Divine 
command.  It  was  the  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord "  of  the 
Hebrew  prophets  applied  to  the  concerns  of  our  modern 
life.  There,  to  his  mind,  was  the  truth  ;  it  had  to  be 
spoken  out  with  firmness  and  fulness  :  there  could  be  no 
concealment,  no  compromise,  no  "  economising "  for  the 
comfort   of  weaker   brethren.       The    general    recognition 


A  MUNICIPAL  GOSPEL  417 

of  these  conditions  was  a   great   source  of  his   influence  :  Mr.  j. 
all     men    knew    that    he    had     deliberately    formed     his  Bu^e-ay 
convictions  ;    and   all    knew  that  to  those  convictions   he 
would  unswervingly  adhere. 

His  manliness  and  his  eloquence  materially  helped  to 
strengthen  his  influence.  He  was  literally  a  "  power " 
on  the  platform :  his  voice  could  reach  the  farthest 
limit  of  the  largest  audiences  ;  his  robust  and  vigorous 
personality  impressed  all  hearers  ;  when  he  rose  to  speak 
there  fell  upon  the  assembly  the  hush  which  testifies  the 
recognition  of  a  great  orator ;  and  as  he  developed  his 
argument  his  manifest  sincerity  and  his  deep  earnestness 
produced  an  irresistible,  an  ineffaceable  impression  even 
on  the  most  indifferent  or  the  most  hostile  of  those  who 
listened  to  him. 

To  sum  up  this  imperfect  Appreciation,  these  were  the 
main  sources  of  Dr.  Dale's  great  influence  on  the  political, 
municipal,  and  social  life  of  the  community  in  which, 
and  for  which,  his  life  was  spent — conviction  of  duty, 
deliberation  in  judgment,  sagacity  in  counsel,  earnestness 
in  action,  unreserved  candour  and  unfaltering  courage  in 
declaring  and  maintaining  the  truth  as  he  saw  it ;  and 
with  these  his  power  of  sustained  argument,  and  his  gift 
of  eloquent  speech  ;  and  yet  again  his  instinctive  faculty 
of  touch  with  all  that  was  noble,  or  intellectual,  or 
sympathetic  in  the  minds  of  those  who  listened  to  him. 


2  E 


CHAPTER   XVII 

THE    NEW    LIBERALISM 

The  New  Liberalism  in  national  politics — The  course  of  politics  after  1874 
— "Mr.  Dale's  representative" — The  Eastern  Question — The  Liberal 
Federation — Mr.  Gladstone  at  Birmingham — Dale's  dilemma — Letter  to 
Canon  Bright ;  an  appeal  to  the  clergy — A  foolish  insult — The  Afghan 
war — The  right  to  preserve  order  in  public  meeting — "  Liberal  candidates 
at  the  next  election" — The  election  of  1880 — Candidates  and  constituencies 
— The  new  Ministry — Mr.  Bradlaugh  and  the  oath — "Atheism  and  the 
House  of  Commons  " — A  letter  of  comfort  to  Mr.  Bright — Native  races 
in  South  Africa  —  The  Liberal  programme  ;  the  county  franchise  and 
London  government — Dale's  doubts — The  Penjdeh  crisis — England  and 
Russia — Letters  to  Mr.  Chamberlain — The  election  of  1885. 

POLITICAL  affairs  and  municipal  affairs  are  often  con- 
trasted in  a  false  and  mischievous  antithesis,  as  if  the 
interests  of  the  city  and  the  empire  were  discrepant  or 
even  hostile.  This  was  not  Dale's  belief.  He  admitted 
grades  in  social  obligation,  but  regarded  the  claims  as 
complementary,  not  as  antagonistic.  For  himself  political 
and  municipal  service  could  not  be  divorced.  The  same 
law  of  Christian  duty  applied  to  each.  Christ  is  both 
Prince  and  Saviour.  He  came  into  the  world  both  to 
rule  and  to  redeem.  Those  who  are  loyal  to  His  authority 
must  share  His  work  of  redemption.  His  redemptive 
sovereignty  must  be  made  effective  both  in  the  life  of 
the  city  and  of  the  State.  And  man  was  created  in  Christ 
and  for  Christ — "  created  to  share  His  eternal  life  and 
blessedness,  to  be  one  with  Him  as  He  is  one  with  the 
Father  ;  and  His  relationship  to  humanity  is  so  intimate 
and  so  real  that  He  could  say  without  metaphor  or 
exaggeration,   '  Inasmuch   as   ye   did    it  to    one  of  these 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  419 

least,  ye  did  it  unto  Me.'  "  l  Possessed  by  such  conceptions 
of  political  duty,  Dale  was  naturally  drawn  to  identify  him- 
self with  what  has  been  described  as  the  "  new  school  " 
of  Liberalism.  Not  that  he  was  willing  to  break  with  the 
past ;  for  he  believed  with  Burke  that  in  national  life  "  we 
must  start  from  where  we  are  "  ;  that  progress  must  come 
through  development  and  not  by  any  breach  of  continuity. 
But  he  had  moved  forward  from  the  traditional  stand- 
point of  his  political  and  ecclesiastical  ancestors.  He  did 
not  regard  government  as  a  necessary  evil,  nor  empire  as 
a  peril  to  the  imperial  race,  necessarily  involving  injustice 
to  subject  races.  He  welcomed  every  enlargement  of 
national  enterprise  that  promised  to  achieve  its  purpose 
with  efficiency,  and  any  extension  of  imperial  territory 
where  our  rule  might  establish  order  and  justice  in  the 
place  of  strife  and  iniquity.  Between  the  spirit  of  the 
older  Liberalism  and  the  spirit  of  the  new  he  recognised 
an  essential  difference.  Justice  had  been  the  watchword 
of  the  one  ;  pity  now  inspired  the  other.  The  individualism 
of  an  earlier  generation  had  demanded  freedom  that  the 
strong  might  achieve  success  in  the  full  measure  of  their 
strength,  but  it  had  done  nothing  to  help  the  weak  ;  it 
had  applied  in  politics  the  scientific  law  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest.  Since  then  the  temper  of  Liberalism  had 
softened,  and  he  belonged  to  the  new  age.  His  political 
influence  was  the  more  remarkable  because  he  seldom  ap- 
peared on  a  purely  political  platform  outside  Birmingham. 
But  the  position  of  leadership  that  he  held  during  the 
education  controversy,  the  disestablishment  campaign 
undertaken  with  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers,  his  intimate  con- 
nection with  the  Birmingham  Liberal  Association  at  a 
time  when  its  methods  of  organisation  were  being  copied 
in  many  other  constituencies,  and  his  speeches  on  public 
questions,  had .  made  him  known  to  Nonconformists  and 
their  allies  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom. 

The  dissolution  of    1874,  when   Mr.  Gladstone  made 
his    precipitate    appeal    to    the    country,    found    the   main 

1   Fellowship  with   Christ,  p.  169  ;  see  also  Contemporary  Review,  April 
1S83,  pp.  493  foil.,  "  M.  Gambetta,  Positivism  and  Christianity." 


420  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

body  of  Nonconformists  disaffected  if  not  in  revolt.  Dale 
shared  in  this  discontent.  He  had  no  desire  to  see  a 
Liberal  government  in  office,  indifferent  to  the  principles 
of  Liberalism  and  without  a  Liberal  policy.  The  induce- 
ment which  Mr.  Gladstone  offered  to  the  nation  to  restore 
him  to  power,  Dale  regarded  with  contempt.  "  The 
Liberal  party,"  he  declared  before  the  Birmingham  electors, 
"  does  not  exist  for  the  repeal  of  the  Income  tax."  He 
held  that  such  a  bribe  must  discredit  a  minister  who 
offered  it  and  the  citizens  who  accepted  it.  He  also  re- 
sented Mr.  Gladstone's  references  to  his  educational  policy 
in  his  address  to  the  Greenwich  electors  ;  and  though 
unwilling  that  Nonconformists  should  sever  their  allegiance 
to  the  Liberal  party,  he  felt  that  for  a  time  at  least  they 
must  resolve  to  stand  alone  and  to  do  their  own  work  in 
their  own  way.  Mr.  Gladstone's  defeat  at  the  polls  caused 
him  little  regret.  A  period  of  exclusion  from  office,  he 
thought,  might  prove  a  salutary  experience  for  the  Liberal 
leaders.  The  air  of  the  Opposition  benches  was  favourable 
to  the  development  of  robust  conviction,  and  when  the 
Liberal  party  returned  to  power  it  would  be  with  an  in- 
vigorated faith  in  the  principles  that  they  professed. 

But  however  dissatisfied  he  may  have  been  with  the 
policy  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  government  at  a  time  when  it 
had  outlived  the  ardour  and  freshness  of  its  faith,  he  soon 
became  conscious  that  power  had  passed  into  dangerous 
hands.  Again  and  again  he  found  it  necessary  to  unite 
in  public  protest  against  the  action  or  the  inaction  of  the 
Conservative  Ministry.  He  spoke  in  support  of  Mr. 
Plimsoll's  agitation  for  the  reform  of  the  merchant- 
shipping  laws,  and  in  condemnation  of  the  Circular  in 
which  the  officers  of  our  fleet  were  directed  to  surrender 
fugitive  slaves  who  had  taken  refuge  under  the  British 
flag.  He  shared  the  growing  alarm  excited  by  Mr. 
Disraeli's  foreign  policy. 

Before  the  storm  in  Eastern  Europe  had  come  to  a 
head,  his  friend  Mr.  Chamberlain  was  elected  to  represent 
the  borough.  The  seat  was  not  contested,  but  both  the 
candidate  and  his  supporters  were  vigorously  assailed  by  the 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  421 

Tory  press.  One  London  newspaper,  always  obscure  and 
long  since  extinct,  declared  that  the  Birmingham  Radicals 
were  about  to  extinguish  themselves  by  choosing  a  man 
who  had  shown  himself  utterly  unfit  for  such  a  position. 
Better  men,  it  asserted,  had  been  passed  over,  simply 
because  "  Mr.  R.  W.  Dale  has  nominated  Mr.  Chamberlain, 
and  the  will  of  Mr.  Dale  is  the  will  of  Birmingham." 
Addressing  his  constituents  in  Bingley  Hall,  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain, in  reply  to  a  vote  of  congratulation,  referred  to  this 
allegation,  taking  the  opportunity  to  pay  a  generous 
tribute  to  his  friend  and  fellow-worker. 

I  have  seen  a  statement  that  I  go  to  Parliament  as  the 
representative  of  Mr.  Dale.  Well,  if  that  be  so,  there  is  not  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Commons  who  will  have  a  better,  wiser, 
or  nobler  constituency.  But  you  will  at  least  remember  this  : 
that  if  Mr.  Dale  has  any  influence  over  the  50,000  electors  of 
Birmingham,  he  owes  it  to  his  devotion  to  their  highest  interests, 
he  owes  it  to  his  eloquent  and  out-spoken  advocacy  of  all  that  is 
good  and  great. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  the  political  outlook 
became  dark  and  tempestuous.  The  intentions  of  the 
Government  were  studiously  concealed,  but  there  was 
good  reason  to  fear  that  we  might  find  ourselves  dragged 
into  war  to  defend  the  integrity  of  the  Turkish  Empire. 
Then  came  the  news  of  the  Bulgarian  massacres,  stirring 
the  horror  of  the  nation.  In  the  movement  that  followed, 
Dale  took  an  active  part.  He  had  already  urged  that 
the  Government  had  no  right  to  keep  the  nation  in  the 
dark,  and  that  the  Opposition  before  the  prorogation  of 
Parliament  should  exact  a  definite  statement  on  the 
position  of  foreign  affairs.  Now  he  threw  himself  without 
reserve  into  the  struggle.  At  the  first  town's-meeting  on 
the  question  held  in  Birmingham,  he  moved  a  resolution 
demanding  that  the  Christian  provinces  should  no  longer 
be  left  under  Turkish  rule.  In  the  assembly  of  the 
Congregational  Union  he  proposed  a  motion  expressing 
sympathy  with  the  policy  advocated  by  Mr.  Gladstone, 
who  was  then  doing  battle  with  staunch  foes  and  half- 
hearted friends  in  the  House  of  Commons. 


422  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

At  the  end  of  May  1877,  Mr.  Gladstone  visited 
Birmingham  to  inaugurate  the  newly- formed  Liberal 
Federation,  representing  the  Liberal  Associations  through- 
out the  country.  Thirty  thousand  people  met  in  Bingley 
Hall  to  hear  him.  Dale,  who  moved  the  chief  resolution, 
had  an  unpleasant  and  unwonted  experience.  Before  he 
had  spoken  for  more  than  a  few  minutes,  the  crowd, 
closely  packed  in  stifling  heat,  became  impatient  for  Mr. 
Gladstone,  and  showed  it.  Under  ordinary  conditions  he 
would  have  sat  down  immediately,  but  in  the  afternoon 
he  had  given  his  speech  to  the  Times  reporter,  who  had 
sent  it  at  once  to  London,  and  he  felt  bound  to  go 
through  with  it.  In  the  following  letter  he  does  not  refer 
to  his  misadventure. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wace 

0,1  h  June  1877. 

We  are  getting  quiet  after  our  political  dissipation  of  last 
week.  The  Federation  of  Associations,  if  it  fulfils  the  purpose 
of  its  promoters,  may  have  a  very  considerable  effect  on  the 
fortunes  of  the  Liberal  party.  It  is  an  attempt  to  form  a 
political  church  without  a  creed,  and  without  a  bishop,  and 
without  a  synod.  The  experiment  is  an  odd  one,  but  has  great 
merits,  as  I  think ;  if  the  founders  of  the  church  have  sufficient 
political  knowledge,  brains,  judgment,  and  temper — I  can 
answer,  I  think,  for  their  resoluteness  and  for  their  knowledge 
of  their  own  creed — they  may  do  a  considerable  stroke  of  work. 
They  wanted  me  to  take  some  official  position  in  the  movement, 
but  if  the  movement  turns  out  a  success,  an  official  position  will 
mean  more  work  than  I  can  find  time  for.  Gladstone's  coming 
gave  the  thing  a  great  impulse  at  starting.  By  the  way  did  you 
ever  see  a  finer  figure  than  that  about  the  shelving  rocks  ?  The 
root  of  it  is  in  his  article  on  Montenegro  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century} 

1  "It  was  those  nations  who  broke  the  force  of  the  advancing  deluge,  and 
left  of  the  deluge  only  so  much  as  the  rest  of  Europe  was  able  to  repel. 
They  were  like  a  shelving  beach  which  restrained  the  ocean.  That  beach, 
it  is  true,  is  beaten  by  the  waves,  it  is  laid  desolate,  it  produces  nothing  ;  it 
becomes  perhaps  nothing  but  a  mass  of  shingle,  of  rock,  of  almost  useless 
sea-weed  ;  but  it  is  a  fence  behind  which  the  cultivated  earth  can  spread,  and 
escape  the  incoming  tide ;  and  so  it  was  against  the  Turk — the  resistance  of 
Bulgarians,  of  Servians,   of  Greeks,  a  resistance  in  which  one  by  one  they 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  423 

During  the  autumn  months  of  1877  Dale  was  in 
America,  but  immediately  upon  his  return  he  took  the 
field  again.  He  arranged  for  a  conference  of  Noncon- 
formist ministers  in  the  Midlands  to  protest  against  war  ; 
and  he  also  wrote  to  Canon  Bright  of  Christ  Church, 
Oxford,  urging  on  him  the  advisability  of  organising  a 
similar  expression  of  opinion  on  the  part  of  the  clergy  at 
Oxford. 

To  the  Rev.  Canon  Bright 

\th  January  1878. 

There  are  the  gravest  reasons  to  fear  that  the  present  position 
of  the  Cabinet  in  relation  to  the  war  is  far  worse  than  is  generally 
supposed.  From  sources  which  seemed  trustworthy,  reports 
reached  Birmingham  last  week  that  all  the  Ministers  except 
Lord  Carnarvon  had  yielded  to  the  influence  of  Lord  Beacons- 
field.  I  see  that  the  Times  of  this  morning  is  by  no  means  re- 
assured by  Lord  Carnarvon's  speech. 

About  the  temper  of  the  country  I  am  becoming  increasingly 
hopeful — if  only  the  question  of  Russian  occupation  of  Con- 
stantinople can  be  kept  out  of  sight  for  a  time.  Chambers  of 
Commerce  and  Town  Councils  in  all  parts  of  the  country  are 
exploding  at  a  touch.  But  I  confess  that  if  the  Prime  Minister 
assumed  the  responsibility  of  saying  publicly  that  he  believed 
Russia  means  to  occupy  Constantinople,  and  that  it  was  essential 
to  the  security  of  British  interests  that  this  should  be  resisted — 
I  say,  if  he  were  to  say  this,  I  think  it  would  be  difficult  to 
repress  a  demand  for  war. 

The  difficulty  lies  in  this : — the  responsible  leaders  of  public 
opinion  on  our  side  naturally  shrink  from  pronouncing  the  word 
Constantinople :  if  they  declared  that  in  their  judgment  Russia 
might  take  it  and  India  be  just  as  safe  as  before,  the  Cabinet 
would  charge  them  with  provoking  Russia  to  seize  it.  A  speech 
or  two  by  Mr.  Gladstone  categorically  affirming  that  Russia 
might  take  the  capital  of  the  Porte  without  affecting  "  British 
Interests "  would  bring  the  greater  part  of  the  Liberal  party 
right  very  soon,  but  he  cannot  take  this  position. 

succumbed,  with  the  exception  of  the  glorious  mountaineers  of  Montenegro 
who  have  never  succumbed"  (Times,  1st  June  1877).  "It  was  those 
races,  principally  Slavonian,  who  had  to  encounter  in  its  unbroken  strength 
and  to  reduce  the  mighty  wave,  of  which  only  the  residue,  passing  the 
Danube  and  the  Save,  all  but  overwhelmed  not  Hungary  alone,  but  Austria 
and  Poland." — Nineteenth  Century,  May  1877,  vol.  i.  p.  361. 


424  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

The  officers  of  the  Liberal  Association  of  Birmingham — a  local 
body — have  been  hard  at  work  for  the  last  week  or  ten  days, 
and  the  meetings  and  resolutions  of  Town  Councils  and 
Chambers  of  Commerce  in  different  parts  of  the  country  are 
largely  owing  to  their  initiative  and  prompting.  Early  this 
week  the  Executive  of  the  Union  of  Liberal  Associations — a 
national  body — met  in  Birmingham,  and  there  were  present 
representatives  from,  I  think,  about  thirty -five  towns;  letters 
came  from  a  large  number  besides.  There  was,  at  first, 
hesitation  on  the  part  of  some  as  to  the  expediency  of  agitating 
at  once  ;  but  after  a  little  discussion  all  saw  that  "  Mediation  " 
was  very  likely  to  drift  into  "  Intervention,"  and  it  was  agreed 
to  do  immediately  whatever  could  be  done  in  the  way  of  town 
meetings  and  petitions  to  Parliament.  I  hope  that  the  sudden 
collapse  of  "  Mediation  "  will  not  suppress  the  agitation. 

In  conjunction  with  two  friends  I  called  together  a  private 
meeting  of  the  Nonconformist  ministers  of  Birmingham  yesterday 
afternoon  and  they  resolved  to  call  a  Conference  of  Noncon- 
formist ministers  living  in  the  town  and  immediate  neighbourhood. 
We  meet  next  week.  I  intend  to  have  the  circular  which  is 
now  being  printed,  sent  to  my  friends  in  different  parts  of  the 
country  to  incense  them  to  act  in  the  same  way. 

Surely  the  clergy  might  act :  there  must  be  enough  of  them 
right  to  make  it  worth  while  to  secure  their  combined  action. 
Further,  those  that  will  not  act  against  the  Turk  will  hardly 
dare  to  act  for  him,  so  that  the  testimony  which  you  and  I 
would  desire  would  hardly  be  enfeebled  by  counter-testimony. 
I  mean  that  as  an  active  force  at  the  present  moment  the  clerical 
opponents  of  a  war  on  behalf  of  Turkey — even  though  a  minority 
of  the  clergy — would  outweigh  the  rest  of  their  brethren.  Do 
you  remember  what  a  great  effect  the  memorial  from  the  fellows 
of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  had,  about  fourteen  months  ago  ? 
Could  not  something  like  that  be  done  at  Oxford  ?  As  for  a 
national  memorial,  if  it  is  desirable,  the  Eastern  Association 
people  in  London  might  take  it  in  charge.  My  fear  is  that 
there  is  not  time  to  obtain  a  memorial  that  would  represent  the 
strength  of  feeling  which  exists  on  the  question. 

His  activity  was  not  restricted  to  the  desk  and  the 
committee  room.  Between  the  middle  of  January  and 
the  middle  of  February  1878,  he  addressed  four  great 
meetings — one  of  them  a  town's-meeting,  summoned  at 
the  unusual  hour  of  noon,  to  protest  against  the  vote  of 
credit  (.£6,000,000)  asked  for  by  the  Ministry,  and  another 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  425 

convened  by  the  Birmingham  Conservatives  to  counteract 
the  effect  of  the  previous  demonstration.  At  this  an  amend- 
ment hostile  to  the  resolution  of  confidence  in  the  Govern- 
ment was  proposed,  and  several  of  the  Liberal  leaders 
spoke — or  attempted  to  speak — in  its  support.  Dale 
was  one  of  the  number.  When  he  rose,  a  placard  was 
displayed  from  the  platform  with  the  inscription — "  Down 
with  the  Radical  parsons !  We  are  the  Bible  party." 
It  was  a  piece  of  puerile  impertinence,  but  the  offence 
was  keenly  resented  by  the  audience.  During  the  next 
few  days  letters  of  apology  came  pouring  in  from  pro- 
minent Conservatives,  and  the  young  man  who  had  dis- 
played the  bill  made  a  lame  attempt  to  show  that  he 
had  done  so  without  knowing  what  was  on  it.  The 
incident  was  trivial  enough,  but  it  showed  that  Dale's 
public  position  had  now  become  such  that  the  best  men 
in  both  parties  felt  that  an  insult  to  him  was  an  insult  to 
the  town. 

War  with  Russia  was  avoided,  but  peace  was  still 
insecure.  Late  in  the  autumn  of  1878  came  the  Afghan 
war,  and  with  it  a  new  call  to  arms.  The  previous  con- 
flict, even  after  Mr.  Gladstone  took  the  field,  was  in  the 
main  a  soldiers'  battle  :  the  rank  and  file  and  the  non- 
commissioned officers  of  the  Liberal  party  in  the  country 
had  held  their  ground  while  their  official  leaders  wavered 
or  even  divided  in  counsel.  But  now  Liberal  opinion 
was  solid.  In  both  Houses  of  Parliament  the  Government 
found  itself  confronted  by  opponents  who  spoke  with  the 
knowledge  and  authority  of  official  experience. 

In  Birmingham  one  controversy  gave  rise  to  another 
— as  to  the  right  of  preserving  order  in  public  meetings. 
The  wave  of  violence  which  had  rolled  over  the  country 
a  few  months  earlier  had  not  spent  its  force.  The 
"Jingoes"  were  still  rampant  ;  in  several  places  they  had 
broken  up  assemblies  gathered  to  protest  against  the  war. 
There,  as  elsewhere,  the  town's-meeting  held  to  discuss 
the  question  of  the  hour  was  a  scene  of  discreditable  dis- 
order. Lord  Beaconsfield's  supporters  had  mustered,  in 
response  to  a  circular,  resolved  that  no  speaker  should  be 


426  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

heard  ;  and  but  for  the  action  of  the  Mayor,  Alderman 
Collings,1  one  of  two  things  must  have  happened — 
either  the  disturbers  of  the  meeting,  though  a  minority, 
would  have  effected  their  purpose  ;  or  they  would  have 
been  expelled  by  the  majority  after  a  fierce  and  dangerous 
fight.  It  was  by  no  means  the  first  attempt  that  had 
been  made  to  render  free  speech  impossible,  and  the 
Mayor  was  determined  to  uphold  the  right  of  public 
meeting.  Acting  under  his  orders,  the  police  ejected 
from  the  Hall  several  persons  who  had  made  themselves 
conspicuous  in  uproar.  His  conduct  was  fiercely  resented. 
Criminal  proceedings  were  taken  against  him,  and  the 
case  was  heard  by  the  Stipendiary  magistrate,  but  after  a 
long  and  embittered  controversy  the  result  proved  abortive, 
so  far  as  concerned  the  principle  at  issue.  The  Stipen- 
diary's decision  was  adverse  to  the  Mayor :  he  imposed 
a  small  fine,  consenting  to  state  a  case  for  an  appeal  to  a 
superior  court.  But,  through  an  unfortunate  misunder- 
standing, the  case,  as  he  drafted  it,  did  not  raise  the  question 
in  dispute  between  the  parties  to  the  summons  ;  he  could 
not  be  induced  to  insert  the  one  material  fact  ;  and  Sir 
Henry  James  advised  that  "  it  would  be  beside  the  ques- 
tion to  be  arguing  a  case  which  the  magistrate  so  states 
as  not  to  touch  the  only  point  the  defendant  ever  raised 
or  was  desirous  to  raise."  The  Recorder  of  Birmingham, 
Mr.  J.  S.  Dugdale,  was  of  the  same  mind,  and  signifi- 
cantly added  to  his  opinion — "The  Mayor,  of  course,  will 
in  future  take  whatever  steps  may  appear  to  him  to  be 
necessary  for  the  preservation  of  peace  and  order  at  public 
meetings." 

The  Stipendiary's  original  decision  and  his  subsequent 
conduct  were  strongly  condemned,  and  by  no  one  more 
strongly  than  by  Dale.  At  the  members'  meeting  in 
April  he  proposed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  Mayor  for 
presiding  and  also  for  his  recent  action  in  defence  of  the 
right  of  public  meeting.  His  criticism  of  the  Stipendiary's 
judgment  was  good-humoured,  though  he  protested  against 
the  theory  implied  in  it — that  it  is  not  the  meeting  that 

1  The  Right  Hon.  Jesse  Collings,  M.R  for  Bordesley. 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  427 

the  law  protects,  but  the  men  who  disturb  it.  In  a  second 
and  more  elaborate  speech  delivered  a  few  weeks  later,  he 
reasserted  his  contention,  maintaining  that  the  right  of 
free  speech  in  a  free  country  was  of  supreme  importance, 
and  should  be  asserted  at  any  cost ;  and  the  right  of 
public  meeting,  he  argued,  involved  the  right  of  protection 
against  the  violence  and  uproar  by  which  the  purpose  of 
such  assemblies  is  defeated.  Recognising  that  the  law 
might  be  uncertain  in  its  relation  to  public  meetings, 
which  were  a  thing  of  modern  growth,  he  laid  stress  upon 
the  necessity  of  knowing  the  facts,  that  Parliament,  if 
necessary,  might  be  asked  to  take  action.  On  this 
occasion  he  examined  the  Stipendiary's  judgment  in 
detail,  courteously  but  relentlessly,  with  a  skill  and  a  force 
justifying  the  opinion  so  often  expressed  that  he  had  the 
gifts  that  make  a  great  advocate  and  command  the  highest 
offices  of  the  law. 

During  the  summer  of  1879  ^  was  clear  that  the 
general  election  could  not  be  long  delayed.  In  all  parts 
of  the  country  politicians  were  making  ready  for  the 
coming  struggle.  The  lesson  taught  by  the  experience  of 
1874  had  not  been  forgotten,  and  the  Liberal  leaders  did 
not  cease  to  impress  on  their  followers  the  necessity  of 
unity  if  they  were  to  escape  a  second  defeat.  But  in 
some  quarters  there  was  a  disposition  to  assume  that  all 
concession  must  come  from  one  wing  of  the  party,  and 
that  the  advanced  men  should  defer  everywhere  to  the 
"  moderates."  Dale  discussed  the  question  in  the  Fort- 
nightly Review}  admitting  the  issue  of  the  election  to  be 
uncertain,  though  he  wrote  with  the  vigour  and  buoyancy 
that  portend  success.  He  pointed  out  that  in  recent  con- 
flicts Tory  seats  had  been  won  by  Radicals,  not  by  Whigs, 
and  that  in  attack  no  decisive  victory  could  be  gained  with- 
out enthusiasm.  He  and  his  friends  were  not  unwilling  to 
bear  reproof,  and  to  turn  the  cheek  when  smitten  ;  "  but 
if  the  moderates  are  to  be  allowed  to  do  all  the  smiting, 
and   the  advanced  men    are   required   to  exercise  all  the 

1   "  Liberal  Candidates  at  the   next   Election":  Fortnightly  Review,  June 
1879. 


428  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

self-restraint,"  that  was  hardly  fair :  it  was  "  tyranny  dis- 
guised under  the  name  of  toleration."  Such  a  policy  was 
unsafe  as  well  as  unjust.  The  Liberal  party,  to  be  of  any 
good,  must  consist  of  Liberals  ;  and  the  moderates,  it  had 
been  found,  contributed  very  little  to  the  strength  of  the 
Liberal  party  when  in  power,  and  greatly  increased  its 
weakness  when  in  opposition.  Men  of  enthusiasm,  men 
of  conviction,  would  not  fight  "  for  a  banner  with  all  the 
colour  washed  out  of  it."  An  attempt  to  discourage  or 
to  disavow  the  advanced  men  must  be  fatal  to  any  hope 
of  success.  Mutual  concession  and  a  common  under- 
standing, loyally  observed  by  both  sections  of  the  party, 
were  essential  if  they  were  to  defeat  the  Ministry  against 
whose  policy  they  had  so  often  protested  in  vain. 

Speaking  at  Reading  on  the  evening  after  the  dissolu- 
tion of  1880  was  announced,  Dale  indicated  clearly  the 
line  that  he  intended  to  take  in  the  struggle.  For  him- 
self he  distinctly  refused  to  raise  the  question  of  Church 
Disestablishment  in  such  a  crisis.  The  one  question  was 
whether  a  candidate  was  a  Liberal  or  not ;  whether  he 
had  a  genuine  and  hearty  distrust  of  Lord  Beaconsfield 
and  of  his  policy,  which  threatened  to  corrupt  the  political 
morality  of  the  nation  and  to  undermine  the  stability  of 
national  institutions.  On  those  lines  he  fought  steadily 
both  in  Birmingham  and  elsewhere.  He  spoke  night 
after  night  in  the  various  wards  of  the  borough.  He  went 
to  Bradford  in  the  cause  of  political  conciliation,  to  speak 
for  Forster  and  Illingworth,  and  also  to  Wrexham  and 
elsewhere.  Of  the  letters  that  follow,  the  first  two  illus- 
trate the  care  and  precision  of  his  advice  ;  the  last  three 
were  written  during  the  election,  when  success  was  already 
assured. 

To  Mr.  Henry  Lee 

2nd  October  1876. 

In  the  main  I  think  that  Mr. is  right.     You  might  find 

it  very  inconvenient  to  be  definitely  pledged  to  stand  for  North- 
ampton, or  for  any  other  borough.     A  general  election  may  not 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  429 

come  on  for  some  time  yet,  and  a  great  deal  may  happen  before 
it  takes  place. 

The  position  of  Northampton  is  very  simple.  If  two  Liberal 
candidates  can  work  together,  the  two  seats  are  practically 
certain  ;  but  Bradlaugh  will  continue  to  stand  till  he  dies.  He 
is  very  tough  and  resolute.  You,  I  believe,  would  command  the 
strong  and  united  support  of  the  section  of  the  party  to  which 
Bradlaugh  is  intolerable ;  but  that  section  could  not  return  you 
by  plumping.  There  would  be  no  need  to  have  a  united  com- 
mittee ;  but  for  success  it  would  be  imperative  that  your  influence 
should  be  used  with  your  friends  to  induce  them  to  split  votes 
with  Bradlaugh ;  if  this  were  done,  his  people  would,  I  have  no 
doubt,  split  their  votes  with  you,  and  you  would  both  be  carried. 
You  need  not,  as  I  have  said,  have  the  same  committee ;  you 
need  not  go  to  the  same  meetings  ;  but  an  informal  alliance, 
loyally  accepted,  is  essential  to  winning. 

I  see  no  reason  why  you  should  not  consent  to  this  in  the 
event  of  your  standing.  There  are  large  numbers  of  men  in  the 
House  who  have  just  as  little  faith  as  Bradlaugh,  and  with  whom 
the  most  Christian  men  are  perfectly  willing  to  run. 

You  might  tell  any  deputation  that  waits  on  you  that  you  are 
disposed  to  entertain  the  proposal,  but  that  it  would  be  unwise 
for  either  them  or  you  to  make  a  pledge  while  the  time  of  an 
election  is  so  uncertain ;  and  that  you  must,  further,  in  the  event 
of  standing,  have  a  clear  assurance  that  they  will  do  their  best  to 
induce  those  who  vote  for  you  to  split  with  Bradlaugh. 

20/A  December  187S. 

The  Southampton  figures  show  better  than  I  expected. 
Russell  Gurney  was  as  good  a  candidate  as  the  Conservatives 
are  ever  likely  to  have,  and  the  returns  indicate  that  Giles  at  the 
top  of  the  Conservative  reaction  polled  only  18  more  than  he 
did.  It  is  very  hard  if  you  cannot  get  300  out  of  400  that 
polled  for  Perkins  and  did  not  poll  for  Moffatt ;  and  with  100 
or  200  less  on  the  Conservative  side  from  the  ebbing  of  the 
tide  this  would  give  you  a  good  majority.  In  any  case — 01 
almost  in  any  case — you  would  have  to  fight  for  a  seat  now  held 
by  a  Tory,  and  Southampton  seems  to  promise  as  well  as  most 
places. 

The  only  drawback  is  what  Cox  says  about  a  commercial 
candidate.  You  are  not  a  commercial  candidate  in  his  sense  ; 
you  could  take  no  patronage  to  Southampton  that  Bompas  could 
not  take.  Commercial  knowledge,  as  I  understand  him,  is  not 
'.he  special  want,   but  interest  which  would   tell  on   the  trade  of 


43©  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

the  place.  You  ought  to  learn  whether  there  is  any  chance  of 
a  working-man's  candidate. 

As  to  the  expenses,  I  gave  ^2000  as  the  sum  of  which  I 
heard  when  I  was  at  Southampton,  and  I  doubt  whether  you 
would  find  any  considerable  borough  in  the  Midlands  or  South- 
ern counties  which  you  could  fight  for  much  less.  In  Lanca- 
shire I  suppose  that  the  local  Liberals  would  share  the  expenses, 
but  to  Southerners  every  Lancashire  man  seems  rich,  and  they 
assume  that  he  will  pay  as  a  matter  of  course.  If  the  election 
is  short  and  sharp  Southampton  might  cost  less ;  but  if  there  is 
any  adequate  notice,  I  doubt  whether  you  could  get  through  for 
less  than  ^2000.  It  is  possible  that  the  formation  of  a  Liberal 
Association  will  lighten  the  cost  by  securing  more  volunteer 
work  ;  Cox  ought  to  know  whether  this  is  likely. 

Don't  put  too  much  confidence  in  what  they  tell  you  about 
the  teetotallers  having  learnt  a  lesson  at  the  last  election.  They 
are  slow  to  learn  and  swift  to  forget. 


To  Mr.  T.  H.  Gill 

4I/1  April  1S80. 

Yes,  the  Liberal  victory  is  wonderful.  Had  Beaconsfield 
determined  to  go  on  a  few  months  longer  I  think  that  the 
inertia  of  the  English  people  would  have  continued  to  give  an 
apparent  sanction  to  his  policy ;  but  when  the  case  was  really 
opened  the  revolt  was  precipitated.  Speaking  at  Reading  on 
the  evening  after  the  dissolution  was  announced,  I  said  that  per- 
haps the  Tories  might  keep  a  majority  of  ten,  though  if  we  were 
loyal  we  might  turn  them  out  altogether;  but  the  complete 
destruction  of  their  power  is  amazing. 

To  Mr.  Henry  Lee 

Birmingham,  $tk  April  1880. 

The  news  of  your  victory x  reached  me  at  the  Liberal  Club 
last  night  soon  after  nine  o'clock,  while,  I  suppose,  you  were 
still  talking  to  your  comrades  and  praising  their  zeal  in  the  fight. 
I  telegraphed  my  congratulations  at  once,  and  the  telegram  must 
have  reached  you  soon  after  you  were  good  enough  to  send  the 
glorious  news  to  me.  I  need  not  say  how  heartily  I  rejoice  in 
your  success,  and  with  what  confidence  I  look  forward  to  the 
loyal  service  you  will  render  to  every  good  cause  in  the  House. 

1  At  Southampton. 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  431 

Out  of  the  House,  too,  your  new  position  will  enable  you  to 
render  increased  service  to  causes  which  you  have  served  before. 
I  suppose  you  will  try  to  get  a  quiet  time  before  the  House 
meets.  A  man  needs  to  steady  himself  after  going  through  the 
whirl  of  an  election.  It  is  well  to  look  up  and  to  see  that  the 
eternal  stars  are  just  where  they  were. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

llth  April  1880. 

Yes;  it  is,  as  you  say,  "a  great  deliverance,"  and  passes  all 
my  hopes.  I  seem  to  have  woke  out  of  a  bad  dream,  and  the 
wickedness  and  folly  of  the  past  six  years  seem  as  though  they 
could  have  had  no  place  in  the  actual  life  of  the  world.  We 
hope  to  start  to-morrow.1  I  am  very  tired.  My  strength  seems 
spent. 

Do  you  know  I  spoke  at  Forster  and  Illingworth's  first  meet- 
ing? Could  Christian  charity  and  the  "consolidation  of  co- 
operation "  go  farther  ? 

Both  Mr.  Bright  and  Mr.  Chamberlain  were  included  in 
the  new  Cabinet,  and  it  was  with  sanguine  hope  that  their 
friends  welcomed  their  acceptance  of  office.  But  almost 
from  the  outset  the  course  of  the  Liberal  Government  was 
beset  with  difficulty  and  disaster,  partly  inherited,  partly 
of  their  own  making.  The  Bradlaugh  controversy,  Egyp- 
tian affairs,  the  troubles  in  South  Africa,  and  the  rapid 
growth  of  disaffection  in  Ireland,  sorely  strained  the  loyalty 
of  those  whose  trust  in  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  colleagues 
was  most  staunch.  But  the  six  years  of  Lord  Beacons- 
field's  supremacy  had  left  such  memories  that  the  most 
impatient  Radical  could  not  lightly  break  loose  from  the 
ties  of  party  allegiance  ;  and  even  when  most  distressed 
by  the  political  situation,  Dale  was  prepared  to  hope  all 
things,  and  to  endure  much  from  leaders  in  whom  he 
thoroughly  believed. 

It  will  be  convenient  to  reserve  Irish  affairs  for  another 
chapter,  and  to  deal  here  with  other  questions  of  public 
policy. 

Throughout  the  struggle  over  Mr.  Bradlaugh  and  the 

1   For  Italy. 


432  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

oath,  Dale  never  wavered  in  his  attitude.  He  held  fast  to 
two  principles — that  the  House  of  Commons  had  no  right 
to  require  constituencies  to  impose  a  religious  test  on 
candidates,  or  to  reject  on  religious  grounds  their  duly- 
chosen  representatives  ;  and,  further,  that  the  Parlia- 
mentary oath  is  absolutely  ineffective  as  a  defence  against 
atheism.  Mr.  Bradlaugh's  exclusion  he  regarded  as  a 
crime — the  more  heinous  as  it  was  perpetrated  in  the 
sacred  name  of  the  Christian  faith.  Two  letters  written 
to  Mr.  Chamberlain  at  the  crisis  of  the  struggle  show  how 
deeply  Dale  was  stirred  by  the  gravity  of  the  issue. 


To  the  Right  Hon.  J.  Chamberlain 

zistjune  1880. 

The  Irishmen  are  getting  past  endurance,  and  Northcote's 
action  last  week  seemed  to  me  disgraceful.  Indeed  the  Tory 
tactics  as  a  whole  will  contribute  to  destroy  the  possibility  of 
Free  Institutions,  unless  checked.  Gorst  and  his  crew  are 
abusing  "  questions  "  just  as  much  as  the  Irish  people  are  abusing 
other  forms  of  the  House.  And  now  you  have  the  Bradlaugh 
imbroglio.  It  is  not  very  often  that  I  have  any  desire  to  be  in 
the  House,  but  I  should  like  the  chance  of  a  speech  this  week — 
only  I  should  want  the  genius  and  passion  and  sternness  of  a 
Jewish  prophet  to  scathe  the  men  who  are  using  the  most  august 
elements  of  human  life  as  the  weapons  of  party  passion  and 
party  revenge. 

28/tf  June  18S0. 

The  report  seems  to  be  authoritative  that  you  intend  to 
commit  the  Government  to  Labouchere's  resolution.1  This  seems 
rather  out  of  harmony  with  the  position  taken  by  Gladstone  and 
maintained  by  him  with  such  consummate  skill  last  week.  The 
change  in  the  circumstances  of  the  case  produced  by  Bradlaugh's 
subsequent  proceedings  may,  of  course,  justify  the  new  line.  If 
you  are  sure  of  carrying  the  resolution — well ;  but  if  you  fail — 
what  then  ? 

Some  one  last  night  said  to  me  that  defeat  must  be  followed 

1  Labouchere's  resolution  :  "  That  Mr.  Bradlaugh  be  admitted  to  make  an 
affirmation  or  declaration."  Sir  Hardinge  Giffard's  amendment  to  this  resolu* 
tion  was  carried  by  a  vote  of  275  to  230. 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  433 

by  resignation  and  dissolution.  I  can  hardly  imagine  that  you 
are  contemplating  this ;  but  the  bare  possibility  of  it  seems 
sufficiently  grave  to  justify  me  in  troubling  you  with  a  note. 
With  your  experience  of  the  thorny  nature  of  the  Bible  question 
among  our  own  people  in  Birmingham,  and  with  the  remembrance 
of  the  strength  of  the  pressure  which  compelled  us  to  yield  last 
November,  you  must  know  what  a  tremendous  spectre  we  should 
have  to  fight  if  the  Government  actually  went  to  the  country  on 
the  Bradlaugh  case.  I  cannot  suppose  you  mean  to  do  it,  but 
the  bare  suggestion  is  alarming. 

I  should  think  you  would  carry  the  general  resolution  de- 
scribed in  the  Times  this  morning,  but  dissolution  even  on  that 
would  be  obnoxious  to  the  objection  urged  in  this  letter.  It 
would  be  made  to  identify  the  Government  with  Bradlaugh. 

In  the  course  of  the  controversy  he  approached  the 
question  from  more  than  one  point  of  view.  Addressing 
the  "Eight  Hundred"  —  the  central  committee  of  the 
Liberal  Association — he  discussed  its  political  aspect :  the 
invasion  of  the  rights  of  the  constituency  by  the  imposition 
of  a  religious  test  not  recognised  by  law.  Against  such 
an  act,  so  arbitrary,  so  iniquitous,  a  Christian  minister 
above  all  other  men  was  bound  to  protest ;  for  "  every 
public  act  of  injustice  done  in  the  name  of  religion,  every 
private  wrong,  enormously  aggravated  the  difficulty  of  that 
task  to  which  the  ministers  of  the  Christian  faith  are 
committed." 

He  felt  constrained  to  deal  also  with  the  higher  and 
more  sacred  issues  involved,  and  to  discuss  the  question  in 
its  relation  to  religious  faith.  Reluctant  as  he  was  to 
allude  in  the  pulpit  to  subjects  of  political  debate,  he  had 
no  choice.  Mr.  Bradlaugh's  exclusion  from  the  House  of 
Commons  had  been  justified  on  religious  grounds.  Many, 
if  not  all,  of  those  who  had  voted  against  his  admission 
had  been  led  to  do  so  by  religious  conviction.  To  expose 
misconceptions  which  seemed  to  him  to  imperil  the  reality 
and  the  power  of  faith  was  a  duty  imposed  upon  a  loyal 
preacher  of  the  gospel.  But  it  is  noteworthy  how,  while 
in  arms,  obedient  to  the  voice  of  conscience,  he  lingers 
among  those  serene  heights  of  Divine  truth  that  rise  above 
the  dust  and  the  turmoil  of  conflict ;  how  he  dwells  upon 
2  F 


434  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

the  dignity  and  the  splendour  with  which  human  life  is 
invested  by  faith  in  God,  and  upon  the  awful  solemnity 
which  that  belief  confers  on  moral  obligation  :  it  is  with 
slow  and  unwilling  feet  that  he  descends  at  last  to  the 
battle  in  the  plain. 

In  two  sermons,  on  "  Atheism  and  the  House  of 
Commons " 1  and  "  Oath  or  Affirmation," 2  he  examined 
the  arguments  alleged  in  support  of  the  Parliamentary 
oath.  His  objection  was  twofold.  In  the  first  place,  the 
oath  tended  both  to  obscure  the  essential  difference  be- 
tween religious  belief  as  an  intellectual  assent  and  as  a 
living  and  controlling  power,  and  to  establish  an  unreal 
and  pernicious  kind  of  distinction  between  theoretical  and 
practical  atheism  —  between  the  denial  of  God  with  the 
lips  and  the  denial  of  Him  in  the  life.  And  further,  the 
oath  as  now  accepted  afforded  no  guarantee  of  genuine 
faith  or  of  sound  morality  ;  its  only  effect  was  to  furnish 
occasion  for  blasphemous  profanity.  A  few  extracts  will 
sufficiently  show  the  movement  and  direction  of  his 
thought. 

Atheism  is  of  two  kinds.  There  is  practical  Atheism,  in 
which  all  the  active  powers  of  man  refuse  to  acknowledge  the 
supreme  authority  of  God,  though  the  fact  of  His  existence  is 
admitted  by  the  intellect.  There  is  theoretical  Atheism,  in 
which  His  existence  is  denied,  and  His  authority  is,  therefore, 
disregarded.  To  those  of  us  who  desire  to  bring  our  thoughts 
into  harmony  with  the  thoughts  of  God,  who  wish  to  look  at 
things  as  they  are,  and  not  as  mere  human  custom  may  make 
them  seem  to  be,  I  ask,  whether  there  is  any  real  and  serious 
difference  between  the  two  ? 

There  are  great  numbers  of  men  who  would  resent  the  charge 
of  Atheism.  They  believe  in  God — so  far  they  do  well.  But 
where  is  the  glory  of  their  faith — where  its  power  ?  How  often 
do  they  hear  its  voice  ?  What  provinces  of  their  life  are  under 
its  command?  It  should  be  crowned,  sceptred,  enthroned.  If 
the  works  which  are  the  proof  of  its  authority  and  strength  are 
absent,  James  says  that  it  is  dead.  Yes,  the  only  difference 
between  the  practical  and  the  speculative  atheist  is  this :  in 
the  soul   of  the  practical   atheist   the   dead  corpse   of  faith  is 

1  27th  June  1880.  2  29th  April  1883. 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  435 

still  lying,  placed  perhaps  in  a  costly  and  splendid  sarcophagus 
of  religious  observance,  clothed,  as  I  have  seen  the  bodies  of 
dead  men  clothed,  in  vestments  of  honour — decorated  with 
jewels — but  dead,  really  dead.  From  the  soul  of  the  speculative 
atheist  the  corpse  has  been  removed,  and  hardly  a  trace  remains 
that  it  was  ever  there. 

What  is  it  that  you  fear?  It  is  not  an  opinion.  It  is  moral 
conduct  which  is  uncontrolled  by  the  authority  of  God  ;  practical 
iVtheism  ;  an  habitual  disregard  of  the  Divine  laws  ;  an  habitual 
indifference  to  the  Divine  approval  and  the  Divine  anger.  And 
against  practical  Atheism  no  oath  can  protect  you.  What  the 
Apostle  James  thought  of  the  moral  and  religious  value  of  that 
bare  acknowledgment  of  the  Divine  existence,  to  which  some 
good  men  attribute  such  immense  importance,  appears  in  the 
text :  "  Thou  believest  that  there  is  one  God  ;  thou  doest  well ; 
the  devils  also  believe  and  tremble."  Under  the  fires  of  that 
superb  and  awful  scorn,  religious  formalism  should  be  utterly 
consumed. 

The  oath  does  not  even  require  a  belief  in  the  God  of 
Revelation.  A  belief  in  any  God  is  enough.  Pilate  could  have 
taken  it,  and  so  could  Nero,  and  every  Roman  magistrate  that 
commanded  Christian  confessors  to  be  beheaded,  to  be  flung  to 
the  lions,  or  to  be  crucified.  .  .  .  For  Christian  men  to  talk  of 
such  an  oath  as  though  it  were  in  any  sense  a  bulwark  of  the 
Christian  Faith  is  the  very  delirium  of  fanaticism. 

"  No,"  say  some,  "  we  do  not  defend  the  oath  because  it  is  a 
protection  of  Christian  Faith ;  but  because  it  is  a  protection  of 
morality.  If  a  man  does  not  believe  in  God  he  can  have  no 
conscience,  and  there  is  nothing  to  restrain  him  from  the  worst 
crimes."  I  will  not  interrupt  the  course  of  this  discussion  to 
examine  the  general  proposition  on  which  this  argument  rests ; 
but  simply  ask  whether  any  kind  of  belief  in  any  kind  of  God  is 
really  a  protection  of  morality.  Caiaphas  and  Judas,  Pilate  and 
Nero — all  of  these,  as  I  have  said,  could  have  taken  the  oath ; 
what  protection  did  their  belief  afford  to  their  morals  ?  For 
three  hundred  years  you  have  had  the  oath  to  protect  the  moral- 
ity of  the  House  of  Commons.  Has  the  morality  of  the  House 
been  protected  ?  Statesmen  have  taken  the  oath  who  have  kept 
their  majority  by  bribing  members  of  the  House  itself.  Members 
have  taken  the  oath  who  have  won  their  election  by  bribing  their 
constituencies.  Gamblers  have  taken  the  oath  who  have  left  the 
House  at  midnight  to  lose  thousands  of  pounds  in  a  gambling- 
hell.  Drunkards  have  taken  the  oath  who  have  come  reeling 
into  the   House   from   their  wine   to   take   part   in   a   division. 


436  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Adulterers  have  taken  the  oath ;  and  the  remembrance  of  the 
God  whose  name  they  have  taken  in  vain,  did  nothing  to  prevent 
them  from  blasting  the  honour  of  women  who  were  the  victims 
of  their  sensuality,  and  ruining  the  peace  of  friendly  homes. 
The  oath  a  defence  of  morality  !  The  Dublin  assassins  were 
bound  together  by  an  oath.  It  was  under  the  sanction  of  an  oath 
that  they  murdered  Mr.  Burke  and  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish. 
Protect  the  morals  of  the  House  by  insisting  on  the  oath  !  Who 
believes  that  the  morals  of  the  House  for  the  last  three  centuries 
would  have  been  worse  if  the  oath  had  never  existed  ?  If  the 
oath  is  intended  to  protect  the  morals  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
it  is  time  to  try  some  other  means. 

To  secure  a  legislature  that  should  be  Christian  in 
reality  and  not  only  in  name,  the  oath,  and  all  oaths,  were 
futile.  They  could  breed  nothing  but  formalism,  the  barren 
husk  of  faith,  a  faith  in  which  even  the  devils  could  share. 
It  was  for  the  reality  that  he  pleaded — that  men  should 
cease  to  confound  the  false  with  the  true. 

If  we  ask  for  faith  at  all  it  must  be  for  faith  of  a  real  and 
energetic  kind — the  faith  that  roots  the  life  of  man  in  the  life  of 
God.  ...  I  know  of  no  method  of  securing  the  morality  of 
Parliament  but  one — secure  the  morality  of  the  nation.  I  know 
of  no  method  of  securing  the  religious  loyalty  of  Parliament  but 
one — secure  the  religious  loyalty  of  the  people. 

Like  many  other  Liberal  politicians,  Dale  was  grievously 
distressed  by  the  course  of  affairs  in  Egypt,  and  he 
thoroughly  sympathised  with  Mr.  Bright  in  his  despondency 
when  the  untoward  events  that  led  to  the  bombardment  of 
Alexandria  compelled  him  to  resign  his  place  in  the 
Ministry.1  Mr.  Bright,  worn  by  continued  depression,  and 
looking  forward  with  nervous  alarm  to  his  Rectorial 
Address  at  the  University  of  Glasgow,  wrote  to  him  in  the 
autumn,  saying :  "  I  advise  you  not  to  go  down  to 
Glasgow.  The  duty  is  one  I  wish  I  could  escape.  I  am 
weary  of  public  speaking,  and  my  mind  is  almost  a  'blank' 
when  I  try  to  imagine  what  is  required  of  me."  To  this 
sad  letter  Dale  replied  as  follows. 

1   15th  July  1SS2. 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  437 

To  the  Right  Hon.  John  Bright 

28M  November  1882. 

After  the  life  you  have  lived  and  the  work  you  have  done  the 
weariness  of  which  you  speak  is  not  surprising.  The  emotional 
and  imaginative  energies  which  have  contributed  so  much  to  your 
unique  power  always,  I  imagine,  leave  men  with  a  sense  of 
depression  and  exhaustion  after  they  have  been  so  active  as  they 
have  been  in  your  case.  Elijah  in  the  wilderness,  after  his  con- 
flict with  Ahab  and  the  priests  of  Baal,  was  as  weary  of  his  work 
as  I  suppose  you  are.  But  he  had  done  a  great  thing  for  God 
and  his  people.  I  wish  that  some  of  us  could  give  you  some 
impression  of  what  we  think  and  feel  about  the  kind  of  service 
you  have  rendered  to  the  country  during  the  last  thirty  or  forty 
years.  You  have  sometimes  bantered  me  about  my  militant 
instincts,  but  even  when  I  have  ventured  to  differ  from  you — as 
I  did  about  the  Crimean  war,  and  as  I  have  done  about  more 
recent  questions — my  sense  of  the  moral  value  of  your  influence 
on  the  public  life  of  the  nation  was,  I  think,  as  vivid  as  that  of 
the  people  whose  judgment  went  with  your  own.  You  have,  I 
believe,  inspired  large  numbers  of  men  with  the  idea  that  political 
action  should  be  guided  and  sustained  neither  by  self-interest 
nor  by  ambition,  but  by  loyalty  to  conscience.  This  idea  is  a 
fruitful  one,  and  will  yield  its  harvests  long  after  your  personal 
work  is  over ;  and  so  you  will  live  in  the  lives  of  other  men. 
What  an  admirable  subject  that  would  be  for  your  Glasgow 
address — the  responsibilities  of  a  free  people  in  relation  to 
legislation  and  policy. 

Forgive  this  long  letter.  But  to  hear  that  Elijah  is  weary 
touches  the  heart  of  one  who  saw  him  on  Carmel. 

In  the  Egyptian  troubles,  as  he  said  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Chamberlain,  Dale  had  shown  himself  "  very  loyal  to  the 
Government,"  and  he  strongly  reprobated  "  the  worrying 
tactics  of  the  Opposition."  But  he  could  not  agree  with 
those  who  were  content  to  express  "  confidence "  in  Mr. 
Gladstone  and  blindly  to  remit  the  questions  at  issue  to 
the  decision  of  the  party  leaders.  To  censure  or  to 
condemn  without  full  and  precise  knowledge  would  have 
been  unjust  ;  but  the  essential  facts  were  accessible  to 
any  one  who  would  take  the  trouble  to  master  them,  and 
Dale  was  convinced  that  a  little  more  boldness  of  speech 


438  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

might  have  rendered  real  service  both  to  the  Ministry  and 
the  nation. 

In  relation  to  South  African  affairs  he  felt  silence  to  be 
impossible.  He  had  welcomed  the  policy  initiated  by  the 
Convention  of  Pretoria,1  conceding  independence  to  the 
Transvaal,  but  imposing  on  the  imperial  Government 
responsibility  for  the  protection  of  native  races  within  and 
beyond  the  frontiers.  In  correspondence  with  Mr. 
Chamberlain,  who  on  that  subject  was  the  mouthpiece  of 
the  Cabinet  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  in  more  than 
one  public  utterance,  he  expressed  his  satisfaction  that  the 
freedom  of  the  Boers  did  not  involve  the  slavery  of  the 
natives.  At  first  the  outlook  was  hopeful  ;  but  the  Boers 
soon  began  to  chafe  against  the  restrictions  to  which  they 
were  subjected.  They  coveted  the  rich  pastures  of  the 
neighbouring  Bechuanas — among  whom  Robert  Moffat 
had  lived  and  laboured  for  half  a  century  ;  they  desired  to 
secure  control  of  the  great  trade-roads  running  through 
Bechuanaland  between  the  Cape  and  Central  Africa  ;  they 
began  to  harass,  to  plunder,  to  terrorise.  When  the  Rev. 
John  Mackenzie  visited  England  in  the  autumn  of  1882, 
he  brought  a  lamentable  record  of  outrage  and  cruelty. 
He  addressed  several  meetings  in  various  parts  of  the 
country  ;  and  at  Birmingham,  Dale,  who  had  been  in 
communication  with  him  for  many  months,  made  a  strong 
appeal  to  the  Government  to  discharge  the  duties  it  had 
undertaken.  We  had  power  to  redress  wrongs,  and  he 
contended  that  we  were  under  solemn  obligation  to  remedy 
the  wrongs  that  had  been  brought  to  our  knowledge.  He 
particularly  urged  that  the  Government  should  insist  on 
carrying  out  the  18th  article  of  the  Convention  of  Pretoria. 

The  speech  attracted  attention,  and  the  Pall  Mall 
Gazette,  then  edited  by  Mr.  John  Morley,  emphatically 
condemned  the  policy  thus  advocated  ;  but  Dale  reasserted 
his  contention. 

[The  policy  of  the  Government]  seemed  to  me  both  righteous 
and  expedient,   singularly  courageous   and  singularly  Christian. 

1   2 1  st  March  1881. 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  439 

But  that  policy  included  two  distinct  elements.  It  restored  to 
the  Boers  internal  independence ;  it  reserved  to  the  British 
Government  powers  for  the  protection  of  native  races  on  the 
Transvaal  frontier.  It  is  not  unreasonable  for  those  who  in  the 
face  of  great  obloquy  *  supported  the  Government  in  recognising 
the  independence  of  the  Transvaal,  to  ask  that  it  should  also  use 
its  treaty  powers,  and  use  them  effectively,  for  the  protection  of 
the  natives. 

To  this  statement  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  replied  that 
the  suzerainty  over  the  Transvaal  retained  by  us  was  a 
"  shadowy  term,"  and  that  those  who  demanded  that  our 
reserved  rights  should  be  enforced,  were  bound  to  face  the 
question  whether  they  were  willing  to  fight  to  enforce  them. 
Was  Dale  ready  to  run  the  risk  of  a  fresh  war  in  South 
Africa  ?  If  not,  his  position,  whatever  might  be  said  for  it, 
was  untenable  in  practice.  To  the  assumption  involved  in 
this  method  of  argument  Dale  demurred.  The  immediate 
question,  he  rejoined,  was  not  whether  we  should  fight  the 
Transvaal  Republic,  but  whether  the  British  Government 
and  the  British  people  should  regard  with  indifference  the 
outrages  of  the  Boers  against  tribes  that  we  had  under- 
taken to  protect. 

To  assume  that  a  firm  attempt  on  our  part  to  put  a  stop  to 
these  outrages  would  involve  us  in  war  with  the  Transvaal  is  to 
assume  that  men  like  Mr.  Joubert  approve  of  them.  It  is  to 
assume  that  the  demand  of  the  Boers  for  independence  really 
meant  a  demand  for  liberty  to  commit  acts  of  plunder  and 
violence  beyond  the  borders  of  their  own  territory.  Both  these 
assumptions  are  unjust.  We  are  bound  to  take  it  for  granted 
that  the  Government  of  the  Transvaal — if  it  is  fully  aware  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  offences  of  which  we  complain — shares  our 
condemnation  of  them.  It  may,  however,  have  no  sufficient 
resources  for  their  suppression  ;  in  that  case,  it  should  be  our 
endeavour  to  discover  some  means  of  securing  an  effective  police 
on  the  Transvaal  frontier,  and  we  should  do  this  in  concert  with 
the  Transvaal  Government.  You  describe  the  suzerainty  as  a 
"  shadowy  term";  but  the  powers  reserved  in  article  18  for  the 
protection  of  the  native  races  are  sufficiently  definite  and  sub- 
stantial. I  have  no  desire  to  use  these  powers  in  a  way  that 
would  irritate  the  sensitiveness  of  the  Republic;  but  if  the  Govern- 

1  After  the  disaster  at  Majuba  Hill. 


44Q  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

ment  of  the  Republic  cannot  prevent  such  crimes  as  are  declared 
to  have  been  committed  in  the  Bechuana  country,  and  if  we  are 
indifferent  to  them,  we  shall  have  the  South  African  tribes  in  a 
blaze  again  before  a  few  years  are  over,  and  for  the  safety  of  our 
colonists  we  shall  be  compelled  to  interfere. 

The  Pall  Mall  Gazette  in  reply  declared  its  willingness 
to  "  remonstrate,"  but  refused  to  "  fire  a  single  shot "  if  the 
remonstrance  were  ignored. 

In  the  ensuing  session,  the  ministerial  policy  was 
challenged  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  in  the 
Commons  Mr.  Forster  indicted  the  Government  for  its 
impotence  to  hold  the  Transvaal  Republic  to  its  engage- 
ments. His  attack  provoked  Mr.  Gladstone  to  an  outburst 
of  rhetorical  passion,  rare  even  in  him,  and  he  ruthlessly 
denounced  "  the  man  of  peace  who  was  preaching  war." 
But  the  reply,  though  effective  for  its  purpose,  was  not  of 
a  kind  to  allay  the  misgivings  of  those  who  felt  that  we 
were  receding  from  an  imperial  duty,  and  Dale  appealed 
to  Mr.  Gladstone  himself  to  dispel  the  doubts  that 
had  been  thrown  on  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  the 
Convention. 

To  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone 

\\th  April  1 883. 

Before  the  debate  on  the  Transvaal  is  closed  it  would  be  a 
great  relief  to  some  of  the  most  loyal  supporters  of  the  Govern- 
ment if  one  point  were  made  quite  clear.  In  the  discussions 
on  this  subject  which  took  place  early  in  1881,  it  was  maintained 
with  great  emphasis  that  the  policy  of  the  Government  provided 
(1)  for  the  restoration  of  the  independence  of  the  Transvaal 
Republic  under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Queen,  and  (2)  for  the 
protection  of  the  native  races. 

I  remember  very  well  the  energy  with  which  the  second 
object  was  insisted  upon  in  popular  meetings  of  the  Liberal 
party ;  and  I  think  that  the  speakers  who  insisted  on  it  had 
abundant  authority  for  all  they  said,  in  the  speeches  of  the  most 
important  members  of  the  Ministry  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

But  in  the  present  debate  the  representatives  of  the  Ministry 
have  assumed — indeed  expressly  argued — that  although  the 
Pretoiia  Convention  gives  us  power  to  interfere  on  behalf  of  the 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  441 

native  races,  it  does  not  impose  any  obligation  to  interfere,  and 
that  our  obligations  are  limited  to  the  fulfilment  of  certain 
promises  made  by  British  officials  to  some  of  the  native  chiefs. 

This  may  be  a  perfectly  legitimate  interpretation  of  the  terms 
of  the  Convention,  but  I  venture  to  submit  that  it  is  not  in 
harmony  with  the  declarations  of  Ministers  when  the  policy  of 
the  retrocession  of  the  Transvaal  was  under  discussion. 

There  is  no  doubt  very  much  to  be  said  in  favour  of 
abstaining  from  all  interference  between  the  Boers  and  the 
natives;  but  my  difficulty  is  to  reconcile  this  course  with  the 
arguments  which  assisted  to  reconcile  the  country  to  the 
restoration  of  Transvaal  independence — arguments  which  rested 
on  official  assurances  that  the  Ministry  intended  to  protect  the 
native  races.  If  it  had  been  said  that  powers  to  protect  would 
be  taken  but  not  used,  it  is  at  least  possible  that  a  section 
of  the  party  might  have  declined  to  approve  the  ministerial 
policy. 

I  am  not  so  presumptuous  as  to  venture  to  discuss  with 
yourself  the  present  position  of  the  Ministry  in  relation  to  this 
question.  I  simply  wish  most  respectfully  to  invite  your  atten- 
tion to  an  aspect  of  the  subject  which  occasions  perplexity  and, 
I  might  say,  pain  to  some  earnest  friends  of  the  Government. 

I  do  not  know  what  action  has  been  taken  by  any  of  the 
missionary  societies  on  the  subject ;  but  I  wish  to  say  very 
explicitly  that  the  passage  in  Mr.  Forster's  speech  in  which  he 
spoke  of  the  claims  that  might  be  made  on  the  Government  if 
missionary  property  were  destroyed  by  the  Boers  is  in  my 
judgment  preposterous.  The  buildings  which  may  perhaps  be 
in  peril  were  erected  long  before  any  kind  of  English  guarantee 
was  given  that  the  Transvaal  Boers  should  be  prevented  from 
injuring  their  neighbours.  That  Government  should  be  asked 
to  protect  either  the  missionaries  or  their  converts  is  also 
contrary  to  the  principles  of  those  with  whom  I  am  accustomed 
to  act.  The  one  point  to  which  I  venture  to  direct  attention  is 
the  contrast,  as  it  appears  to  me,  between  the  declarations  of 
Ministers  in  1881  in  relation  to  the  native  races  generally  and 
the  position  which  has  been  taken  in  the  present  debate. 

One  more  word  of  personal  explanation.  If  in  1881  it  had 
been  proposed  to  restore  independence  to  the  Transvaal  without 
making  provision  for  protecting  the  natives,  I  should  have 
supported  the  proposal  as  just ;  but  in  the  controversies  of 
that  time  I  felt  that  whatever  I  said  in  support  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  immensely  strengthened  by  the  clearness,  the  decision, 
with  which  it  was  officially  declared  that  the  Government 
intended  that  the  natives  should  be  protected.     This  did  not 


442  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

mean  that  the  Boers  were  to  be  asked  to  promise  not  to  injure 
them. 

Excuse  me  for  writing  at  such  length.  I  should  be  sorry 
that  you  should  trouble  to  send  me  any  private  reply. 

I  am  anxious  that  some  representative  of  the  Government 
should  deal  with  this  aspect  of  the  question  in  the  House  of 
Commons. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  reply  was  courteous  but  not  reassuring. 
It  dwelt  almost  entirely  upon  the  difficulties  of  the 
situation,  and  said  very  little  about  the  possibilities  of 
their  solution.  Indeed  the  position  of  affairs  elsewhere 
was  becoming  critical  :  our  army,  as  Mr.  Chamberlain 
reminded  his  friend,  was  far  too  small  to  meet  any  fresh 
demands  on  its  strength  ;  and  the  Boers  were  left  to  take 
their  own  course. 

During  the  rest  of  the  year  attention  was  almost 
wholly  engrossed  by  home  politics.  Ministers  were 
pledged  to  extend  the  franchise  in  the  counties,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  to  a  scheme  of  electoral  redistribution.  A 
London  Government  Bill  was  also  in  prospect.  The  two 
measures  competed  for  priority.  At  a  meeting  held  in 
London  in  May,  the  Liberal  Federation  asked  for  both  but 
for  "  franchise  first."  Dale  was  one  of  those  who  supported 
the  demand.  In  October  he  took  the  same  line  at  the 
Leeds  Conference,  when  the  question  was  again  discussed. 
He  also  wrote  in  the  Contemporary  Review,  defending  the 
decision  of  the  delegates.1 

He  was  as  anxious  as  any  one  to  see  the  authority 
of  the  London  Vestries  superseded  by  free  municipal 
institutions  ;  but  he  was  conscious  that  outside  London 
at  any  rate  the  difficulties  involved  in  such  a  change  had 
received  very  little  serious  consideration.  Some  of  these 
problems  he  stated  in  a  definite  shape. 

Is  there  to  be  one  magnificent  municipality  for  four  millions 
of  people  ?  or  is  there  to  be  a  confederation  of  municipalities, 
with  a  representative  board  in  charge  of  water,  sewage,  and 
other  public  works  which  must  be  under  the  superintendence  of 

1    Contemporary  Review,  November  1883,  pp.  759-768. 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  443 

a  central  authority  ?  If  there  is  to  be  only  one  municipality,  it 
is  clear  that  the  City  Council  will  have  almost  the  dignity  of  a 
Parliament :  the  rank  of  its  leaders  will  approach  the  rank  of 
Ministers  of  State ;  its  officials  will  require  salaries  nearly  equal 
to  those  which  are  received  by  the  high  authorities  in  Whitehall 
and  Downing  Street.  The  mechanism  of  its  departments  will 
be  almost  as  complicated,  and  probably  almost  as  hard  to  work, 
as  the  mechanism  of  the  Education  Department,  the  Home 
Office,  or  the  Board  of  Trade.  There  will  be  the  gravest 
danger  of  a  new  "Circumlocution  Office,"  and  the  municipal 
activity  of  London  will  be  likely  to  get  entangled  and  restricted 
by  the  proverbial  "red-tape."  .   .   . 

The  question  of  the  police  is  one  which  the  Government 
may  find  it  still  harder  to  settle.  The  metropolitan  police  is  an 
army.  It  seems  to  me  very  likely  that  the  proposal  to  place  it 
under  municipal  control  would  fill  many  excellent  members  on 
both  sides  of  the  House  of  Commons  with  dismay.  They 
would  argue  that  in  the  hands  of  authorities  deriving  their 
power  directly  from  popular  election  the  force  might  become 
dangerous  to  the  State ;  that  the  protection  of  Parliament,  of 
the  Courts  of  Justice,  and  of  the  great  Government  offices 
cannot  be  safely  transferred  from  a  Minister  of  State  responsible 
to  Parliament  and  the  Crown.  On  the  other  hand,  it  would  be 
argued  that  to  refuse  to  give  the  new  municipal  body  the 
control  of  the  police  would  be  a  violation  of  the  principles  of 
municipal  government,  would  betray  a  shameful  distrust  of  free 
and  popular  institutions,  and  would  be  almost  certain  to  lead  to 
irritating  conflicts  between  two  rival  authorities. 

He  did  not  disguise  the  fact  that  the  Conference  had 
expressed  itself  in  favour  of  the  introduction  of  both  Bills 
— the  Franchise  Bill  and  the  London  Government  Bill — 
in  the  ensuing  session  ;  but  he  foresaw  serious  danger  if 
any  great  measure  were  proposed  before  opinion  in  the 
country  had  taken  shape,  and  especially  before  Liberal 
members  of  Parliament  had  been  able  to  form  a  judgment 
on  the  principles  that  it  embodied.  Delay,  in  his  opinion, 
would  do  less .  harm  than  premature  and  unconsidered 
legislation.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Bunting,  the  editor  of  the 
Contemporary,  who  had  written,  "  I  hope  that  you  do  not 
yourself  feel  distrust  about  the  London  municipality," 
Dale  expressed  more  clearly  the  grounds  of  his  hesitation 
and  doubt. 


444  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

To  Mr.  P.  W.  Bunting 

29/A  October  1883. 

I  thought  it  right  to  put  some  of  the  difficulties  of  the  London 
Bill  into  a  concrete  form,  that  people  who  have  not  thought  of 
the  subject  might  be  led  to  think  of  it,  and  to  recognise  the 
difficulty  of  the  problem.  But  I  thought  that  by  stating  so 
clearly  that  the  drift  of  opinion  at  the  Conference  went  for  a 
London  Bill  next  session  as  well  as  a  Franchise  Bill  I  had  done 
something  for  Firth  and  his  friends.  I  suppose,  but  do  not  know, 
that  Harcourt's  Bill  is  for  one  municipality.  If  I  were  quite 
clear  that  this  is  the  right  thing — or  the  only  possible  thing — 
I  should  advise  my  friends  to  press  the  Government  to  bring  it 
forward  with  whatever  imperfections.  Take  the  police  question, 
for  instance :  London  ought  not  to  be  satisfied  without  the 
control  of  its  own  police ;  but  I  would  rather  have  a  Bill 
reserving  the  control  of  the  police  to  the  Home  Office  than  no 
Bill  at  all. 

The  Government  may  feel  that  they  cannot  bring  forward  a 
perfect  Bill  with  any  chance  of  passing  it.  Firth  and  his  people 
should  say,  Then  give  us  an  imperfect  one. 

But  on  the  question  of  one  municipality  I  have  doubts  so 
grave  that  I  am  not  at  all  clear  that  I  should  be  prepared  to 
vote  for  what  I  suppose  to  be  Harcourt's  scheme.  I  am  in  a 
state  of  suspense  ;  and  I  think  a  great  many  good  Liberals  are 
in  the  same  condition.  I  did  not  put  the  case  against  one 
municipality  half  as  strongly  as  it  might  be  put.  My  own  im- 
pression is  that  it  would  create  no  real  municipal  life  at  all. 

For  the  next  two  years  Dale  took  very  little  part  in 
public  affairs.  He  had  passed  through  great  sorrows ; 
his  strength  showed  signs  of  breaking ;  he  had  neither 
vigour  nor  inclination  for  duties  that  were  not  imperative. 
A  speech  on  the  Franchise  and  another  on  Redistribution 
were  his  only  political  utterances  during  a  period  of 
eighteen  months.  But  his  silence  was  not  due  to  in- 
difference, and  when  the  relations  of  Russia  and  Great 
Britain  became  menacing  in  1884  and  1885,  he  watched 
the  growing  trouble  with  grave  anxiety. 

The  point  of  danger,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  at 
Penjdeh,  on  the  northern  frontier  of  Afghanistan.  A 
joint -commission  to  determine  the  disputed  frontier -line 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  445 

had  been  accepted  both  by  Russia  and  ourselves,  but  Sir 
Peter  Lumsden,  the  British  Commissioner,  awaited  in  vain 
the  arrival  of  his  Russian  colleague.  Meanwhile  it  was 
reported  that  the  Russian  outposts  were  being  steadily 
pushed  forward  in  violation  of  a  distinct  understanding  ; 
and  on  8th  April  1885,  news  reached  London  that  the 
Afghan  troops  had  been  attacked  and  defeated  on  the 
Kushk  River,  and  that  the  Russians  had  occupied  Penjdeh 
on  30th  March.  Public  excitement  steadily  increased  : 
at  the  end  of  March  it  was  decided  to  call  out  the 
Reserves ;  and  on  2 1  st  April  Mr.  Gladstone  asked  for 
eleven  millions  on  a  vote  of  credit. 

The  whole  of  the  London  Press,  with  the  sole  ex- 
ception of  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  spoke  with  one  voice. 
It  was  almost  universally  assumed  that  the  case  was  one 
in  which  no  doubt  was  possible,  and  that  we  stood  on 
the  verge  of  an  inevitable  war.  But  the  representatives 
of  Russia  contended  that  Penjdeh  was  not  in  Afghan 
territory,  and  that  it  had  never  been  so  claimed  until 
Afghan  troops  had  been  sent  to  occupy  it  in  the  previous 
June  at  a  time  when  the  question  of  the  frontier  had 
already  been  referred  to  the  joint-commission  ;  they  con- 
tended also  that  the  attack  had  been  provoked  by  the 
aggressive  movements  of  the  Afghan  troops  in  and  around 
Penjdeh. 

During  the  earlier  stages  of  the  crisis  Dale  was  con- 
vinced that  the  case  was  one  in  which  negotiation  was 
both  reasonable  and  possible.  He  was  willing  to  fight, 
if  compelled  ;  but  he  was  loath  to  fight  in  a  hurry  or 
under  a  misapprehension,  and  he  saw  with  alarm  that 
public  opinion  was  dragging  its  anchors  and  beginning  to 
drift  out  of  control.  He  wrote  to  Mr.  Chamberlain 
expressing  his  anxiety. 

To  the  Right  Hon.  J.  Chamberlain 

27M  March  1885. 
I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  paper  which  I  return. 
I  go  very  heartily  with  you  on  every  point — on  one  point,  indeed, 
I  think  I  go  beyond  you.      In  1879  it  was  the  Radical  opinion, 


446  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

if  I  recall  it  aright,  that  the  Suleiman  range  was  the  safe  frontier 
for  India,  and  that  interference  of  any  kind  beyond  it  was  likely 
to  bring  trouble.     I  am  of  the  same  opinion  still. 

What  makes  me  anxious  is  this :  nearly  all  the  newspapers 
are  vehemently  denouncing  Russia  as  wholly  in  the  wrong  in  the 
matter  of  her  advanced  positions,  and  assuming  that  we  are 
wholly  in  the  right ;  and  I  am  afraid,  if  silence  continues  on 
the  side  of  those  who  think  differently,  that  there  will  be  a  wild 
howl  at  the  Government  in  the  event  of  a  peaceful  settlement — 
or,  rather,  that  the  vehemence  of  passion  will  make  it  difficult 
for  the  Government  to  accept  such  a  settlement.  The  Russian 
contention  that  the  Afghans  were  the  first  to  advance  their 
outposts  into  the  debated  or  debateable  district  is  not,  as  far  as 
I  see,  touched  at  all. 

It  is  a  very  great  satisfaction  to  me  to  know  your  own  position. 
I  hope  you  will  hold  fast  to  it. 

He  determined  to  appeal  to  his  fellow-townsmen,  and 
to  the  wider  constituency  beyond  them  that  he  could 
reach  through  the  Press ;  and  on  the  last  Sunday  in 
March  he  carefully  reviewed  the  course  of  negotiations 
and  events,  pleading  for  calm  inquiry  before  we  com- 
mitted ourselves  to  a  great  and  terrible  war.  Even  after 
the  news  of  the  attack  on  Penjdeh,  he  still  held  to  his 
opinion  that  war  might  be  averted  by  prudence  and  self- 
restraint,  and  he  continued  to  encourage  Mr.  Chamberlain 
to  maintain  the  resolute  position  which  he  had  taken  up. 

The  defeat  of  the  Government  and  the  return  of  the 
Conservatives  to  office  followed  at  no  great  interval.  The 
dissolution  was  announced  in  the  autumn.  But  before 
the  struggle  at  the  polls  began,  Mr.  Chamberlain  addressed 
a  series  of  meetings  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  setting 
forth  what  was  afterwards  known  as  the  "  Unauthorised 
Programme."  Dale  wrote  to  congratulate  him  on  his 
return  from  the  campaign. 

To  the  Right  Hon.  J.  Chamberlain 

2  1st  Septe?nber  18S5. 

I  congratulate  you  very  heartily  on  your  recent  speeches  in 
the  north ;  apart  from  the  substance  of  them,  which  was  admir- 
able, the  form — in  which  I  include  all  the  rhetorical  elements — 


THE  NEW  LIBERALISM  447 

reached  a  level  which  I  think  you  never  touched  before,  and 
which  I  hope  you  will  keep.  It  is  a  great  thing  for  a  man  to 
make  an  advance  of  this  kind  when  he  has  touched  fifty. 
This  criticism  is  rather  presumptuous  for  a  person  like  myself 
to  offer  to  an  ex-Cabinet  Minister ;  but  the  delight  one  has  in 
watching  the  growing  strength  of  one's  comrades  remains  when 
a  comrade  has  become  a  chief,  and  when  one  has  lost  the  right 
to  speak  to  him  in  this  way. 

When  the  elections  began  in  November,  Dale  rallied 
his  energies  for  the  fray.  The  recent  Act  had  divided 
Birmingham  into  seven  constituencies,  each  returning  a 
member  ;  Aston,  an  outlying  portion  of  the  town,  was 
treated  as  a  separate  borough.  In  some  of  the  divisions 
the  conflict  was  severe,  especially  in  Central  Birmingham, 
where  Mr.  Bright  was  opposed  by  Lord  Randolph 
Churchill  ;  and  in  North  Birmingham,  where  Mr.  Henry 
Matthews,  afterwards  the  Conservative  Home  Secretary, 
stood  against  Mr.  William  Kenrick  ;  in  the  Bordesley 
division,  too,  Mr.  Henry  Broadhurst,  at  that  time  a 
stranger  to  the  town,  had  to  fight  a  hard  battle.  Dale's 
help  was  given  wherever  it  was  most  needed  ;  he  never 
spoke  with  greater  effect  than  in  this  contest.  It  was  the 
last  occasion  on  which  the  Liberal  party  in  Birmingham 
fought  under  the  same  flag  ;  and  at  the  banquet  at  the 
Reform  Club  on  17th  December,  over  which  he  presided, 
held  to  celebrate  an  unbroken  victory  in  Birmingham 
and  in  Aston,  they  met  for  the  last  time  in  their  united 
strength. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

THE    IRISH    QUESTION 

Ireland  and  the  Liberal  party — The  supremacy  of  law — The  Dublin  murders 
—  The  Home  Rule  Bill  of  1886  — Feeling  at  Birmingham— Dale's 
criticism  of  the  Bill — Letter  to  Mr.  Gladstone — Irish  members  in  the 
House  of  Commons  :  suggestion  of  a  compromise — Letters  to  Mr.  Glad- 
stone and  Mr.  Morley — Article  in  the  Contemporary — Correspondence  with 
Archbishop  Walsh — Attempts  to  keep  the  peace  in  Birmingham — Defends 
Mr.  Chamberlain  and  the  policy  of  the  Liberal  Unionists  —  Further 
efforts  at  reconciliation — Difficulties  of  reunion — Withdraws  from  the 
conflict — A  political  exile. 

ALTHOUGH  the  part  that  Dale  took  in  the  controversy- 
arising  out  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill  was  inconspicuous,  it 
can  hardly  be  described  as  unimportant ;  and  the  dis- 
ruption of  the  Liberal  party  so  modified  the  conditions 
of  his  public  activity  that  it  cannot  be  left  unnoticed. 

After  Mr.  Gladstone's  return  to  office  in  1880,  Dale 
consistently  supported  the  Irish  policy  of  his  government, 
both  in  Birmingham  and  at  the  meetings  of  the  Liberal 
Federation.  He  recognised  the  existence  of  radical  defects 
both  in  the  method  of  Irish  administration  and  in  the 
system  of  Irish  land  tenure  ;  he  sympathised  with  the 
demand  for  large  and  comprehensive  measures  of  reform  ; 
but  he  invariably  insisted  that  at  all  costs  the  supremacy 
of  the  law  must  be  maintained.  Law,  as  he  viewed  it, 
was  not  a  thing  to  be  trifled  with  or  to  be  made  light  of. 
Law  in  the  natural  world  was  the  thought  of  God,  revealed 
and  made  intelligible  to  man.  Law  in  human  society  was 
man's  attempt — however  perverted  by  misconception  and 
failure — to  apply  the  thought  of  God  to  the  circumstances 
and  relations  of  human   life  ;  and   he  regarded  with  pro- 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  449 

found  misgiving  any  tendency  by  which  its  power  was 
impaired  or  its  authority  impugned  :  a  bad  law,  an  unjust 
law,  was  a  law  to  be  mended  or  abolished ;  but  so  long  as 
it  continued,  it  was  a  law  to  be  obeyed  ;  disobedience  was 
dangerous,  and  could  be  justified  only  in  rare  instances 
and  by  reasons  of  surpassing  weight.  In  supporting 
those  who  upheld  the  law,  he  was  governed  not  by 
instincts  of  party  loyalty,  but  by  deliberate  moral 
conviction. 

More  than  once,  when  sections  of  the  Liberal  party 
grew  restive  and  threatened  to  revolt  against  any  resort 
to  coercive  measures  in  Ireland,  he  withstood  them. 
When  the  Government  was  denounced  for  using  military 
force  to  defend  the  Irish  police,  he  insisted  that  "  the  life 
of  every  officer  of  the  law  while  discharging  his  duty 
ought  to  be  as  sacred  as  the  life  of  any  other  man  in 
the  country,"  and  that  the  administrative  authority,  if  it 
shrank  from  using  the  whole  strength  at  its  command  for 
the  protection  of  its  servants,  would  be  guilty  of  a  grave 
dereliction  of  duty.  When  the  "  unwritten  law "  of  the 
Land  League  attempted  to  supersede  the  law  of  Parlia- 
ment and  of  the  Crown,  the  executive  government,  he 
held,  was  bound  to  suppress  a  rival  and  a  revolutionary 
authority.  Accepting  the  statements  of  Mr.  Parnell  and 
his  colleagues  that  they  deprecated  outrage  and  deplored 
it,  he  saw  in  their  avowal  an  additional  reason  for  energetic 
and  decisive  action.  The  outrages  which  the  League 
could  not  suppress  could  never  be  punished  so  long  as 
the  League  existed  as  a  rival  authority  with  conflicting 
laws  and  conflicting  tribunals.  Political  agitation  was 
permissible ;  but  as  a  revolutionary  government  the 
League  must  be  crushed,  and  Parliament  was  bound  to 
crush  it. 

He  maintained  this  position  at  the  meetings  of  the 
Liberal  Federation  held  in  January  1881,  when  the 
coercive  measures  of  the  Government  were  vigorously 
attacked.  He  reminded  those  who  demanded  priority 
for  remedial  legislation,  that  such  measures  take  time  to 
devise  and  to  pass.  Nor  did  he  believe  that  remedial 
2  G 


450  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

measures   alone   would    meet  the  necessities   of  the  case, 
although  he  had  no  love  for  coercion. 

Coercion  must  be  hateful  to  every  genuine  Liberal.  It  is  an 
attempt  to  maintain  the  authority  of  law  in  other  ways  than 
those  provided  by  the  ordinary  processes  of  the  courts ;  and 
when  this  is  done,  there  is  danger  of  serious  injustice.  But  we 
have  coercion  in  Ireland  already — we  have  it  in  a  great  part  of 
Ireland.  For  months  coercion  has  suspended  the  ordinary 
course  of  justice.  Unlimited  power,  vested  in  unknown  hands, 
is  enforcing  laws  established  by  an  unknown  authority,  and  is 
enforcing  them  by  illegal  processes  and  arbitrary  penalties.  If 
I  am  to  be  under  a  government  of  coercion,  I  prefer  a  govern- 
ment which  publicly  accepts  the  responsibility  of  its  acts,  and 
which  can  be  held  responsible  for  them  before  the  whole  nation. 
What  I  most  dread  is  a  government  of  coercion  which  works  in 
secret,  and  whose  representatives  disavow  at  Westminster  the 
acts  which  are  done  in  their  name  at  least  in  Ireland. 

At  the  same  time,  while  asserting  the  necessity  of 
vindicating  the  supremacy  of  the  law,  he  consulted  Mr. 
Bright  as  to  the  possibility  of  introducing  into  the  Coercion 
Bill  a  clause  suspending  "  eviction  from  agricultural  hold- 
ings—  or  from  agricultural  holdings  valued  at  less  than 
^50  a  year — till  after  next  September,"  on  the  ground 
that  "  great  trouble  may  happen  between  the  breaking 
down  of  the  Land  League  and  the  passing  of  the  Land 
Bill."  Again,  in  July,  when  the  progress  of  the  Land 
Bill  was,  as  he  thought,  deliberately  retarded  by  obstruction 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  he  protested  with  a  vigour 
that  undoubtedly  placed  him  among  those  "  imperious 
provincial  politicians"  marked  out  for  solemn  rebuke  by 
the  Times. 

The  assassination  of  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish  and 
Mr.  Burke l  profoundly  stirred  him.  He  heard  the  news 
only  a  few  minutes  before  the  service  on  Sunday  morning, 
and  when  he  entered  the  pulpit  he  was  still  overcome  by- 
agitation.  His  voice  was  "  so  changed  by  horror,  indig- 
nation, and  grief,  as  to  be  scarcely  recognisable "  ;  and 
it  was  only  by  a  strong  effort  that  he  mastered  himself 

1  6th  May  1882. 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  451 

sufficiently  to  conduct  the  service.  In  announcing  the 
tragedy  to  the  congregation,  he  entreated  them  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  desperate  men  who  had  committed 
the  crime  and  the  great  mass  of  the  Irish  people  whose 
brightest  hopes  it  would  darken  and  destroy,  and  to 
guard  alike  against  panic  and  passion.  But  even  in  the 
presence  of  so  monstrous  a  crime,  he  still  maintained  that 
remedial  and  coercive  legislation  must  not  be  separated. 
This  conviction  he  reasserted  before  the  Liberal  Associa- 
tion and  in  the  Congregational  Union,  where  he  was 
called  up  by  the  assembly  to  support  a  resolution  of 
condemnation  and  condolence.  He  accepted  the  Crimes 
Bill  brought  in  by  the  Government,  but  he  never  ceased 
to  plead  for  the  legislative  changes  that  should  destroy 
the  discontent  by  which  crime  was  instigated  and  ap- 
proved. 

The  Home  Rule  question,  and  the  problems  involved 
in  it,  Dale  had  already  faced  ;  he  had  discussed  in  detail 
the  possibilities  of  a  settlement  during  the  summer  of  1885, 
when  Mr.  Chamberlain's  plan  for  establishing  Provincial 
Councils  in  Ireland  was  under  consideration.  A  measure 
of  that  kind  seemed  to  him  inadequate  :  no  representative 
assembly  other  than  a  Parliament  would  satisfy  the 
reasonable  wishes  of  the  Irish  people  ;  Mr.  Chamberlain, 
he  found,  was  not  prepared  to  concede  as  much.  But 
Mr.  Gladstone's  determination,  after  the  elections  of  1885, 
to  force  Home  Rule  to  the  front  took  him  by  surprise, 
and  for  many  reasons  he  regretted  so  precipitate  a 
decision.  Especially  he  doubted  the  wisdom  of  attempt- 
ing to  deal  with  matters  of  such  magnitude  before  the 
electors  in  the  constituencies  or  their  representatives  in 
Parliament  had  threshed  out  the  question  in  public  dis- 
cussion ;  legislation  should  be  shaped  by  opinion,  and 
public  opinion  as  yet  was  incoherent  and  fluctuating. 

For  some  time  he  refrained  from  any  public  utterance. 
It  was  not  till  2 1st  April  1886 — nearly  a  fortnight  after  Mr. 
Gladstone  brought  in  his  Bill — that  the  Liberal  party  in 
Birmingham  met  to  consider  the  proposals  of  the  Govern- 
ment.     Mr.   Chamberlain  was   present,   and   explained   to 


452  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

"  the  Two  Thousand "  his  reasons  for  resigning  office. 
After  his  speech  Mr.  Schnadhorst,  the  President  of  the 
Association,  proposed  a  vote  of  confidence,  recognising 
"  the  honesty  of  purpose "  and  "  the  sense  of  personal 
honour  and  public  duty "  by  which  his  action  had  been 
determined.  Dale  was  then  called  upon  to  submit  a 
resolution  on  the  Irish  question,  in  no  sense  hostile  to 
the  principle  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill,  but  asserting  the 
necessity  of  amendment  in  detail.  The  resolution  was 
carefully  framed :  it  expressed  unbroken  confidence  in 
Mr.  Gladstone  as  leader  of  the  Liberal  party,  sympathy 
with  his  efforts  to  make  a  permanent  settlement  of  the 
Irish  question,  approval  of  his  proposal  to  entrust  the 
people  of  Ireland  with  a  large  control  over  their  affairs 
by  means  of  a  representative  assembly  ;  it  recognised  in 
the  Bill  the  foundations  of  a  satisfactory  settlement ;  but 
at  the  same  time,  it  asserted  the  necessity  of  safeguarding 
the  integrity  and  the  unity  of  the  three  kingdoms  ;  and 
to  this  end  it  urged  that  Irish  representatives  should  be 
retained  at  Westminster,  thus  ensuring  imperial  supremacy, 
and  also  upholding  the  principle  that  taxation  and  re- 
presentation should  go  together  ;  it  expressed  the  hope 
that  this  and  other  amendments  would  be  agreed  to  by 
the  Government.  In  short,  it  accepted  the  foundation, 
but  demurred  to  the  plan  of  the  fabric. 

Before  the  resolution  was  proposed,  an  appeal  was 
made  for  adjournment  ;  it  was  already  ten  o'clock — too 
late  for  a  full  and  free  discussion.  Dale  was  willing  to 
adjourn  the  meeting  at  the  request  of  a  strong  minority, 
and  said  so.  It  was  not  their  custom  to  force  a  vote  ; 
and  in  the  interests  of  peace  he  was  anxious  that  all 
opinions  should  get  a  hearing.  But  Mr.  Chamberlain 
and  Mr.  Collings  pressed  for  an  immediate  decision,  and 
their  vehemence  prevailed. 

Dale's  speech  closely  followed  the  lines  of  the  resolu- 
tion. But  in  the  forefront  of  his  criticism  he  set  the 
declaration  that  Mr.  Gladstone's  action  and  speech  had 
permanently  and  radically  affected  the  state  of  affairs. 
The   Prime   Minister's   decision  in   favour  of  Home   Rule 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  453 

was  "  one  of  those  great  events  which  change  the  course 
of  national  history."  His  proposal  to  establish  a  legislature 
in  Dublin  compelled  them  to  start  from  that  point,  and 
from  no  other.  Any  plan  that  might  be  adopted  must 
begin  there.  But  he  claimed  the  right  to  apply  an  un- 
fettered judgment  to  the  methods  and  provisions  of  the 
Bill  ;  and  to  justify  himself  he  quoted  Burke's  words  : 
"  In  my  course  I  have  known,  and  according  to  my 
measure  have  co-operated  with  great  men,  and  I  have 
never  yet  seen  any  plan  which  has  not  been  mended  by 
the  observations  of  those  who  were  much  inferior  in 
understanding  to  the  person  who  took  the  lead  in  the 
business."  He  spoke  for  himself,  but  he  also  had  in  his 
mind  what  had  occurred  within  the  Cabinet ;  for  he  felt 
that  a  fuller  discussion  of  the  Bill  while  in  the  process  of 
drafting,  and  a  larger  co-operation  in  framing  it,  would 
have  gone  far  to  narrow  the  range  of  dispute  and  to 
lessen  the  risk  of  open  rupture. 

He  protested  against  the  exclusion  of  the  Irish 
members  from  the  imperial  Parliament,  as  hostile  to 
constitutional  freedom  and  as  perilous  to  the  integrity  of 
the  empire.  Other  flaws  might  be  serious  :  that,  in  his 
view,  was  fatal.  Had  such  a  proposal  come  from  a 
Tory  statesman,  its  injustice  would  have  been  denounced 
on  every  Liberal  platform  in  the  country. 

The  proposal  is  not  less  unconstitutional,  it  is  not  less 
unjust,  because  by  some  accident  it  has  come  from  a  Liberal 
statesman,  than  it  would  have  been  if  it  had  come  from  the 
leader  of  the  Tory  party.  Scotland  would  not  stand  it.  Ireland 
will  not  stand  it.  We  all  know  that  the  Irish  movement  derives 
something  of  its  inspiration  and  much  of  its  support  from 
America.  How  was  it  that  we  lost  the  American  colonies? 
What  was  it  that  provoked  the  American  war?  The  Ministry 
of  Lord  North  insisted  on  levying  customs  duties  on  goods 
imported  into  American  colonies,  although  the  American 
colonies  were  not  represented  in  the  imperial  Parliament,  and 
in  1773  the  people  of  Boston  rather  than  pay  the  duty  flung  the 
cargoes  of  several  tea -ships  into  Boston  Harbour.  Taxation 
and  representation,  they  said,  must  go  together,  and  every  man 
in  England  that  was  true  to  constitutional  principles  applauded 


454  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

their  act.  Three  years  after,  in  1776,  the  English  were  driven 
out  of  Boston.  In  1783  we  had  to  acknowledge  American 
independence.  Those  great  events  are  not  forgotten  in 
America.  They  are  celebrated  every  year  in  every  part  of 
the  American  Union.  Let  this  Bill  pass  as  it  stands,  and  then 
at  the  next  celebration  of  American  independence  every  Irish 
orator  in  America  will  declare,  and  will  declare  truly,  that  Mr. 
Gladstone's  Ministry  is  following  the  policy  of  the  Ministry  of 
Lord  North.  Ireland  will  soon  catch  fire.  We  shall  have  the 
same  resistance  that  was  offered  in  America  followed  by  the 
same  result,  and  rather  than  yield  after  protracted  war  I  would 
prefer  to  give  independence  at  once.  It  is  said  that  the  Irish 
people  do  not  want  to  be  represented  in  the  imperial  Parlia- 
ment. No,  and  they  do  not  want  to  pay  for  imperial  purposes. 
Nothing  would  suit  them  better  than  to  exclude  their  re- 
presentatives from  Westminster.  Make  up  your  minds,  take 
your  choice.  You  may  release,  if  you  like,  the  Irish  people 
from  all  taxation  for  imperial  purposes,  and  then  you  may  dismiss 
their  representatives  from  Westminster.  If  you  intend  to  insist 
that  they  should  bear  their  share  of  maintaining  the  imperial 
army  and  navy,  and  their  share  of  meeting  the  annual  charges 
of  the  National  Debt,  then  you  must  give  them  a  representation 
in  the  assembly  by  which  these  taxes  are  levied  and  by  which 
they  are  administered.  The  Irish  members  say  they  are  willing 
to  surrender  their  places  in  the  imperial  Parliament,  but  the 
Irish  members  of  Parliament  have  no  constitutional  right  to 
transfer  the  power  to  tax  the  people  of  Ireland  to  an  assembly 
in  which  Ireland  is  not  represented.  They  have  no  authority 
to  consent  to  the  permanent  degradation  of  their  country.1 

It  was  unreasonable,  he  admitted,  that  Irish  members, 
after  voting  on  Irish  Bills  at  Dublin,  should  then  come 
and  vote  on  English  and  Scotch  Bills  at  Westminster  ; 
he  did  not  believe  that  such  an  arrangement  could  be 
permanent.  But  he  was  content  to  do  one  thing  at  a 
time  ;  to  begin  with  the  establishment  of  an  Irish  Parlia- 
ment, and  then  to  determine  its  relations  to  the  imperial 
legislature.  National  constitutions  are  not  struck  out  in 
a  hurry  ;  they  are  not  made — they  grow.  He  was  willing 
to  leave  much  to  the  future. 

With  one  other  matter  he  was  bound  to  deal.  Mr. 
Chamberlain's    withdrawal    from  the    Ministry  had    been 

1  The  Times,  22nd  April  1886. 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  455 

represented  by  some  of  his  opponents  as  a  bid — or  a 
blow — for  the  leadership  ;  already  he  had  been  proscribed 
and  outlawed  as  a  rival  chief.  Against  such  a  temper, 
and  against  the  disposition  to  consider  persons  instead 
of  principles,  Dale  earnestly  protested. 

This  great  subject  should  not  be  treated  as  if  it  were  a 
question  whether  we  should  follow  the  leadership  of  Mr. 
Chamberlain  or  of  Mr.  Gladstone.  We  need  them  both.  .  .  . 
The  Liberal  party  had  a  right  to  demand  his  (Mr.  Chamberlain's) 
judgment  at  such  a  time  as  this — his  frank  and  honest  judgment. 
He  has  given  it.  He  would  have  been  a  traitor  to  us,  a  traitor  to 
his  chief,  a  traitor  to  his  country,  if  he  had  not  given  it  frankly. 
But  the  question  of  leadership  is  not  raised.  Mr.  Gladstone  is 
leader  of  the  party.1 

Dale's  speech  was  intended  to  make  for  peace  ;  and  it 
was  so  regarded.  Mr.  Gladstone  at  once  wrote  to  thank 
him  for  "  the  masterly  manner  in  which  you  have  con- 
fronted a  most  difficult  situation,"  adding,  "  it  is  only  by 
a  temper  like  yours,  conjoined  with  ability  (which  in  such 
a  case  cannot  of  itself  suffice,  whatever  its  amount),  that 
the  Irish  question  can  be  satisfactorily  dealt  with."  Dale 
replied  as  follows  : — 

To  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone 

2.6th  April  1886. 

Accept  my  hearty  thanks  for  your  generous  letter.  I  am 
deeply  sensible  of  the  honour  of  receiving  a  letter  from  you 
when  there  is  so  much  to  occupy  your  time  and  strength. 

I  wonder  whether  it  would  be  very  presumptuous  for  me  to 
state  in  a  few  sentences  the  grounds  on  which  I  think  it  desirable 
to  keep  the  Irish  members — or  some  of  them — at  Westminster. 
The  only  apology  I  can  offer  for  troubling  you  is,  that  I  do 
not  remember  to  have  seen  some  of  them  set  out  with  any 
explicitness. 

1.  The  first  and  most  obvious  is  that  which  has  been  insisted  on 
again  and  again — that  in  the  absence  of  Irish  members  from  the 
imperial  Parliament  the  subsidy  will  soon  be  repudiated.  Mr. 
Parnell  cannot  bind  the  Irish  people  any  more  than  Jefferson — 

1  The  Times,  22nd  April  1886. 


456  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

had  he  for  considerations  of  expediency  consented  to  the  tea- 
duty — could  have  bound  Massachusetts  and  Virginia. 

2.  By  retaining  them  you  secure  what  seems  to  me  the  only 
effective  veto  on  the  acts  of  the  Irish  Parliament. 

If  the  veto  is  to  be  exercised  by  the  Crown  on  the  advice  of 
the  Irish  Ministry  it  is  worthless  ;  if  it  is  to  be  exercised  on  the 
advice  of  the  imperial  Ministry  its  exercise  should  be  subject  to 
the  ordinary  responsibilities  of  Ministers  to  Parliament — apart 
from  this  the  veto  will  be  a  broken  reed ;  but  if  Ministers  are  to 
be  responsible  to  the  Parliament  at  Westminster  for  placing  a 
veto  on  Irish  measures  the  Irish  members  should  be  there  to 
state  their  case. 

The  only  Irish  measures  which  I  would  have  submitted  to  the 
imperial  Parliament  are  the  measures  which  have  been  vetoed. 
These  should  be  laid  on  the  table  for  the  veto  to  be  challenged. 
Irish  members  could  not  complain  of  this ;  it  would  give  them  a 
second  chance. 

3.  By  retaining  them,  more  flexibility  might  be  given  to  the 
general  financial  settlement,  and  there  would  be  power  to  increase 
Irish  taxation  with  the  increase  of  imperial  charges. 

4.  Some  of  the  strongest  objections  to  any  measure  for  buying 
the  land  would  be  diminished,  and  the  necessity  for  pressing  the 
Land  Bill  through  this  session  would  be  lessened,  if  it  did  not 
disappear. 

5.  With  the  Irish  members  at  Westminster  it  might  be  possible 
to  strengthen  the  hold  of  the  Crown  on  the  Executive ;  and — 

6.  The  "  two  orders  "  might  disappear — I  venture  to  think 
they  are  certain  to  disappear  within  a  very  few  years — without 
any  peril  to  the  minority. 

I  need  not  say  how  great  a  grief  it  is  to  me  that  Mr. 
Chamberlain  should  have  been  bound  in  honour — as  I  think  he 
was — to  leave  your  Ministry  at  such  a  time  as  this.  I  have 
worked  with  him  for  eighteen  years,  and  though,  of  course,  I  have 
seen  less  of  him  since  he  became  a  Minister,  our  relations,  which 
have  often  been  extremely  intimate,  have  been  maintained.  As 
the  result  of  his  temperament,  education,  and  environment — all 
so  different  from  your  own — he  was  certain  to  approach  nearly 
every  political  question  with  different  assumptions  and  in  a  differ- 
ent spirit,  and  to  deal  with  them  in  a  different  method.  But  I 
know  that  when  he  entered  the  Ministry  he  was  drawn  to  you 
very  strongly,  and  it  seems  to  me  a  calamity  that  his  future 
political  life  should  miss  the  benefit  it  would  derive  from  con- 
tinued work  under  your  leadership.  As  yet  I  have  had  no  talk 
with  him  since  the  rupture,  except  for  a  few  moments  on  the 
platform  of  the  Town  Hall  last  Wednesday — indeed,  apart  from  a 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  457 

business  letter,  I  do  not  think  we  have  exchanged  thoughts  since 
the  beginning  of  December.  But  from  my  long  knowledge  of 
him  I  can  hardly  believe  that  he  is  irreconcilable. 

Pray  forgive  this  long  letter.  I  am  a  Puritan,  but  understand 
what  Easter  is  to  a  Churchman,  and  trust  it  has  come  to  you 
with  great  joy  and  glory. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  answer,  in  which  he  dwelt  upon  the 
conflicting  difficulties  of  the  question,  did  not  suggest  any 
possibility  of  concession  on  this  point.  Meanwhile  every 
day  increased  the  tension  and  the  bitterness  of  feeling  ;  the 
prospects  of  reconciliation  were  fading  ;  if  any  terms  could 
still  be  made,  they  must  be  made  at  once.  So,  as  a  last 
resource,  on  6th  May,  Dale  wrote  to  Mr.  Morley,  suggesting 
that  the  retention  or  exclusion  of  Irish  representatives 
should  be  deferred  for  consideration  until  the  Irish  legisla- 
ture met  for  its  first  session  ;  a  joint -committee  of  the 
House  of  Lords  and  the  House  of  Commons  and  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Irish  legislature  should  then  confer  on  the 
question  whether  representatives  of  Irish  constituencies 
should  continue  to  sit  in  the  imperial  Parliament  for  the 
consideration  of  the  subjects  reserved  from  the  control  of 
the  Irish  legislature  by  the  third  and  fourth  clauses  of  the 
Bill  ;  if  they  reported  in  favour  of  continuing  Irish 
representation,  they  were  to  suggest  also  how  many 
representatives  there  should  be,  and  in  what  way  they 
should  be  elected.  He  submitted  a  rough  draft  of  a  clause 
to  give  effect  to  the  proposal. 

The  suggestion  was  favourably  received,  and  its  merits 
were  acknowledged.  But  it  was  insisted  that  clause  24  x 
of  the  Bill  should  still  be  retained — a  condition  by  which 
the  efficacy  of  the  plan  as  a  means  of  compromise  was 
wholly  destroyed. 

To  the  Right  Hon.  John  Morley 

<jth  May  1886. 

Your  letter  shattered  my  hopes.     To  retain  clause  24  and  add 
something  like  the  suggestion  I  ventured  to  make,  would  leave  us 

1  Excluding  Irish  representative  peers  from  the  House  of  Lords  and  Irish 
members  from  the  House  of  Commons. 


45S  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

just  where  we  are.  It  would  be  to  ask  men  to  vote  for  exclusion 
on  condition  that  the  question  of  exclusion  should  be  reconsidered. 
If  the  clause  were  replaced  by  the  suggestion  the  whole  subject 
of  exclusion  would  be  postponed. 

To  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone 

gth  May  18S6. 

In  letters  from  Mr.  John  Morley  which  reached  me  this 
morning  he  says  that  you  have  thought  favourably  of  a  suggestion 
which  I  ventured  to  make  to  him,  that  the  question  of  retaining 
the  Irish  members  at  Westminster  should  be  postponed  till  the 
first  meetings  of  the  Irish  legislature,  but  he  adds  that  "  of  course" 
clause  24  would  be  retained. 

Will  you  allow  me  to  point  out  that  in  that  case  the  whole 
value  of  the  suggestion  would  be  cancelled.  If  the  excluding 
clause  is  retained,  with  the  addition  of  what  Mr.  Morley  describes 
as  a  "  proviso  "  that  the  whole  question  shall  be  considered  at 
some  future  time,  voting  for  the  second  reading  will  mean 
agreeing  to  the  exclusion  on  condition  of  a  promise  that  the 
question  shall  be  reopened.  Now  I  thought — indeed  knew — that 
you  wished  the  second  reading  to  be  taken  on  the  simple 
question  of  Home  Rule — postponing  all  consideration  of  the 
exclusion  of  the  Irish  members  ;  and  it  was  to  render  such  a  vote 
possible  that  I  was  presumptuous  enough  to  offer  my  suggestion. 

Even  if  some  such  suggestion  as  this  were  embodied  in  the 
Bill,  Mr.  Chamberlain's  friends  might  say,  "We  object  to  being 
required  to  declare  that  the  retention  of  the  Irish  members 
is  an  open  question  " ;  but  I  thought  it  possible  that  rather  than 
imperil  the  Bill  they  would  come  that  distance  to  meet  you. 

I  am  writing  after  rather  an  exhausting  service ;  pray  forgive 
me  if  I  have  written  in  too  pertinacious  a  tone.  Earnestly  hoping 
that  in  the  course  of  the  week  it  will  become  apparent  that  a 
solution  has  been  discovered  that  will  secure  the  reconciliation 
and  support  of  many  who  are  now  anxious  to  vote  for  the  second 
reading  but  unable  to  see  their  way,     I  am,  etc. 

In  the  Contemporary  Review  for  June  he  rehearsed  the 
grounds  of  his  hostility  to  clause  24.  One  section  of  the 
article  raised  a  new  point.  Mr.  Gladstone  had  repeatedly 
declared  his  inability,  in  the  event  of  Irish  members  being 
retained  at  Westminster,  to  draw  a  distinction  between 
imperial  concerns  and  others :  "  I  believe  it  passes  the 
wit   of  man,"   he   had    said  in   a   famous   phrase.      Dale 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  459 

pointed  out  that  what  Mr.  Gladstone  despaired  of  doing 
he  had  done  already.  The  third  section  of  his  Bill 
defined  the  matters  withheld  from  the  control  of  the  Irish 
legislature  ;  these  might  be  described  as  imperial  concerns 
reserved  for  the  consideration  of  the  imperial  Parliament. 
Why,  he  asked,  should  not  the  same  method  be  followed 
in  the  case  of  Great  Britain,  by  the  creation  of  a  British 
legislature  under  an  Act  with  a  section  identical  in  its 
terms  with  the  third  section  of  the  Irish  Bill  ?  Or,  if 
Scotland  desired  it,  Scotland  too  might  have  a  legislature 
of  its  own.  Such  an  arrangement  would  effectively  secure 
national  control  over  national  affairs,  while  the  imperial 
Parliament,  representing  the  three  kingdoms,  would  remain 
supreme  in  matters  of  imperial  policy.  The  plan,  if 
adopted,  would  not  only  lighten  the  intolerable  burden 
now  thrown  upon  a  single  legislature,  but  would  secure 
the  course  of  imperial  politics  against  disturbance  by  cross- 
currents of  alien  and  often  subordinate  interests.  The 
proposal  was  practically  one  for  Home  Rule  all  round. 
But  he  did  not  propose  to  defer  legislation  until  the  three 
kingdoms  were  ready  to  accept  such  a  plan  simultaneously. 
He  wished  to  begin  with  Ireland — and  to  begin  at  once. 
This  was  an  essential  part  of  his  scheme — that  Ireland 
should  not  be  held  back  and  kept  waiting.  Delay,  he 
felt,  must  endanger  the  chances  of  a  satisfactory  settle- 
ment ;  for  Mr.  Gladstone's  policy  had  made  immediate 
action  imperative. 

In  England  this  portion  of  the  article  passed  almost 
unnoticed,  but  in  Ireland  Dr.  Walsh,  the  Roman  Catholic 
Archbishop  of  Dublin,  drew  attention  to  it  in  an  interview 
given  to  a  representative  of  the  New  York  Tribune}  He 
described  the  plan  as  "  containing  within  it  practically  all 
the  elements  of  a  thoroughly  satisfactory,  because  complete 
and  final,  settlement  of  the  whole  question,"  and  added 
that  so  far  he  had  found  "  a  marvellously  strong  con- 
currence of  opinion  favourable  to  its  proposals "  on  the 
part  of  those  to  whom  he  had  spoken.     The  following 

1  The  interview  was  simultaneously  published  in  the  Dublin  Freeman's 
Journal,  16th  August  1886. 


46o  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

letters  on  the  subject  passed  between  Dale  and  the  Arch- 
bishop. 

To  the  Most  Reverend  Dr.  Walsh, 
Archbishop  of  Dublin 

iqth  August  1886. 

Allow  me  to  thank  your  Grace  for  the  copies  of  the  Freeman's 
Journal  which  I  found  on  my  table  this  afternoon  on  returning 
home  after  a  fortnight's  absence  in  Derbyshire.  I  need  not  say 
that  I  was  very  much  interested  and  gratified  by  your  Grace's 
approval  of  the  general  lines  of  the  article  of  mine  which  appeared 
in  the  June  Contemporary.  Cardinal  Manning,  three  months  ago, 
expressed  his  hearty  concurrence  with  a  speech  I  delivered  to 
the  "  Liberal  Two  Thousand  "  on  the  occasion  of  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain's visit  to  Birmingham  in  the  week  before  Easter,  in  which  I 
maintained  the  same  general  position,  though  necessarily  with 
less  of  detailed  explanation.  Your  Grace  is,  however,  under  a 
misconception  when  you  suggest,  according  to  the  report  of  the 
interviewer,  that  the  Unionist  opposition  to  Mr.  Gladstone  on 
account  of  the  exclusion  of  the  Irish  representatives  from  West- 
minster was  a  mere  pretence.  I  cannot  speak,  indeed,  for  the 
Hartington  section  ;  but  there  were  many  of  us  who  would  have 
cordially  supported  Mr.  Gladstone,  had  he  been  able,  with  his 
views  of  the  true  method  of  settlement,  to  retain  the  Irish 
members  in  the  imperial  Parliament.  But  Mr.  Gladstone's 
principle  was  wholly  inconsistent  with  any  such  concession.  In 
order  that  Ireland  might  receive  that  limited  control  over  her 
own  affairs  which  was  provided  for  in  his  Bill,  he  insisted  that 
she  should  be  reduced  to  the  position  of  a  subordinate  and 
tributary  State.  The  exclusion  of  the  Irish  representatives  from 
all  share  in  imperial  concerns  was  an  essential  element  in  his 
scheme.  This  seemed  to  me  and  to  many  others  an  impossible 
policy.  Separation  is  perhaps  possible — though  I  doubt  it ;  but 
the  tributary  relationship  between  Ireland  and  England  is 
wholly  impossible.  Had  Mr.  Parnell  resented  this  humiliation 
he  would  have  had  the  support  of  many  English  Radicals  who 
have  been  driven  into  a  position  of  hostility  both  to  him  and  to 
Mr.  Gladstone.  Whether  the  time  has  come  for  undoing  the 
mischief  which  has  been  occasioned  by  this  mistake  I  cannot 
tell.  During  the  last  few  weeks  I  have  had  very  little  opportunity 
for  discussing  the  subject  with  my  political  friends.  When  the 
Bill  was  before  the  House,  my  old  friend  and  comrade  Mr. 
Chamberlain  was  prepared,  had  the  Irish  members  been  retained, 
to  vote  for  the  second  reading,  although  he  preferred  a  scheme 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  461 

of  Provincial  Councils,  which  would  in  my  judgment  have  de- 
veloped very  soon  into  a  central  legislature  in  Dublin.  I  believe, 
though  I  have  had  no  communication  with  him  since  the  dis- 
solution, that  he  has  now  fallen  back  on  the  scheme  which  he 
preferred. 

I  regret  that  Mr.  Gladstone's  friends  still  insist  that  the  solu- 
tion is  to  be  found  on  Mr.  Gladstone's  lines.  Clearly  if  Ireland 
is  to  be  a  mere  tributary  State,  such  a  scheme  as  that  which  is 
sketched  in  the  June  Contemporary  is  wholly  dismissed.  I  imagine 
that  the  chief  difficulty  which  would  be  felt  by  English  Radicals 
in  relation  to  the  Contemporary  proposals  would  relate  to  the 
control  of  the  police  and  the  administration  of  criminal  justice. 
I  have  hardly  ever  discussed  the  general  subject  with  a  Radical 
without  securing  adhesion  to  the  lines  of  the  Contemporary  article ; 
but  could  there  be  any  means  discovered  for  substantially  satisfying 
the  demands  of  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  friends  and  yet  removing  the 
honest  difficulties  which  are  felt  about  the  firmness  and  vigour 
of  an  independent  Irish  executive  ?  The  mischief  of  having  an 
irresponsible  executive  was  shown  in  Grattan's  Parliament,  but 
there  are  many  persons  who  are  disposed  to  grant  a  large  measure 
of  legislative  independence  to  Ireland  who  yet  shrink  from 
entrusting  the  whole  criminal  administration  and  the  police  to 
an  Irish  legislature.  I  believe  that  terms  might  be  arranged 
that  would  substantially  satisfy  both  parties  if  they  were  disposed 
to  meet  each  other  fairly  and  to  care  more  for  the  substance 
than  for  the  form  of  the  matter  in  dispute.  But  that  is  a  large 
question  which  I  will  not  presume  to  discuss  in  a  letter.  Your 
Grace's  influence  with  the  people  of  Ireland  encourages  me  to 
call  your  attention  to  this  point,  which  is  one  of  great  importance. 
Mr.  Morley  in  one  of  his  speeches  during  the  election  said  that 
there  were  districts  in  Ireland  to  which  he  would  not  entrust  the 
control  of  their  own  police.  No  doubt  he  expressed  his  belief 
that  a  central  authority  might  be  firm  and  just  although  local 
authorities  were  open  to  suspicion  ;  but  the  statement  was  a  very 
significant  one  from  such  a  man. 

I  trust  that  your  Grace  will  accept  my  apologies  for  venturing 
to  write  so  long  a  letter. 

From  the  Most  Reverend  Dr.  Walsh, 
Archbishop  of  Dublin 

4  Rutland  Square,  E., 
Dublin,  21st  August  1886. 

I  have  just  received  and  most  carefully  read  your  letter.  In 
speaking  of  the  Unionist  opponents  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  scheme, 


462  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

I  really  did  not  think  of  referring  to  you  or  to  those  who  share 
your  views. 

At  all  events,  if  you,  and  such  as  you,  are  to  be  classed 
among  the  "  opponents,"  I  can  only  say  that  nothing  but  the 
worst  of  bad  management  can  have  led  to  the  shipwreck  of  the 
scheme  and  the  present  deplorable  disruption  of  the  Liberal 
party. 

Now  that  I  have  spoken  out,  from  the  Irish  side,  would  it  be 
well  to  get  some  one  of  influence  to  endorse  your  plan,  as 
publicly  as  I  have  done,  out  of  the  "  Unionist  "  ranks  ?  Possibly, 
if  this  were  done,  Mr.  Gladstone  might  be  moved  to  take  it  up. 
It  seems  clear  to  me,  notwithstanding  all  I  hear  of  the  depth 
and  force  of  the  so-called  "  Conservative "  reaction,  that  the 
present  state  of  things  in  Parliament  cannot  last  long.  Indeed, 
if  I  am  not  much  mistaken,  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  in  his  speech 
of  last  night  has  gone  a  great  way  towards  breaking  it  up. 

A  policy  of  paying  the  Irish  landlords,  out  of  the  public 
funds,  the  excess  of  their  rents  over  what  is  fair  and  just,  is  not 
likely  to  find  much  favour  in  the  present  Parliament. 

The  FreemarCs  Journal  is  about  to  publish  my  interview  as 
an  extra.  I  will  send  you  a  few  copies.  You  may  be  able  to 
make  use  of  them  in  some  way  towards  bringing  about  a  more 
conciliatory  state  of  feeling.  I  should  say  that  the  views  ex- 
pressed on  every  point  throughout,  from  first  to  last,  are  merely 
my  own.  But  it  would  surprise  you  if  I  could  give  you  the  names 
of  those  who  have,  since  the  publication  of  this  interview, 
expressed  a  full  concurrence  in  them. 

Are  you  quite  sure  that  the  steadfastness  with  which  Mr. 
Gladstone's  supporters  insist  upon  maintaining  the  lines  of  his 
Bill  really  implies  anything  contrary  to  the  acceptance  of  your 
scheme  ?  I  don't  know  any  one  who  has  more  stoutly  insisted 
upon  the  general  lines  of  the  Bill  being  maintained  than  I  myself 
have  done  in  this  very  interview.  Yet  I  may  say  to  you  that 
one  of  my  main  objects  in  giving  the  interview  was  that  I  might 
direct  public  attention  to  your  scheme.  I  think  what  Mr. 
Gladstone's  supporters  mean — certainly  what  I  mean — is  that 
we  must  have  for  Ireland  a  statutory  Parliament,  independent 
in  the  sense  at  least  in  which  Mr.  Gladstone's  statutory  Parlia- 
ment would  have  been  independent.  So  far  as  I  can  see,  your 
scheme  gives  us  this  and  more. 

Of  course  we  all  see  that  a  statutory  Parliament  is  necessarily 
dependent  in  a  constitutional  sense.  Mr.  Bryce  brought  this  out 
well  in  his  speech  on  the  second  reading. 

If  I  am  not  mistaken,  the  prevailing  opinion  of  our  Irish 
Home  Rulers,  as  it  certainly  is  mine,  is  that   Mr.  Chamberlain 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  463 

insists  on  making  us  dependent  in  a  very  different  sense — so 
that  the  intervention  of  the  Westminster  Parliament  (including, 
presumably,  the  House  of  Lords  ?)  would  be  necessary  to  give 
legislative  effect  to  the  acts  of  our  Irish  body,  or,  at  all  events, 
so  that  the  legislation  of  that  body  would  be  practically  open  to 
review  and  irritating  interference,  the  right  of  which  would  be 
reserved  to  Westminster,  and  for  the  exercise  of  which  we 
should  be  prepared  in  every  case  of  importance. 

It  would  be  far  better  to  leave  us  as  we  are  than  to  set  up  a 
new  grievance  of  such  magnitude  as  this. 

It  is  hard  to  know  how  long  we  shall  have  to  wait  for  the 
undoing  of  the  mischief  that  has  so  sadly  been  wrought. 

I  had  strong  hopes  that  the  recent  election  in  Birmingham 
would  have  opened  a  door  for  a  reuniting  of  the  Liberal  party 
on  the  lines  of  your  scheme.  But  that  chance  was  lost.  The 
great  want  now  seems  to  be  that  of  a  few  mediators  who  could 
and  would  speak  freely  to  leading  men  at  both  sides.  It  is  so 
in  our  Irish  land  question.  It  is  so  perhaps  much  more  in  the 
greater  question  of  the  government  of  Ireland. 

I  trust  you  will  lose  no  opportunity  of  exercising  your  great 
influence  in  the  interests  of  peace  and  goodwill. 

These  efforts,  however,  led  to  nothing.  The  event 
proved,  as  might  have  been  anticipated,  that  no  great 
movement  in  politics  can  be  brought  about  from  outside. 
To  effect  a  compromise  between  conflicting  interests,  or 
to  secure  the  adoption  of  an  important  scheme,  a  man 
must  either  be  in  Parliament,  or  must  stand  in  such  close 
and  intimate  relations  to  the  men  who  are  a  power  in 
Parliamentary  life,  that  he  can  speak  through  them  and 
act  through  them.  He  must  be  able  to  press  his  schemes, 
to  negotiate,  to  watch  the  moment  for  action  and  to  seize 
it.  Dale  could  do  none  of  these  things.  It  is  not  strange 
that  he  did  not  succeed  ;  the  wonder  is  that  a  man  in  his 
position  should  have  got  even  a  hearing  in  the  turmoil 
and  confusion  of  the  fray. 

In  Birmingham,  though  feeling  ran  high,  the  peace  had 
not  yet  been  broken.  The  two  sections  of  the  Liberal 
party  had  not  met  in  arms  ;  and  Dale  exerted  himself, 
both  in  private  and  in  public,  to  avert  a  rupture.  Before 
the  elections  in  July  1886  he  endeavoured  to  effect  an 
arrangement  for  the  return  of  the  seven  Liberal  members 


464  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

already  in  possession,  irrespective  of  their  opinions  on  the 
Irish  question.  He  spoke  in  support  of  Mr.  Cook,  the 
ministerial  candidate  in  one  of  the  divisions  of  the  borough. 
If  Mr.  Broadhurst  had  been  willing  to  defend  his  seat  for 
Bordesley,  he  would  have  helped  him  too  ;  but  Mr. 
Broadhurst's  withdrawal  was  the  beginning  of  open  strife. 
The  final  crash  soon  came,  and  the  Liberal  party  broke 
up  in  Birmingham  as  elsewhere  beyond  all  hope  of  re- 
union. Dale  found  himself  almost  alone.  He  could  not 
remain  an  active  member  of  the  Liberal  Association  after 
it  had  declared  its  adherence  to  Mr.  Gladstone's  policy, 
nor  could  he  bring  himself  then  or  subsequently  to  join 
any  Unionist  organisation.  He  stood  apart  from  either 
camp.  The  following  letters  written  during  the  summer 
lay  bare  his  mind. 

To  the  Rev.  J.  P.  Perkins 

loth  June  1 886. 
How  is  it  that  Mr.  Chamberlain  is  the  object  of  so  much 
bitterness  ?  Lord  Hartington  and  Mr.  Bright  are  just  as  respon- 
sible as  he  is  for  throwing  out  the  Bill.  On  what  grounds  can 
the  justice  of  the  assaults  on  Mr.  Chamberlain  be  defended  ? 
He  is  loyally  carrying  out  the  principles  on  this  question  which 
he  advocated  at  Warrington  last  year,  and  for  his  avowal  of  which 
he  received  the  enthusiastic  approbation  of  the  whole  Liberal 
party.  He  may  be  mistaken,  as  other  men  have  been ;  but  he 
stands  by  the  faith  which  he  has  professed,  and  has  made  the 
heaviest  personal  sacrifices  in  doing  so.  Had  he  remained  in 
the  Ministry  after  Lord  Hartington  refused  to  join  it  he  would 
have  been  heir-apparent  to  the  leadership  of  the  Commons. 

To  the  Rev.  W.  Hewgill 

l6th/une  1886. 

I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  friendly  letter — one 
of  a  very  large  number  that  I  have  received  during  the  last  few 
weeks  on  the  same  subject. 

To  what  extent  people  have  supposed  that  my  view  of  the 
Irish  question  is  shared  by  the  Congregational  ministers  of  the 
country  it  is,  of  course,  impossible  for  me  to  say.  I  made  a 
speech  on  the  subject  in  the  Town  Hall  at  a  time  when  concilia- 
tion was  possible,  and  the  speech  was  received  as  a  conciliatory 
one.     I  recognised  Mr.   Gladstone  as  the  leader  of  the  party — 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  465 

indeed  I  insisted  on  this  with  strong  emphasis — and  maintained 
that  whatever  might  have  been  the  preferences  of  any  Liberals 
for  some  other  method  of  Home  Rule  the  action  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone had  changed  the  whole  condition  of  the  problem,  and  that 
we  ought  to  attempt  to  find  a  solution  on  the  lines  of  the 
Government  Bill.  But  I  said  nothing  to  imply  that  I  was  speak- 
ing for  any  one  but  myself.  The  only  other  public  statement  I 
have  made  is  in  the  Contemporary  Revieiv  for  the  present  month. 
My  dear  friend  and  comrade  Mr.  Rogers  describes  his  article  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century  as  a  Nonconformist  view  of  the  con- 
troversy. I  do  not  complain ;  he  has  a  perfect  right  so  to 
describe  it ;  but  I  make  no  pretension  to  any  representative 
character. 

The  speech  and  the  article  contain  all  that  I  have  addressed 
to  the  public  on  the  question. 

In  private  I  have  done  my  best  to  secure  concessions  that 
might  have  rendered  it  possible  for  the  Government  to  go  on  till 
next  autumn  and  then  to  produce  a  reconstructed  Bill.  It  is 
curious  to  me  to  read  what  you  say  about  all  the  concessions 
having  been  made  on  one  side.  Practically  that  seems  to  me 
to  be  true ;  only  you  are  mistaken  as  to  the  side  that  was  dis- 
posed to  make  concessions. 

Mr.  Chamberlain's  own  settled  convictions  have  been  long 
familiar  to  me ;  we  discussed  them  together  at  a  time  when  they 
were  regarded  as  perilously  rash  by  members  of  the  present 
Cabinet.  But  I  always  told  him  that  his  proposals  were  inade- 
quate, and  that  a  Body  in  Dublin  with  powers  that  would  justify 
the  name  of  a  Parliament  was  a  necessary  element  in  any  final 
solution  of  the  difficulty ;  but  his  position  was  a  very  strong  one. 
When  Mr.  Gladstone's  Bill  was  brought  forward  he  recognised 
the  gravity  of  the  new  conditions  of  the  case  and  was  willing  to 
accept  the  Dublin  legislature  on  condition  that  the  Irish  mem- 
bers were  retained  at  Westminster  and  that  the  Bill  received  the 
modifications  which  were  necessarily  involved  in  their  retention. 
This  concession  on  his  part  was  a  very  heavy  one.  It  was  not 
met  frankly  by  the  Cabinet.  By  piecemeal  and  with  obvious 
reluctance  one  proposal  after  another  was  made  that  had  the 
appearance  of  conceding  what  he  asked  for,  but  the  substantial 
thing  was  never  promised.  I  thought  that  it  was  possible  to 
accept  the  terms  offered  at  the  Foreign  Office ;  but  these  were 
explained  away  the  next  night,  and  things  were  worse  than  ever. 
He  has  now  gone  back  very  much  to  his  old  position ;  the 
difference  between  a  Dublin  Parliament  and  what  he  proposes 
in  his  manifesto  measures  the  concession  that  he  made  to  the 
Government. 

2  H 


466  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

The  bitterness  with  which  Mr.  Chamberlain  is  assailed  is, 
in  my  judgment,  wholly  unjustifiable.  He  has  held  fast  to 
the  principles  he  has  advocated  for  years,  and  which  when  he 
advocated  them  last  summer  were  enthusiastically  applauded 
by  his  present  assailants.  He  was  willing  to  make  a  large  con- 
cession to  the  Government  in  order  to  make  it  possible  to  solve 
the  question  without  splitting  the  party.  He  has  made  a  heavy 
sacrifice  rather  than  consent  to  a  measure  which  he  thinks 
would  be  mischievous  both  to  Ireland  and  England ;  he  knew — 
or  at  any  rate  had  a  right  to  believe — that  after  Lord  Harting- 
ton's  secession  he  was  heir-apparent  to  the  leadership  in  the 
House  of  Commons  if  he  remained  with  Mr.  Gladstone.  His 
opinion  about  the  results  of  his  action  has  been  that  for  several 
years  it  will  leave  him  under  the  shadow  of  general  unpopularity. 
It  is  rather  dangerous  political  morality  to  suggest  that  a  man  is 
playing  for  his  own  hand,  when  in  harmony  with  his  avowed 
convictions  he  feels  obliged  to  separate  himself  from  his  party  at 
such  a  cost  as  this. 

As  to  what  you  say  about  the  general  opinion  of  Congrega- 
tional ministers  in  Lancashire,  Cheshire,  and  Derbyshire  I  am 
not  surprised ;  but  be  very  sure  of  this,  that  in  Mr.  Chamberlain's 
judgment  the  question  is  too  grave  for  his  action  to  be  affected 
by  facts  of  that  kind,  much  as  he  may  regret  them.  Nor  is  he 
likely  to  consider  very  carefully  whether  he  has  permanently  lost 
Nonconformist  support.  As  he  is  the  only  statesman  of  first 
rank  to  whom  we  can  look  for  disestablishment,  I  should  regret 
very  deeply  any  permanent  severance  between  him  and  us.  The 
severance  may  drive  him  into  closer  relations  with  sections  of 
the  Radical  party  with  which  on  many  grounds  we  have  little 
sympathy,  and  this  would  be  a  calamity.  But  things  must  take 
their  course. 

And  yet  as  this  is  not  a  strictly  Nonconformist  question  I 
wonder  at  what  you  say.  On  a  subject  upon  which  Mr.  Bright 
and  Mr.  Trevelyan,  to  say  nothing  of  Lord  Hartington  and  Mr. 
Goschen  and  Sir  Henry  James,  differ  from  Mr.  Gladstone  it  is 
hard  to  understand  why  Mr.  Chamberlain,  because  he  also  differs, 
should  have  been  supposed  to  commit  the  unpardonable  sin.  I 
have  written  much  more  than  I  meant  to  write.     Excuse  me. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

St  k  July  1886. 

It  is  a  melancholy  business — I  mean  the  Election — and  the 
break-up  of  the  Liberal  party.  Morning  after  morning  I  have 
thought  of  you  as  the  returns  came  in,  and  I  have  imagined  how 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  467 

keenly  you  would  feel  Mr.  Gladstone's  defeat.  I,  too,  am  deeply 
sorry  for  him,  though  I  think  that  his  success,  considering  the 
form  in  which  he  has  put  the  issue  before  the  country,  would 
have  been  a  national  calamity  too  great  to  be  measured.  I  have 
not  been  able  to  congratulate  any  of  my  friends  who  have  fought 
and  won,  or  to  express  my  sympathy  with  those  who  have  fought 
and  lost.     I  have  had  no  heart  for  it. 

As  to  the  coalescence  of  the  Unionist  Radicals  with  the 
Tories  I  cannot  see  very  well  what  else  was  possible  after  Mr. 
Gladstone  had  chosen  to  make  the  election  turn  on  one  question — 
"  If  I  had  twenty  votes  I  would  give  all  the  twenty  against  the 
man  who  votes  against  Ireland  and  our  Irish  policy."  No  matter 
what  may  have  been  the  services  which  a  man  has  rendered  to 
Liberalism  —  no  matter  what  the  services  he  is  capable  of 
rendering  to  Liberalism — the  support  of  the  Irish  policy  of  the 
Government  is  a  question  which  is  not  only  to  dominate  but  to 
suppress  all  other  considerations.  I  do  not  say  that  with  his 
view  of  the  immense  importance  of  his  Irish  policy  he  is  wrong ; 
but  if  his  view  of  its  importance  is  right,  then  it  justifies  those 
Unionists  who  follow  his  example  and  disregard  the  difference 
between  Toryism  and  Liberalism  in  order  to  defeat  it.  By  his 
own  account  it  is  a  question  which  suppresses  party  differences. 
The  leader  of  the  Liberal  party  has  himself  declared  that 
the  difference  between  Liberal  and  Tory  is  as  nothing  com- 
pared with  the  difference  between  a  Liberal  Dissentient  and 
himself. 

How  long  ago  is  it  that  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  friends  would 
have  been  as  fiercely  indignant  at  the  charge  of  a  coalescence 
between  themselves  and  the  Parnellites  as  they  are  now  at  the 
coalescence — not  to  carry  a  measure  but  to  defeat  it — between 
the  Unionists  and  the  Tories?  ''The  Tories,"  said  Sir  William 
Harcourt  last  December,  "  propose  to  govern  the  country  by  an 
intimate  alliance  with  men  who  openly  avow  their  object  is  the 
dismemberment  of  Ireland  from  England.  Is  it  possible  that  the 
country  is  going  to  tolerate  such  a  transaction  ?  "  Sir  William 
Harcourt  was  right.  The  country  would  not  have  tolerated  it. 
Nor  is  it  disposed  to  tolerate  the  sudden  determination  of  the 
Liberals  to  attempt  the  same  thing.  Whatever  the  crimes  of 
the  Tories  may  be,  they  cannot  be  compared  with  the  crimes 
attributed  by  Mr.  Gladstone  to  the  men  with  whom  he  has 
coalesced  to  defeat,  wherever  he  could,  the  members  of  his  own 
party. 

Again,  I  say,  I  do  not  insist  that  he  is  in  the  wrong.  The 
exigencies  of  the  country  may,  in  his  judgment,  leave  him  no 
choice.     But  when  he  would  coalesce  with  Healy,  Biggar,  and 


468  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  rest  to  defeat  a  Unionist  it  is  a  little  hard  to  see  the  crime 
of  those  who  coalesce  with  Tories  to  defeat  a  man  whom  they 
regard  as  a  Separatist. 

My  own  view  of  the  whole  question  led  me  to  regard  it  as  not 
sufficiently  mature  to  make  it  one  of  war  to  the  knife  on  either 
side.  The  only  contest  in  which  I  have  spoken  was  in  East 
Birmingham  on  behalf  of  a  ministerialist.  While  stating  that  my 
own  objections  to  the  Bills  were  undiminished  I  earnestly  argued 
with  Dissentient  Liberals  to  support  the  ministerialist  candidate. 
But  I  have  seen  no  disposition  outside  Birmingham  to  exercise 
any  tolerance  towards  those  who  hold  different  judgments  on  the 
question,  and  even  here,  through  Broadhurst's  unfortunate 
decision  to  stand  for  Nottingham,  the  fires  were  kindled  in  two 
of  our  divisions.  Had  he  remained  we  should  have  carried  him, 
though  the  ministerialist  candidate  for  his  division  polled  only 
1040  votes,  of  which  I  suppose  at  least  500  were  Irish;  and 
Cook  would  have  been  carried  too 

Apart  even  from  the  Irish  question  the  issue  has  been  put 
by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  a  way  that  would  have  made  his  success,  in 
my  judgment,  a  political  disaster.  We  are  asked  to  believe  that 
the  Bills  of  last  Session  are  dead  ;  what  the  Bills  of  next  Session 
are  to  be  we  are  not  told.  The  Liberal  party  has  been  asked  to 
give  Mr.  Gladstone  a  majority  in  favour  of  his  Irish  policy,  though 
his  Irish  policy  is  undisclosed.  It  is  a  personal  plebiscite,  and  a 
personal  plebiscite  when  a  question  of  supreme  importance  has 
to  be  determined.  I  hope  the  country  will  never  give  a  blank 
cheque  to  any  statesman. 

But  I  am  living,  and  have  been  living,  throughout  the  Election 
"  detached "  from  the  strife.  I  did  the  best  I  could  to  form 
a  judgment  on  the  subject :  I  have  read  everything  that  has 
been  said  by  the  leaders,  and  my  judgment  remains  what 
it  was.  I  said  my  say  early,  and  have  said  very  little  since, 
except  in  the  interest  of  the  Liberal  party  which  to  the 
leaders  of  every  section  of  the  party  seems  for  the  time  to 
be  a  matter  of  no  importance.  I  have  been  getting  quietly  on 
with  work  which  has  led  me  far  away  from  the  confusion  and 
the  bitterness,  nor  do  I  see  that  by  active  intervention  I  could 
have  prevented  any  evil  or  secured  any  good.  It  looks  now  as 
if  the  Conservatives  would  have  a  majority  over  the  Liberals — 
barring  the  Parnellites.  The  agricultural  labourers  were  won  by 
"the  three  acres  and  a  cow,"  of  which  Mr.  Gladstone  now  speaks 
with  some  scorn  :  for  the  present  the  men  that  did  most  to  win 
them  are  in  revolt ;  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether  they  will  stick 
by  their  present  members.  If  they  do,  the  Liberal  catastrophe 
will  be  arrested  short  of  utter  ruin. 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  469 

lotkjuly  1886. 

One  word — and  only  one — for  I  am  in  the  middle  of  a 
sermon.  You  say  that  Mr.  Gladstone  did  not  call  on  his 
friends  to  support  Tories ;  but  in  the  only  case  in  which  he 
had  a  chance  of  doing  it  he  did  it.  He  supported  Sir  Robert 
Peel  against  Finlay ;  and  I  suppose  that  no  one  is  charitable 
enough  to  think  that  Sir  Robert  is  a  Liberal  in  any  honest  sense 
of  the  word. 

And  but  for  the  restraint  the  Tories  put  on  themselves — 
whether  from  patriotism  or  policy  —  Mr.  Gladstone's  advice 
would  have  returned  many  Tories  in  the  place  of  members  of 
his  own  party.  If,  where  a  Gladstonian  Liberal  was  opposing 
a  Unionist  Liberal,  the  Tories  had  everywhere  run  a  candidate, 
many  a  seat  now  held  by  a  Unionist  Liberal  might  through  the 
division  of  the  party  have  fallen  to  them.  Mr.  Gladstone 
narrowed  the  issue  to  one  question — confidence  in  a  policy 
which,  if  it  was  not  disclosed  in  the  Irish  Bills,  is  undisclosed. 
Liberalism  was  to  give  place  to  this.  And  what  is  to  be  said 
for  his  allowing  Hartington's  seat  to  be  contested  ?  He  could 
have  stopped  it  if  he  had  tried.  He  has  proclaimed  war  to  the 
knife  with  every  Liberal  that  does  not  agree  with  hirn. 

Privately  he  continued  his  efforts  to  bring  about  a 
better  understanding,  and  in  December  he  attempted  to 
open  a  way  of  approach  between  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  the 
Liberal  leaders.  For  a  time  there  seemed  to  be  some  hope 
of  success.  Sir  William  Harcourt's  statement,  in  replying 
to  a  toast  proposed  by  Dale  at  the  dinner  given  in  London 
to  Mr.  Schnadhorst  on  9th  March  1887 — that  the  matters 
on  which  the  representatives  of  the  two  sections  agreed 
were  many  and  great,  while  the  matters  on  which  they 
differed  were  small  and  few — was  distinctly  encouraging, 
even  though  it  was  already  clear  that  the  negotiations  of 
the  Round  Table  Conference  would  not  issue  in  an  im- 
mediate peace.  In  the  June  number  of  the  Contemporary 
Review,  exactly  twelve  months  after  the  appearance  of  his 
former  article,  Dale  carefully  examined  the  relative  extent 
of  concurrence  and  dissension  with  a  view  to  a  settlement; 
ultimate  reunion  between  the  divided  elements  of  the 
Liberal  party  he  still  regarded  as  certain.  Mr.  Gladstone's 
speech  at  Swansea  on  4th  June  was  interpreted  by  some 


470  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

—  the  editor  of  the  Contemporary  among  them — as  a  more 
distinct  sign  of  willingness  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the 
Liberal  Unionists  than  he  had  hitherto  shown  ;  and  Mr. 
Bunting  very  reasonably  urged  that  Dale  and  his  friends 
ought  to  be  satisfied  with  "  concession,"  and  should  not 
demand  "  conversion."  To  this  appeal  Dale  replied  in 
two  letters. 

To  Mr.  P.  W.  Bunting 

\WiJiim  1887. 

Had  Mr.  Gladstone's  speech  at  Swansea  on  4th  June  1887 
been  delivered  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  6th  June  1886  it 
would  have  saved  the  Bill  and  averted  the  split.  About  its 
effect  now  I  am  doubtful;  I  mean  its  effect  on  the  Radical 
Unionists.  In  the  first  place,  it  came  after  Mr.  Morley's  speech 
at  Norwich  and  Mr.  Gladstone's  letter  to  one  of  the  electors  of 
West  Birmingham ;  the  speech  and  the  letter  seemed  to  me  to 
close  the  door  against  us ;  and  it  will  not  be  easy — for  those 
who  had  received  so  shortly  before  the  Swansea  speech  what 
seemed  to  be  a  final  dismissal — to  assure  themselves  that  if  they 
return  to  the  majority  of  the  party  they  will  be  safe.  You  will 
not  suppose  that  I  mean  to  attribute  to  the  Radical  Unionists 
any  ungenerous  suspicion  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  good  faith  ;  but  I 
think  that  you  can  understand  the  condition  of  perplexity 
created  by  (a)  the  concession  in  the  Haslam  correspondence 
in  the  winter ;  (b)  what  seemed  the  peremptory  refusal  of  con- 
cession in  the  letter  to  the  West  Birmingham  elector  about  a 
month  ago,  after  my  paper  in  the  Contemporary  was  dismissed ; 
(c)  the  concession  at  Swansea. 

Secondly,  it  does  not  appear  from  the  Swansea  speech  that 
Mr.  Gladstone's  own  mind  is  fully  assured  that  the  Irish  members 
should  be  permanently  retained  at  Westminster.  The  suggestion 
— in  immediate  connection  with  the  proposal  to  retain  them  for 
the  present — that  the  Home  Rule  Bill,  like  the  East  India  Charter, 
should  be  passed  for  a  term  of  years,  and  that  this  part  of  the 
scheme  may  thus  be  reconsidered,  indicates  that  Mr.  Gladstone 
has  not  yet  come  to  the  central  position  of  the  Unionists.  We 
say  that  we  begin  by  keeping  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  and 
Wales  in  the  imperial  Parliament ;  and  that  we  are  prepared  to 
deal  with  the  Home  Rule  question  on  that  basis,  and  that  basis 
alone.  Mr.  Gladstone  says,  I  begin  with  Home  Rule  and  will 
not  at  present  disturb  the  Irish  representation,  but  will  provide 
that  the  question  shall  come  up  after  five  or  six  years.      Until 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  471 

it  becomes  clear  that  Mr.  Gladstone  sees  that  in  constructing 
a  Home  Rule  Bill  the  retention  of  the  Irish  representatives  at 
Westminster  is  a  necessary  postulate,  the  old  trouble  remains. 
Nor  do  I  think  that  a  five  or  six  years'  experiment  in  relation  to 
the  central  principles  of  a  settlement  of  this  kind  is  admissible. 
Details  may  be  reconsidered  at  any  time,  and  may  be  recon- 
sidered without  defining  a  term  for  the  Bill ;  but  on  the  basis  of 
the  settlement  we  should  make  up  our  minds. 

The  difficulty  of  people  like  myself  who  are  anxious  for  re- 
union is  immensely  increased  by  the  fact  that  the  only  advisers 
and  colleagues  now  left  to  Mr.  Gladstone  are — or  have  been  till 
now — against  us.  The  Radical  Union  Conference  at  Birmingham 
was  held  after  Mr.  Morley's  speech  at  Norwich,  and  after  Mr. 
Gladstone's  letter  to  his  correspondent  in  West  Birmingham,  but 
before  the  Swansea  speech.  It  seemed  to  me  reasonable  for  the 
Unionists  to  conclude  that  there  was  absolutely  no  hope  of  an 
understanding  with  their  old  chief,  whom  many  of  them  would  be 
glad  to  follow  again.  They  therefore  were  driven  to  adopt  an 
independent  policy.  It  might  almost  be  said  that  they  burnt 
their  boats.  Those  of  us  who  would  describe  ourselves  as  Home 
Rule  Unionists  are  therefore  left  without  leaders  in  the  party.  It 
will  be  hard  for  us  to  return  without  the  men  who  have  secured 
the  first  step  towards  the  kind  of  policy  we  desire. 

No  doubt,  an  unreserved  acceptance  of  the  present  constitu- 
tion of  Parliament  involves  the  essential  elements  of  the  settle- 
ment for  which  we  have  pleaded ;  but  it  is  a  little  hard  for  us  to 
be  confident  that  all  will  go  right  when  the  acceptance  of  the 
fundamental  principle  seems  hesitating  and  qualified,  and  when 
the  men  who  have  contended  for  it  are  thrown  out  of  the  party. 

I  have  spoken  of  myself  as  a  Radical  Unionist,  but  as  I  think 
I  told  you  I  have  never  joined  the  Radical  Union.  It  has  been 
so  clear  to  me  for  many  months  that  Mr.  Gladstone's  most  loyal 
and  passionate  supporters  were  just  where  I  am  myself  in  relation 
to  the  cardinal  question,  that  I  determined  to  remain  in  the  camp. 


251k  June  1887. 

The  reason  that  Mr.  Gladstone's  speech  at  Swansea  is  not 
satisfactory  is  that  until  he  sees  that  the  retention  of  the  Irish 
members  is  vital  to  the  unity  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  there 
is  no  security  that  he  will  not  draw  a  Bill  which  within  four  or 
five  years  will  make  their  retention  impossible.  It  is  plain  from 
his  speech  that  the  unity  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  is  with  him 
secondary  and  Home  Rule  primary.  He  has  made  a  great  move, 
and  the  true  solution  loses  nothing    by  waiting.       One's  only 


472  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

regret  is  that  every  six  months  of  waiting  lessens  the  prospect  of 
the  settlement  being  in  his  hands.  To  project  a  scheme  is  no 
doubt  difficult,  it  is  also  inexpedient.  But  the  constitution  of 
the  Provincial  Assemblies  of  the  Canadian  Confederation  has 
been  again  and  again  referred  to  by  Mr.  Chamberlain  as  suggest- 
ing the  lines  of  an  Irish  scheme,  and  I  do  not  see  why  this  should 
not  work. 

Hartington's  speech  at  Manchester  yesterday  seems  to  me  full 
of  hope  that  within  a  year  or  two  we  shall  get  this  question 
through. 

Dale's  forecast  of  events  was  sadly  at  fault.  Time  does 
not  always  heal.  The  estranging  currents  were  already 
running  rapidly  and  strongly.  The  Crimes  Bill  of  1887, 
and  the  support  given  to  it  by  the  Liberal  Unionists, 
accentuated  the  antagonism  ;  and  before  twelve  months 
had  passed,  Dale  recognised  that  things  had  drifted  too 
far,  and  that  political  work  for  him  had  come  to  an  end. 
His  Australian  journey  helped  to  withdraw  him  from  the 
conflict. 

The  silence  that  he  had  imposed  on  himself  was  not 
broken  for  five  years  ;  and  when  he  spoke,  it  was  in 
response  to  a  challenge  that  he  could  not  ignore.  The 
Home  Rule  Bill  of  1892  was  before  the  country;  it  left 
the  Irish  representation  in  Parliament  untouched.  His 
speech  of  1886  was  reprinted,  with  the  assertion  that 
unless  he  were  "  a  weather-cock,"  he  must  stand  in  the 
position  now  occupied  by  the  majority  of  the  Liberal 
party.  The  details  of  his  reply l  would  be  superfluous. 
In  substance,  he  explained  that  he  had  not  changed  his 
ground,  save  at  one  point.  He  did  not  believe  now,  as  he 
believed  in  1886,  that  Mr.  Gladstone's  action  had  made  an 
Irish  Parliament  inevitable  ;  but  he  was  still  in  favour  of 
conceding  a  large  measure  of  self-government  to  an  Irish 
legislature,  subordinate  to  the  imperial  Parliament  and  not 
practically  independent  of  it ;  to  that  condition  he  firmly 
adhered. 

But,  as  shown  on  the  face  of  the  letter,  he  wrote  as  one 
whose  political  ardour  had  cooled,  and  whose  thought  had 

1   The  Independent,  1st  July  1892. 


THE  IRISH  QUESTION  473 

turned  to  other  things.  The  break-up  of  the  Liberal  party 
had  changed  all  the  conditions  of  his  life.  How  the 
breach  had  affected  social  and  personal  relations  in 
Birmingham,  is  described  in  a  letter  to  the  Dean  of 
Salisbury.  How  it  had  affected  himself  may  be  seen  in 
the  letter  that  follows  ;  and  the  isolation  was  destined  to 
become  even  more  complete  than  he  then  foresaw. 

To  Mrs.  James  Stuart 

22nd  May  1889. 

For  myself  I  am  afraid  that  I  am  more  of  an  exile  than  ever, 
and  yet  I  cannot  go  right  into  the  Union  camp.  I  accept  this 
isolation  as  a  release  from  political  work  altogether.  If  I  were 
twenty  or  even  ten  years  younger,  or  if  I  had  not  other  matters 
on  hand  for  which  life  is  likely  to  be  too  short,  I  might  try  to 
have  my  own  say ;  but  it  would  be  useless  to  say  anything 
unless  one  were  prepared  to  persist  in  saying  it  and  to  fight  for 
it.  This  would  mean  more  time  and  strength  than  I  can  spare  ; 
and  so  I  turn  aside  and  elect  to  keep  to  the  kind  of  work  to 
which  it  might  have  been  well — though  I  do  not  know — that  I 
should  have  given  all  my  strength. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  his  withdrawal  from  politics 
was  due  to  a  desire  to  avoid  conflict  with  old  friends, 
and  more  especially  to  lessen  the  dangers  of  political 
division  and  animosity  among  Congregationalists.  This, 
no  doubt,  was  among  the  considerations  that  decided  his 
action  ;  but  it  was  not  the  sole,  nor  even  the  supreme 
motive. 

To  Professor  G.  P.  Fisher 

14/A  April  1890. 

...  I  do  not  like  the  close  alliance  between  the  Liberal 
Unionists  and  the  Conservatives.  If  I  were  in  Parliament  I 
should  try  to  keep  the  present  Government  in  office,  but  should 
make  it  clear  that  it  was  not  because  I  loved  them.  Being  out 
of  Parliament,  that  irksome  duty  does  not  rest  on  me.  And  old 
feelings  of  respect  for  Mr.  Gladstone  would  make  it  very  un- 
pleasant for  me  to  listen  to  the  kind  of  attack  on  him  in  which 
some  of  the  Unionists  very  naturally  indulge. 


474  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

But  personal  regret  was  overshadowed  by  public  dis- 
appointment. The  prostration  of  Liberalism  imperilled, 
or  delayed,  the  triumph  of  principles  that  he  had  cherished 
and  of  causes  that  he  had  served  with  a  life-long  devotion. 
The  leaders  in  whom  he  had  most  confidence,  and  from 
whom  he  had  hoped  most,  were  enlisted  on  the  side  of 
reaction.  Defeat  had  come  at  the  moment  when  victory 
had  seemed  nearest.  The  flowing  tide  had  ebbed,  leaving 
barren  sand  and  desolate  shingle  ;  a  generation  might  pass 
before  it  would  turn,  and  he  felt  himself  already  an  old 
man  with  but  a  few  brief  years  before  him.  Nothing  was 
wanting  to  embitter  the  calamity. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  SCHOOL  BOARD,  THE  GRAMMAR  SCHOOL,  AND 
MANSFIELD  COLLEGE 

(i)  The  School  Board  : — The  first  Board — The  Liberal  minority — Debates 
at  the  Board — Bible  reading  and  Bible  teaching — The  Bible  as  an  English 
classic — Undenominational  religion  ;  its  perils — The  secular  policy  of 
the  second  Board :  religious  teaching  left  to  the  churches — The  Religious 
Education  Society — Causes  of  failure— Return  to  Bible  reading — Dale's 
objection  to  note  or  comment — Ten  years'  work — Dale  in  committee. 
—  (2)  The  Grammar  School  :—  History  of  the  Foundation — Sectarian 
supremacy — The  Commissioners'  Report  in  1868 — The  new  constitution 
—Dale  nominated  a  governor  by  London  University — Further  changes 
— The  new  Grammar  Schools— Dale's  share  in  the  work — Bailiff  for  a 
second  year — Services  to  the  Foundation. — (3)  Mansfield  College  : — 
Dale's  connection  with  Spring  Hill — The  older  universities  and  students 
for  the  ministry — Development  of  Dale's  opinions — Letter  from  Mr.  T. 
H.  Green — Removal  of  Spring  Hill  to  Oxford — Obstacles  surmounted 
— Doctrinal  clauses  in  the  trust-deed — Mansfield  College — Site  secured 
and  plans  adopted — Dr.  Fairbairn  its  first  Principal — Temporary  arrange- 
ments— Opening  ceremonies — Dale's  resignation  of  the  Chairmanship — 
Letters  on  the  progress  of  the  enterprise. 

Dale's  work  in  education  falls  into  three  divisions — his 
work  as  a  member  of  the  Birmingham  School  Board  ;  as 
a  Governor  of  the  Schools  on  the  Foundation  of  King 
Edward  VI.  ;  and  as  Chairman  of  the  theological  college 
first  known  as  Spring  Hill  and  afterwards  as  Mansfield 
College,  Oxford.  Without  entering  into  minute  detail, 
it  may  be  possible  to  give  some  idea  of  his  activity  in 
these  various  capacities. 

I 

He  was  a  member  of  the  School  Board  for  more  than 
ten  years — from  its  first  election  in  1870  till  the  close  of 


476  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

1880,  when  he  resigned  his  seat  on  account  of  the  in- 
creasing claims  of  King  Edward's  School  upon  his  time 
and  strength.  For  his  first  three  years  at  the  Board,  he 
was  one  of  a  minority.  The  Liberal  Association,  trusting 
to  luck  rather  than  organisation,  contested  the  whole  of 
the  fifteen  seats  ;  and  this  error  in  tactics,  combined  with 
the  vagaries  of  the  cumulative  vote,  placed  a  majority  in 
power  returned  by  a  minority  of  voters.  The  Liberal 
candidates,  with  more  than  220,600  votes,  and  14,700 
voters,  carried  six  seats  ; 1  the  Church  candidates,  with 
158,700  votes,  and  10,200  voters,  carried  eight.  Canon 
O'Sullivan,  the  Roman  Catholic  representative,  made  up 
the  number. 

In  debate  the  minority  were  very  much  more  than  a 
match  for  their  opponents,  who  faced  them,  however,  with 
admirable  courage.  "  They  were  the  acknowledged  leaders 
of  the  Liberal  party  in  the  borough,  and  the  ablest 
speakers  and  debaters  which  the  town  could  produce 
when  it  was  celebrated  for  a  wealth  of  talent  amongst 
public  men."  2  And  as  their  position  on  the  Board  pre- 
vented them  from  carrying  their  principles  into  effect, 
they  resolved  to  find  other  means  of  setting  their  policy 
before  the  country.  The  Act  by  which  School  Boards 
were  constituted  left  them  large  discretion  in  carrying 
out  their  duties  ;  many  questions,  including  some  of  the 
first  importance,  had  been  deliberately  left  by  the  legis- 
lature to  be  settled  by  local  option.  Their  functions 
were  fresh  and  unfamiliar.  It  was  reasonable  therefore, 
the  minority  urged,  that  these  questions  should  be 
freely  and  fully  discussed  :  they  intended  to  discuss  them. 
This  intention  they  carried  out,  notwithstanding  the 
opposition  of  the  majority,  who  wished  to  push  matters 
to  a  vote.  The  debates,  which  were  public,  excited 
much  interest.  On  a  field-day  the  Board  Room  was  not 
unlike  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta.  The  Daily  Post,  then 
and  still  of  paramount  influence  in  the  Midland  Counties, 

1  The  Liberal  members  of  the  Board  were  Joseph  Chamberlain,  R.   W. 
Dale,  George  Dawson,  George  Dixon,  and  J.  S.  Wright,  and  Charles  Vince. 

2  F.  Adams,  The  Elementary  School  Contest,  p.  255. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  477 

gave  full  reports  of  the  proceedings.  Some  of  the  most 
important  speeches  made  by  members  of  the  minority 
were  published  separately.  And  so,  though  out-voted — 
not  indeed  invariably ;  for  now  and  then  they  succeeded 
in  capturing  one  of  their  opponents — the  minority  were 
able  to  hold  their  adversaries  in  check,  and  to  exert  a 
considerable  effect  on  the  policy  of  other  Boards  else- 
where. 

They  joined  issue  at  once.  The  Church  party  pro- 
posed to  enforce  compulsory  attendance  at  school  before 
a  single  Board  School  had  been  built,  and  to  pay  fees  at 
the  existing  denominational  schools  for  the  children  of 
indigent  parents.  These  proposals  were  stoutly  resisted. 
The  debate  on  the  payment  of  fees  lasted  through  several 
meetings  of  the  Board,  and  in  the  course  of  it  Dale  made 
one  of  his  most  powerful  speeches.  Outvoted  at  the  Board, 
the  minority  prolonged  the  conflict  elsewhere  and  with 
other  allies.  The  Town  Council  refused  to  honour  the 
School  Board  precept  for  levying  a  rate,  and  persisted  in 
their  opposition  until  a  "  mandamus  "  was  obtained  from  the 
Court  of  Queen's  Bench.  Even  then  feeling  in  the  town 
was  so  strong,  and  so  many  ratepayers  were  prepared  to 
suffer  distraint,  that  the  Board,  to  avoid  a  public  scandal, 
never  put  their  bye-law  in  force. 

The  proposals  of  the  majority  with  regard  to  religious 
instruction  in  Board  Schools  were  also  resisted.  Their 
scheme  provided  that  the  Bible  should  be  read  and  taught 
daily,  and  that  prayers  and  hymns,  selected  under  the 
direction  of  the  Board,  should  be  used  in  the  schools — 
due  care  being  taken  that  the  safeguards  contained  in  the 
Education  Act  should  be  strictly  observed,  and  that  no 
attempt  should  be  made  "  to  attach  children  to,  or  to 
detach  them  from  any  particular  denomination."  1 

In  the  discussions  that  ensued  Dale  took  a  prominent 
part.  At  this  time  he  had  been  induced  to  abandon  the 
position  that  he  had  previously  held,  and  to  which  he 
subsequently  returned — the  principle  of  secular  instruction 

1  Bye-laws   of  the    Birmingham    School    Board,   §   iii.      Education   and 
School  Management,  ii.  :  Regulations  in  regard  to  religious  instruction,  §§  7,  8. 


478  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

by  the  School  Board,  religious  instruction  by  the  churches. 
Bible  reading  without  note  or  comment  was  then  included 
in  the  programme  of  the  Education  League,  and  was 
accepted  by  his  colleagues  at  the  Board.1 

But  Dale  admitted  the  Bible  into  the  schools — so  he 
persuaded  himself,  at  least — on  secular,  not  on  religious 
grounds  ;  not  as  containing  a  supernatural  revelation  and 
a  Divine  rule  of  life,  but  as  a  great  English  classic,  rich 
in  "  the  noblest  poetry,  the  loftiest  eloquence,  the  most 
pathetic  and  beautiful  narratives,"  which  had  "  helped  to 
give  form  to  the  English  language  and  had  exerted  a 
powerful  influence  on  English  literature." 2  A  man  who 
did  not  know  his  Bible  was  imperfectly  educated.  To 
illustrate  this  point,  he  used  to  tell  the  story  of  what  took 
place  at  the  close  of  the  great  speech  in  which  Mr.  Bright 
spoke  of  the  Cave  of  Adullam — into  which  the  opponents 
of  the  Reform  Bill  had  gathered  the  factious  and  the 
discontented.  As  the  House  was  breaking  up,  one 
member  said  to  another,  "  Where  did  he  get  that  illus- 
tration from  ? "  "  Oh,"  said  the  other,  "  from  the 
Arabian  Nights."  "  Ah,"  said  the  first,  "  I  remember 
now  !  "  The  secular  education  of  those  gentlemen,  said 
Dale,  was  flagrantly  incomplete. 

He  looked  back  on  this  aberration  with  pain  and 
humiliation.  But  even  when  he  was  willing  that  the  Bible 
should  be  read  by  the  teacher,  he  refused  to  allow  the 
teacher  to  explain  it.  Any  explanation  of  the  Bible  that 
could  be  described  as  "  undogmatic  "  he  always  regarded 
with  distrust.  In  the  debate  on  the  scheme  of  religious 
instruction  proposed  by  the  majority,  he  argued  that  re- 
ligious teaching  which  would  not  be  likely  "  to  attach  the 
children  to  any  particular  denomination  "  would  end  in 
detaching  them  from  all.  He  expressed  his  alarm  at  the 
tendency  of  modern  thought  to  depreciate  the  importance 
of  definite  religious    teaching,    and    his    conviction    that 

1  National  Education  League :  Report  of  the  First  General  Meeting,  pp. 
187-194.  (Mr.  Dawson,  it  should  be  said,  maintained  this  position  to  be 
inconsistent  with  their  principles.) 

2  Religious  Instruction  in  Board  Schools ;  Report  of  a  Debate  at  the 
Birmingham  School  Board,  p.   1 9. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  479 

nothing  was  so  likely  to  bring  about  the  destruction  of 
whatever  religious  faith  still  survived  in  England.  Unde- 
nominational teaching,  if  genuine,  he  believed  would 
ultimately  leave  men  without  a  religion  at  all.  And  if 
religion  were  to  be  taught  by  the  masters  and  mistresses 
of  the  schools,  how  could  it  be  ensured  that  they  should 
possess  that  personal  faith  without  which  no  one  can 
teach  religion  effectively?  Teachers,  as  a  class,  were 
neither  more  religious  nor  less  religious  than  other  people. 
To  take  religious  earnestness  as  a  test  would  disqualify 
many  who  were  eminently  fitted  for  secular  teaching  ;  and 
a  strong  personal  faith  often  existed  in  men  and  women 
who  yet  were  utterly  unfit  to  give  religious  instruction. 

Dale  believed  that  religion,  if  taught,  must  be  taught 
with  enthusiasm.  The  religion  of  "  moderation  and  of 
good  sense,"  which  some  of  his  opponents  admired,  was  a 
temple  of  mist,  and  built  upon  the  sand  ;  the  "  restraint " 
upon  the  teacher,  which  some  of  them  commended  as  a 
check  upon  fanaticism,  could  not  fail,  as  he  thought,  to 
paralyse  the  force  and  to  chill  the  fervour  of  the  spirit. 
Such  a  teacher  "  would  breathe  the  very  spirit  of  scepticism 
into  the  hearts  which  he  ought  to  inspire  with  religious 
faith."  x 

In  1873,  when  the  second  election  came,  the  position 
of  parties  was  reversed.  The  Liberal  supremacy  at  the 
Board  was  as  strong  as  it  was  in  the  town.  The  majority 
at  once  discontinued  the  religious  teaching  in  the  schools, 
and  repealed  the  existing  regulations  on  the  subject.  A 
year  or  so  before  this  time,  the  National  Education  League 
had  modified  its  original  position  ; 2  it  had  abandoned 
the  principle  of  Bible  reading  without  note  or  comment, 
and  had  accepted  a  new  plan  allowing  religious  teaching 
to  be  given  in  the  schools  by  religious  bodies  at  their  own 
cost  and  by  their  own  teachers  appointed  for  that  purpose.3 

1  Religious  Teaching  by  School  Boards  perilous  to  the  religious  Faith 
and  Life  of  the  Nation,  p.  3. 

2  1 8th  January  1872. 

3  At  the  Manchester  Conference  of  Nonconformists  this  plan  was  discussed 
at  length.  The  delegates  finally  declared,  in  the  event  of  the  plan  being 
adopted,  that  in  no  case  should  the  schoolmaster  be  employed  to  give  religious 


480  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

In  anticipation  of  this  change  in  the  policy  of  the 
Board,  the  Birmingham  Religious  Education  Society  was 
established  by  Dale  and  his  friends  shortly  before  the 
election  in  the  autumn  of  1873.  On  25th  February  1874 
they  were  authorised  by  the  Board  to  give  religious  in- 
struction in  the  schools,  on  payment  of  a  small  rent  for 
the  use  of  the  buildings.  They  relied  at  the  outset  upon 
the  agency  of  voluntary  teachers.1  The  instruction — 
following  a  short  religious  service — included  those  truths 
which  are  held  in  common  by  the  Evangelical  Churches. 
For  some  time  the  Society  prospered.  It  had  a  strong 
force  of  teachers,  most  of  them  trained  in  Sunday  Schools, 
and  all  full  of  enthusiasm  for  their  work.  The  examiners' 
reports  were  encouraging.  But  as  the  Board  Schools 
were  multiplied,  it  proved  impossible  to  keep  pace  with 
their  growth.  The  constituency  to  which  the  Society 
appealed  was  limited.  The  clergy,  with  one  or  two  ex- 
ceptions, held  aloof;  and  so  for  the  most  part  did  the 
Wesleyans.  At  the  close  of  1876,  the  schools  of  the 
Board  contained  accommodation  for  15,690  children  ;  the 
schools  in  which  religious  instruction  was  given  accommo- 
dated only  9354  ;  so  that  6300  children  were  left  unpro- 
vided for.  Every  year,  as  new  schools  were  erected — 
there  were  twenty-six  in  1880 — this  discrepancy  between 
supply  and  demand  became  more  glaring. 

Some  difficulties  arose  in  connection  with  discipline. 
Many  of  those  engaged  in  the  work  found  it  hard  to  keep 
their  classes  in  hand.  The  experience  of  the  Sunday 
School,  with  its  smaller  numbers  and  more  uniform  type, 
did  not  enable  them  to  deal  with  the  children  of  the  Board 
School.  Dean  Close,  who  vigorously  attacked  the  Society 
and  its  methods,  in  a  letter  to  the  Times  2  described  the 
teachers   as    "  untrained,    untaught,    and    undisciplined " ; 


instruction.  They  held  that  he  should  be  the  servant  of  the  Board,  not  of  a 
sect ;  and  that  in  country  districts  especially,  without  such  a  provision,  he 
might  be  required  to  give  religious  instruction  as  a  condition  of  appointment. 
— General  Conference  of  Nonconformists  held  at  Manchester,  23rd-25th 
January  1872.     Authorised  Report,  p.  255;  pp.  154-163;  253-261. 

1  At  a  later  period  some  paid  teachers  were  employed. 

2  Times,  1 8th  January  1876. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  481 

and  Dale  in  his  reply  1  hardly  met  the  issue  when  he  said 
that  their  self-sacrificing  devotion  proved  them  to  have 
"  the  supreme  qualification  for  the  work."  The  Times,  it 
should  be  said,  was  more  friendly  to  the  Society  than  the 
Dean.  It  dwelt  upon  its  defects,  but  more  than  once 
appealed  to  the  clergy  to  accept  the  situation,  if  they 
could  not  change  it,  and  urged  them  to  take  advantage  of 
the  facilities  within  their  reach.2 

The  clergy,  however,  were  stubborn  ;  their  hostility  and 
the  indifference  of  the  Wesleyans,  coupled  with  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  School  Board  system,  proved  fatal  to  the 
real  success  of  the  scheme.  And  in  course  of  time  the 
Society  was  weakened  by  other  influences.  When  the 
Society  was  formed,  it  was  generally  believed  that  most  of 
the  children  attending  the  Board  Schools  lay  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  Churches.  But  experience  and  inquiry 
showed  that  this  was  not  the  case.  A  very  high  per- 
centage of  the  children  were  to  be  found  in  Sunday 
Schools,  and  many  of  the  rest  attended  religious  worship, 
more  or  less  irregularly,  with  their  parents.  This  dis- 
covery broke  the  force  of  the  Society's  appeal  for  voluntary 
service.  And  when  in  1879  the  Board  modified  its  policy, 
and  made  Bible  reading  a  part  of  the  ordinary  school 
exercises,  the  Society's  strength  was  still  further  diminished. 
Many  of  its  teachers  sent  in  their  resignations  ;  and  their 
number  fell  from  164  in  1878  to  83  in  1881,  and  to  58 
in  1882  ;  and  the  average  attendance  of  scholars,  which 
in  1877  had  been  6670,  was  reduced  to  4000.  The 
Society,  therefore,  was  dissolved  and  reconstituted  on  a 
new  basis.  Since  then  it  has  continued  to  carry  on  a 
most  useful  work,  on  a  smaller  scale  but  with  larger 
efficiency,  by  inducing  churches  to  undertake  to  pro- 
vide religious  instruction  in  their  various  districts,  and  by 
supplementing  their  efforts  in  case  of  need  from  the 
central  organisation.  Dale's  solicitude  for  the  success  of 
the  Society,  his  devotion  to  its  interests,  his  readiness  to 
defend   it  against  all  comers,  on  the  platform  or  in  the 

1    Times,  2 1st  January  1876. 

2   Times,  21st  January  1S76,  20th  January  1877. 

2   I 


482  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

newspaper,  were  incessant.  He  was  grievously  dis- 
appointed by  its  failure  to  solve  the  problem  of  religious 
education  under  School  Boards,  although  he  felt  that  the 
responsibility  of  failure  lay  with  others  and  not  with  the 
Society  and  its  supporters,  and  that  they  had  proved 
success  to  be  attainable  if  all  the  Churches  would  do  their 
part  in  the  discharge  of  a  common  duty. 

Had  the  experiment  of  the  Religious  Education  Society 
proved  successful,  the  system  might  have  taken  root  and 
spread  widely.  But  even  in  Birmingham  some  of  its 
warmest  supporters,  such  as  Alderman  Manton,  were 
dissatisfied  with  its  results,  though  they  wished  its  work 
to  be  supplemented,  not  abandoned.  After  much  con- 
troversy, in  1879,  Mr.  Dixon  and  Mr.  Wright,  two  of  the 
Liberal  majority  on  the  Board,  declared  themselves  in 
favour  of  Bible  reading.  Dale  and  the  rest  of  their  col- 
leagues resisted  the  proposal,  which  was  finally  carried  by 
the  Chairman's  casting  vote. 

This  was  the  last  conflict  over  the  religious  question 
in  which  Dale  took  part  as  a  member  of  the  Board  ;  but 
after  his  resignation,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  he  led  the 
opposition  to  attempts  at  compromise  between  the  clergy 
and  the  Liberal  party.  In  1885  the  conflict  was  severe. 
To  avoid  a  contested  election,  the  leaders  of  the  Clerica! 
and  Lay  Council  agreed  to  withdraw  a  candidate  on 
condition  that  their  proposals  were  submitted  for  con- 
sideration to  the  Committee  of  the  Liberal  Association — 
the  "  Two  Thousand."  Selected  passages  of  the  Scriptures 
were  already  read  in  the  schools  ;  they  asked  that  histori- 
cal, geographical,  and  grammatical  explanations  should  be 
given  by  the  teachers,  and  that  the  Lord's  Prayer  should 
be  used  daily  in  the  schools,  and  should  be  repeated  by 
the  children.  Before  the  "  Two  Thousand  "  met  to  decide 
upon  the  proposals,  Dale  addressed  a  letter — a  pamphlet 
of  sixteen  pages — to  each  member  of  the  Committee, 
urging  them  to  reject  the  compromise,  as  certain  to  lead  to 
further  demands  which  it  would  then  be  more  difficult  to 
resist ;  as  opening  the  way,  through  "  grammatical "  ex- 
planations, to  that  religious  teaching  which  it  professed 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  4S3 

to  exclude  ;  and  as  perilous  in  its  effect  on  the  religious 
life  of  the  children.  "  In  reading  the  Bible,"  he  said, 
"  their  minds  will  naturally  be  drawn  to  those  points 
which  are  explained  by  the  teacher ;  the  rest  will  be 
passed  over  with  indifference.  They  will  be  trained  and 
disciplined  by  the  practice  of  six  days  in  the  week,  ex- 
tending over  five  or  six  years,  to  fix  their  thoughts  on 
those  parts  of  the  Bible  which  have  no  moral  or  religious 
interest.  Before  they  leave  school  a  habit  will  be  formed 
which  they  will  find  it  hard  to  break."  1 

He  followed  up  his  letter  with  a  speech  at  the  meeting, 
replying  to  the  criticism  that  it  had  called  forth.  The 
compromise  was  rejected  by  a  majority  of  at  least  seven 
to  one.  At  the  election  of  1891  all  idea  of  agreement 
was  abandoned,  and  the  leaders  of  the  clerical  party 
adopted  as  their  platform  the  London  system  of  definite 
religious  instruction. 

It  has  been  necessary  to  dwell  at  some  length  upon 
this  side  of  Dale's  work  at  the  School  Board,  because 
among  the  Nonconformists  of  the  country  he  was 
specially  identified  with  the  policy  of  the  Board  in 
relation  to  religious  education,  and  also  because  he  so 
largely  helped  for  many  years  to  keep  the  Liberal  party 
in  the  town  steadfast  in  the  principles  which  they  had 
adopted.  But  if  his  activity  and  interest  had  been  con- 
fined to  questions  of  this  kind — if  he  had  been  a  contro- 
versialist and  debater  and  nothing  more — his  influence 
would  have  been  widely  different  from  what  it  was. 
Without  attempting  to  match  one  man  against  another, 
or  to  estimate  what  share  Mr.  Dixon,  Mr.  Chamberlain, 
and  Dale  had  respectively  in  shaping  and  developing  the 
system  of  elementary  education  in  Birmingham,  it  may 
be  safely  said  that  the  schools  of  the  town  in  their  earlier 
growth  owed  more  to  them  than  to  any  other  three  men 
who  could  be  named. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  when  the  first  Board  was 

1  "Religious  Worship  and  Bible  Teaching  in  Board  Schools  :  a  Letter  to 
the  'Two  Thousand,'"  p.  14.  This  letter  contains  Dale's  most  complete 
and  incisive  statement  of  his  mature  opinions  on  the  question  at  issue. 


484  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

elected  in  1870,  the  task  before  it  was  altogether  new, 
and  that  the  problems  with  which  its  members  had  to 
grapple,  both  then  and  for  several  years  after,  were  wholly 
unfamiliar.  Till  then  we  had  isolated  schools  but  no 
system  :  even  in  a  single  town  there  was  no  organic  unity 
in  elementary  education.  The  new  Boards  had  to  do  their 
work  without  experience  to  enlighten  or  precedent  to 
guide.  If  in  some  cases  they  went  astray — if  they  made 
mistakes  and  had  to  pay  for  them — it  should  excite  no 
surprise  :  the  wonder  is  that  they  should  so  soon  have 
devised  a  system  that  would  answer. 

At  Birmingham  the  first  duty  of  the  School  Board  was 
to  determine  the  amount  of  school  accommodation  required 
by  the  town.  Having  ascertained  this,  they  next  had  to 
settle  where  the  new  schools  should  be  placed  to  meet  the 
varying  exigencies  of  different  districts.  To  acquire  the 
sites — without  litigation  if  possible  ;  to  agree  upon  the 
plans  ;  to  approve  the  specifications,  to  select  builders,  to 
raise  the  money  required  for  the  cost  of  erection  and 
maintenance ;  to  arrange  for  the  management  of  the 
schools  when  in  use,  to  provide  them  with  a  competent 
staff,  to  define  their  educational  aims — beyond  the  require- 
ments of  the  Code — and  to  secure  the  regular  attendance 
of  the  children  ;  to  provide  the  schools,  to  fill  the  schools, 
and  to  teach  the  scholars,  involved  an  incalculable  amount 
of  labour,  thought,  and  study.  The  task  was  one  that 
could  not  be  accomplished  at  a  stroke.  Practically,  it 
took  ten  years  to  overtake  the  educational  needs  of  the 
town.  Dale  saw  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  this  epoch 
in  the  Board's  history.  After  he  retired,  Mr.  Dixon  was 
the  only  member  surviving  from  the  original  Board. 

Within  the  ten  years  twenty-eight  schools  had  been 
built  and  opened.  The  bye-law  enforcing  compulsory 
attendance  had  been  gradually  extended  to  all  parts  of 
the  town.  For  every  child  at  school  in  1870  there  were 
three  in  1880.  Great  strides  had  been  made  in  the 
organisation  of  the  teaching  system.  The  Board  had  its 
visitors  to  follow  up  absentees,  its  inspectors  to  test  the 
efficiency  of  the  staff;   it  had  replaced   pupil  teachers  to  a 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  485 

considerable  extent  by  adult  assistants,  and  it  had  a  force 
of  qualified  teachers  in  reserve  who  could  be  called  in  at 
once  in  any  case  of  emergency.  It  had  established  a 
system  of  evening  schools,  and  in  the  ordinary  day  schools 
it  had  paid  special  attention  to  the  teaching  of  singing 
and  drawing.  Its  organisation  was  a  living  force,  ever 
developing  new  modes  of  activity,  accommodating  itself  to 
new  conditions,  and  prepared  to  expand  with  the  growth 
of  the  town.  One  feature  in  the  system  of  the  Board 
should  not  be  overlooked.  It  never  appointed  separate 
bodies  of  school-managers  entrusted  with  the  control  and 
the  regulation  of  details ;  it  preferred  to  manage  its 
schools  by  means  of  a  committee  of  the  Board — a  method 
entailing  a  larger  amount  of  labour  and  responsibility,  and 
not  free  from  serious  drawbacks,  though  it  secured  a  more 
complete  uniformity  in  the  various  parts  of  the  system. 

One  honourable  characteristic  distinguished  the  Birming- 
ham School  Board  from  the  first.  Almost  without  ex- 
ception the  active  men  on  both  sides  were  bent  on  doing 
their  best  by  the  schools.  They  were  determined  that 
the  buildings  should  be  fine  as  well  as  convenient.  In 
Birmingham,  some  one  has  said,  the  public  buildings  are 
better  than  the  private  houses  ;  in  most  towns  it  is 
the  other  way.  The  playgrounds  were  spacious  ;  the 
dimensions  of  the  class-rooms  were  not  limited  by  the 
requirements  of  the  Department.  At  first  the  expenditure 
occasioned  some  outcry.  The  ratepayer  was  invoked 
against  the  Board  ;  but  in  those  days,  at  least,  the  appeal 
was  in  vain.  The  citizens  were  proud  of  their  schools, 
and  they  did  not  grudge  the  outlay.  For  many  years — 
whatever  may  have  happened  later — no  public  man  of  any 
weight  stooped  to  advocate  a  parsimonious  policy. 

On  the  Board,  as  in  most  administrative  bodies,  the 
bulk  of  the  work  was  done  in  committee  ;  and  Dale  took 
more  than  his  share  of  it.  He  served  on  the  Education 
and  School  Management  Committee,  the  most  laborious 
of  all,  for  several  years  as  Chairman,  and  on  the  Finance 
Committee  also.  During  the  six  years  1870-76,  in  spite 
of   two    long    periods   of   absence    in    the    East    and    in 


486  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

America,  he  attended  370  meetings  out  of  a  possible 
total  of  475.  And  with  him  attendance  meant  more 
than  mere  presence.  To  use  a  boating  phrase,  he  was 
never  a  "  passenger  "  :  he  helped  business  forward.  He 
came  prepared,  often  by  hours  of  labour  at  home  ;  and 
while  at  work  he  gave  an  undivided  mind  to  the  affairs  in 
hand.  He  was  always  anxious  in  dealing  with  men  of 
opposite  opinions,  where  no  principle  was  involved,  to  find 
some  common  ground  on  which  to  meet  them  :  where 
concession  was  allowable  he  was  ready  to  concede.  And 
in  matters  of  educational  interest  his  ardour  and  his 
patience  knew  no  bounds.  The  Head  -  master  of  the 
Grammar  School,  the  Rev.  A.  R.  Vardy,  who  worked  with 
him  for  many  years,  said  after  his  death  : — 

He  had  an  intense  belief  in  education,  a  wonderful  enthusiasm 
for  it,  and  an  enthusiasm  that  was  contagious,  and  carried  away 
and  carried  on  with  him  those  who  were  working  by  his  side. 
He  had  a  wide  knowledge  of  educational  methods,  a  firm  grasp 
of  educational  principles,  and  an  astonishing  familiarity  with 
those  details  of  educational  work  which  are  perhaps  seldom 
known  outside  the  profession  and  not  always  within  it. 

Even  those  who  in  many  things  were  opposed  to  him 
at  the  Board  were  accustomed  to  lean  on  his  strength  and 
his  discernment.  When  he  withdrew  in  1880,  both  parties 
felt  that  they  were  losing  one  of  their  most  efficient 
workers. 


II 


Dale's  work  at  the  Grammar  School  should  be  re- 
garded as  a  continuation  and  completion  of  his  work  at 
the  School  Board.  At  the  Board  he  had  helped  to 
build  up  a  system  of  public  elementary  education  in 
Birmingham  ;  here  he  was  engaged  in  carrying  forward 
the  system  to  a  higher  point — in  filling  the  interval 
between  the  elementary  school  and  the  technical  college 
or  the  university.      The  task  was  one  that  lay  very  close 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  487 

to  his  own  interests  ;  he  took  great  pleasure  in  the  work  ; 
and  even  after  he  had  been  compelled  to  abandon  other 
forms  of  public  service  he  still  continued  to  act  as  a 
governor  of  the  Foundation.  The  period  during  which  he 
held  this  office  lasted  from  June  1878  until  his  death  in 
March  1895.  He  was  Bailiff,  or  Chairman,  of  the  Founda- 
tion in  1882  and  1883,  and  Chairman  of  the  School 
Committee — the  committee  most  directly  concerned  with 
the  organisation  and  management  of  the  schools — for  more 
than  ten  years. 

The  Grammar  School  and  the  School  Board  were 
institutions  as  widely  different  in  character  as  in  age. 
The  School  Board  was  a  modern  creation,  without  a  past, 
and  bare  of  traditions.  The  Grammar  School  had  its 
origin  in  remote  centuries,  and  its  history  had  been 
closely  bound  up  with  the  fortunes  of  the  town.  Among 
the  guilds  which  existed  in  Birmingham  at  an  early  date 
was  the  Guild  of  the  Holy  Cross,  established  by  letters- 
patent  of  Richard  II.,  7th  August  1392.  A  century 
and  a  half  later  the  Guild,  though  not  strictly  speaking  a 
religious  foundation,  was  dissolved  by  Henry  VIII.  in 
the  year  1529.  Its  charter  was  cancelled  ;  its  lands  were 
seized.  But  when  Edward  VI.  came  to  the  throne,  the 
citizens  of  Birmingham  begged  that  the  property  might 
be  restored  ;  and  the  king  granted  their  petition, 
stipulating  that  the  income  derived  from  the  lands  should 
be  used  for  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  a  free 
grammar  school.  The  condition  was  accepted  ;  and  so 
out  of  the  ancient  Guild  came  the  Foundation  of  Edward 
VI.  But  not  as  it  exists  to-day.  Its  income  then  was 
£2  1  a  year  ;  it  is  close  upon  ^40,000  now  ;  and  instead 
of  one  school  there  are  now  nine,  and  will  be  eleven.1 

The  changes  in   the    management  of  the   Foundation 

1  There  is  a  tradition — it  may  be  only  a  legend,  but  it  has  been  embalmed 
in  an  official  Blue-book  —  that  the  original  governors  of  the  school  at 
Birmingham  and  of  its  neighbour  at  Bromsgrove,  founded  at  the  same 
time,  were  offered  their  choice  between  endowment  in  money  or  in  land. 
Birmingham  chose  land,  Bromsgrove  money.  And  so,  while  the  Birmingham 
foundation  has  grown  wealthier  year  by  year,  Bromsgrove  still  receives  from 
the  original  endowment  only  a  few  pounds  a  year. 


4S8  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

have  also  been  great.  Without  attempting  to  trace  its 
history,  the  vicissitudes  through  which  it  passed,  or  the 
process  by  which  it  came  into  the  control  of  a  section  of 
the  citizens,  it  may  be  said  that  for  many  years  before 
the  new  scheme  of  management  prepared  by  the  Charity 
Commissioners  received  the  sanction  of  Parliament  in 
1878,  the  governors  of  the  school  and  the  representatives 
of  public  opinion  in  the  town  had  been  engaged  in 
incessant  conflict.  The  governors  were  self- elected. 
As  vacancies  occurred  by  death  or  by  removal  from 
Birmingham,  successors  were  chosen  by  co  -  optation. 
The  Board  was  kept  as  far  as  possible  of  one  colour. 
All  its  members  were  Churchmen  ;  almost  all  of  them 
Conservatives :  the  Liberal  element  was  sufficient  to 
tinge  but  not  to  taint  it.  Against  this  injustice  the 
town  had  struggled  in  vain.  Dr.  Miller,  when  Rector 
of  St.  Martin's,  had  publicly  expressed  his  dissatisfaction. 
An  association  for  the  reform  of  the  Grammar  School, 
founded  in  1865,  had  been  supported  by  men  of  all 
kinds  in  its  efforts  to  bring  about  a  change.  At  the 
Inquiry  held  by  the  Endowed  Schools  Commission, 
protest  after  protest  came  from  the  witnesses  who 
appeared  before  them.  Mr.  T.  H.  Green,  one  of  the 
assistant  commissioners,  reported  : — 

The  Board  has  fairly  represented  the  upper  or  more  select 
section  of  society  in  Birmingham,  so  far  as  this  section  is 
politically  Conservative  and  attached  to  the  Established  Church. 
It  has  been  necessarily  antagonistic  to  the  Town  Council,  and 
careless  or  contemptuous  of  local  politics.  To  belong  to  it 
has  been  a  certain  social  distinction.  Social  and  municipal 
distinction  have  not  coincided,  and  hence  the  Board  has  been 
an  object  of  public  animosity,  irrespectively  of  the  manner  in 
which  it  has  exercised  its  functions. 

The  Commission  in  their  Report  put  the  case  more 
definitely  and  more  strongly. 

No  Dissenter,  within  the  memory  of  man,  has  been  a 
governor;  till  recently  no  one  of  Liberal  politics  has  been  a 
covernor ;  no  mayor  of  the  town  has  till  the  present  year  [1868] 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  489 

been  a  governor ;  no  member  of  the  borough   except   one,   a 
Conservative  :  not  one  Town  Councillor. 


The  scheme  of  1878  swept  this  system  away.  It 
established  a  Board  of  twenty -one  governors:  eight 
appointed  by  the  Town  Council  ;  three  by  the  Universities 
of  Oxford,  Cambridge,  and  London  ;  one  by  the  teachers 
on  the  Foundation  ;  the  remaining  nine  to  be  elected 
by  co-optation.  Dale,  who  had  taken  an  active  part 
in  the  preceding  conflict,  had  given  evidence  before  the 
Commission,  and  had  helped  in  other  ways  to  bring 
about  the  reform,  was  one  of  the  first  governors  so 
appointed.  It  had  been  expected  that  he  would  be 
nominated  by  the  Town  Council  ;  but  the  Council,  dis- 
appointed by  their  failure  to  obtain  entire  control,  chose 
all  their  eight  members  out  of  their  own  body — a  policy 
that  provoked  some  resentment.  Dale  was  nominated 
by  London  University.  He  was  probably  the  most 
distinguished  representative  of  that  University  then  in 
Birmingham,  and  although  some  were  afraid  that 
he  might  be  too  much  of  a  partisan,  the  objection 
was  overruled,  and  proved  in  experience  to  be  wholly 
groundless. 

The  scheme  of  the  Commissioners  to  some  extent 
also  reorganised  the  arrangement  of  the  schools.  Before 
it  was  approved,  the  schools  on  the  Foundation  were 
(a)  the  Grammar  School  in  New  Street,  with  three  divisions 
— Classical,  English,  and  Lower — containing  in  all  about 
600  boys ;  (b)  eight  branch  schools  of  an  elementary 
type,  containing  600  boys  and  550  girls.  It  substituted 
for  these  :  (a)  a  High  School  for  boys  up  to  the  age  of 
nineteen  ;  (b)  a  Middle  School  for  boys  up  to  the  age 
of  sixteen  ;  {c)  eight  Lower  Middle  Schools  for  boys 
and  girls  up  to  fourteen  ;  (d)  a  High  School  for  girls — 
but  this  part  of  the  plan  was  deferred  until  suitable  build- 
ings could  be  procured.  A  further  change  was  that  fees 
were  henceforth  to  be  charged  in  all  the  schools  of  the 
Foundation,  but  one-third  of  the  places  in  each  school 
were  to  be  filled  by  free  scholars  appointed  by  competition. 


490  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

This  arrangement  was  not  permanent  ;  it  was  modified 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  and  Dale  was  in  large 
measure  responsible  for  carrying  through  the  changes  that 
were  made.  So  far  as  aim  and  idea  were  concerned,  he 
was  only  one  of  several  acting  together.  Dr.  Harper,  the 
Principal  of  Jesus  College,  Oxford  ;  Dr.  Heslop,  Mr. 
William  Kenrick,  Mr.  Dixon,  and  some  others,  were  all 
concerned  in  the  development  of  the  new  policy  ;  but  it 
fell  to  Dale  as  Bailiff  to  take  the  lead  in  the  negotiations 
with  the  Charity  Commissioners,  and  to  keep  the  threads 
of  the  policy  firmly  grasped.  The  position  involved 
much  work  and  more  anxiety. 

The  Commissioners'  scheme  had  retained  the  branch 
schools  for  boys  and  girls  which  it  found  already  existing. 
At  that  time  the  schools  were  elementary  schools — the 
best  elementary  schools  in  England  some  of  them  were 
said  to  be — but  they  did  not  attempt  work  of  a  higher 
type.  And  as  the  public  elementary  schools  of  the 
borough  became  more  efficient,  the  need  for  these  Lower 
Middle  Schools — as  they  were  then  called — became  less. 
The  two  sets  of  schools  covered  the  same  ground  ;  and 
although  the  Lower  Middle  Schools  in  their  more 
advanced  classes  rose  above  the  level  of  the  Board 
Schools,  there  was  no  clear  distinction  in  character  and 
aim  between  the  two.  In  1 88 1 ,  therefore,  after  three 
years'  experience,  the  governors  of  the  Foundation  decided 
to  apply  to  the  Charity  Commission  for  authority  to  raise 
these  schools  to  a  higher  grade  in  the  educational  system  ; 
by  extending  the  limit  of  age  from  fourteen  to  sixteen, 
and  by  including  in  the  course  of  instruction  subjects 
which  hitherto  had  not  been  attempted.  Practically,  their 
proposals  involved  the  establishment  of  a  new  set  of 
schools  intermediate  between  the  elementary  school  on 
the  one  side  and  the  High  School  on  the  other.  In  an 
address  delivered  in  July  1881,  Dale  described  in  outline 
the  policy  of  the  governors.  Briefly  put,  it  came  to  this  : 
that  they  were  seeking  to  make  an  open  path  for  every 
clever  and  industrious  child  in  Birmingham  from  the 
public   elementary   schools  of  the    borough,   through    the 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  491 

new  "  Grammar  Schools  " — as  they  were  to  be  called — to 
the  High  School,  and  thence  to  the  universities.  When 
the  changes  then  in  contemplation  had  been  completed, 
no  town  in  England,  he  said,  would  compare  with 
Birmingham  in  educational  advantages  ;  and  the  only 
city  in  the  United  Kingdom  that  would  equal  or  excel 
it  was  the  city  of  Edinburgh. 

The  Commissioners  assented  to  the  governors'  proposals 
in  the  main,  even  though  they  affected  a  scheme  so  recently 
sanctioned  after  much  discussion.  Step  by  step  the  fresh 
changes,  and  those  portions  of  the  earlier  plan  to  which 
effect  had  not  yet  been  given,  were  carried  out.  The 
English  School,  which  still  remained  in  New  Street  as  the 
Middle  School,  was  transferred  to  the  buildings  purchased 
in  Edgbaston  at  the  Five  Ways,  and  became  one  of 
the  new  Grammar  Schools.  Some  of  the  existing  Lower 
Middle  Schools  were  removed  to  more  suitable  situations  ; 
all  were  reorganised  on  the  footing  of  Grammar  Schools. 
Accommodation  was  thus  provided  for  750  boys  and  the 
like  number  of  girls.  Two  similar  schools  were  left  to  be 
built  at  some  future  time.  The  new  High  School  for 
girls  was  also  established,  first  in  New  Street,  and  then  in 
Congreve  Street. 

Some  characteristics   of  the   system  should    be  noted. 

(1)  The  fees  were  low  in  all  the  schools — £3  a  year  in 
the  Grammar  Schools;  £12   a  year  in  the  High   School. 

(2)  One-third  of  the  pupils  in  each  school  were  foundation 
scholars  receiving  a  free  education.  (3)  One-half  of  the 
scholarships  in  the  High  School  were  awarded  by  an 
entrance  examination  ;  the  other  half  by  examination 
within  the  school.  (4)  In  the  Grammar  Schools  one-half 
of  the  scholarships  were  reserved  for  candidates  coming 
from  public  elementary  schools  ;  of  the  remaining  half  two- 
thirds  were  offered  for  competition  within  the  school,  and 
the  other  one -third  for  open  competition  amongst  all 
candidates  for  admission.  (5)  The  subjects  of  the  entrance 
examination  at  the  Grammar  Schools  were  restricted  to 
those  that  are  taught  in  the  public  elementary  schools  ;  and 
at  the  High  School  to  the  subjects  taught  in  the  Grammar 


492  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Schools.      The  educational  "  ladder  "  was  a  reality  and  not 
a  pleasant  fiction. 

While  all  these  changes  were  in  progress  Dale  was 
Bailiff.  The  office  is  usually  held  in  rotation  for  a  year. 
But  in  his  case  the  rule  was  broken,  and  he  was  asked  to 
serve  for  a  second  time.  His  letters  show  that  he  appreci- 
ated the  honour,  and  that  he  was  glad  to  be  able  to  render 
a  service  to  the  Foundation  from  which  Nonconformists  had 
for  so  long  been  excluded. 

To  Mr.  Henry  Lee 

21st  December  18S2. 

.  .  .  You  will  be  interested  to  know  that  the  Grammar  School 
governors  have  made  me  Bailiff  for  a  second  year.  Only  a  little 
time  ago  the  Board  was  exclusively  Church  and  almost  exclusively 
Tory ;  it  is  a  curious  revolution.  For  a  Nonconformist  minister 
to  be  on  the  Board  at  all  is  enough  to  bring  some  of  the  old 
governors  out  of  their  graves ;  and  for  him  to  be  Bailiff  for  two 
years  running,  is  enough  to  send  them  back  to  their  graves  if 
they  came  out. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

2nd  December  1882. 

The  governors  of  King  Edward's  School  have  re-elected  me 
Bailiff  for  next  year.  They  put  it  on  the  ground  that  the 
educational  changes  are  in  course  of  development,  and  that  it  is 
important  to  keep  the  lines  in  the  same  hands.  Richard 
Chamberlain,  who  is  Deputy,  and  who  ought  to  have  succeeded, 
put  the  matter  so  handsomely,  and  it  was  so  cordially  supported, 
that  I  could  not  refuse.  It  will  be  a  great  stroke  of  work  to  have 
had  any  part  in  carrying  through. 

When  he  retired  from  the  Bailiffs  chair  at  the  close  of 
the  second  year,  a  special  vote  of  thanks  was  passed  to  him. 

It  is  ordered  that  the  best  thanks  of  the  Governors  be  and 
are  hereby  presented  to  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale  for  the  courtesy  and 
ability  with  which  he  has  presided  over  the  Board  as  Bailiff  during 
the  years  1882  and  1883,  and  the  Board  desire  to  record  their 
deep  sense  of  the  untiring    energy   and  self-denying  devotion 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  493 

which  Dr.  Dale  has  dedicated  to  the  service  of  the  Foundation 
in  the  difficult  and  laborious  task  of  carrying  into  effect  the  new 
Scheme  for  the  regulation  of  the  Foundation. 

There  is  no  need  to  dwell  on  the  services  that  he 
rendered  to  the  Foundation  as  Chairman  of  the  School 
Committee.  It  was  work  that  required  tact,  patience, 
insight,  knowledge  ;  mainly  concerned  with  details,  but  with 
details  involving  principles,  and  where  it  was  not  always 
easy  to  decide  between  divergent  interests  and  conflicting 
claims.  The  testimony  of  one  of  his  colleagues — the  one 
who  saw  his  work  most  closely  and  who  was  most  capable 
of  appreciating  it — attests  its  value. 

No  other  man  could  during  the  period  of  reorganisation  have 
done  with  the  same  efficiency  the  work  he  undertook,  and  none 
at  a  later  period  could  have  supervised  the  development  of  the 
schools  with  equal  skill  and  judgment  or  with  more  beneficial 
effect.  His  influence  was  felt  throughout  the  Foundation  :  he 
was  the  recognised  adviser  of  his  colleagues  the  governors,  he 
was  the  trusted  friend  of  the  teachers,  and  he  was  the  faithful 
and  watchful  guardian  of  the  scholars. 

The  testimony  of  the  Head-master  of  the  Boys'  High 
School  has  already  been  given  to  the  power  that  Dale 
exerted  on  those  with  whom  and  for  whom  he  had  to  work. 
Miss  Creak,  the  Head-mistress  of  the  Girls'  High  School, 
felt  it  no  less  deeply.  On  receiving  from  him  the 
announcement  of  his  resignation,  she  wrote  as  follows  : — 


From  Miss  Creak 

iqth  January  1895. 

I  read  your  letter  this  morning  with  very  mingled  feelings. 
You  will  not  wonder  that  I  felt  a  very  deep  sense  of  regret. 
Ever  since  I  have  known  anything  of  King  Edward's  School  I 
have  felt  what  an  inestimable  benefit  it  enjoyed  in  your  guidance 
and  counsels,  and  every  year  has  only  deepened  my  sense  of 
what  we  all  owe  to  you.  To  work  under  such  wise,  generous, 
large-minded  government  as  yours,  with  the  sense  that  every 
effort  for  good  met  with  full  appreciation,  every  error  of  judgment 
with  the  gentlest  judgment,  every  difference  of  opinion  with  the 


494  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

most  generous  weighing,  has  been  a  position  to  waken  and  keep 
alive  the  very  best  of  those  who  were  responsible  to  you.  For 
myself  I  do  not  know  how  to  thank  you  for  the  long  years  of 
unvarying  kindness.  I  feel  very  deeply  that  I  owe  by  far  the 
greatest  part  of  the  happiness  I  have  found  here  to  you. 


Ill 

If  Dale  had  been  asked  what  was  the  most  important 
work — outside  the  pastorate — in  which  he  had  been 
engaged  during  the  course  of  his  life,  he  would  have 
replied  that  it  was  the  removal  of  Spring  Hill  College  to 
Oxford,  and  its  reconstitution  on  a  new  basis  as  Mansfield 
College.  No  other  enterprise  with  which  he  was  associated 
touched  him  so  closely ;  no  other  institution  filled  so  large 
a  place  in  his  heart. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  his  ministry  his  connection 
with  Spring  Hill  College  was  very  close.  At  Mr.  James's 
death  he  was  appointed  Chairman  of  the  Educational 
Board,  and  he  so  became  in  large  measure  responsible  for 
the  policy  and  administration  of  the  college.  He  served 
it  in  many  ways.  He  lectured  there — once  in  his  early 
days  on  Homiletics,  and  again  at  a  later  period  on  Pastoral 
Theology.  By  his  personal  efforts  he  helped  to  release  the 
college  from  its  financial  difficulties.  He  was  consulted 
about  any  serious  case  of  discipline  when  such  arose. 
Next  to  Carr's  Lane,  Spring  Hill,  he  always  felt,  had  the 
strongest  claim  on  his  services  ;  and  more  than  once  when 
he  was  inclined  to  leave  Birmingham,  his  attachment  to 
the  college  turned  the  balance  and  helped  to  keep  him 
there.  Dr.  Simon,  for  many  years  Principal  of  Spring 
Hill,  has  borne  the  testimony  of  experience  to  his  devotion. 

He  filled  the  office  of  Chairman  of  the  Educational  Board 
during  the  whole  of  my  tenure  of  office,  and  more  fortunate  in 
the  holder  of  such  a  position  no  teachers  could  have  been. 
Never  was  there  a  shadow  of  meddling ;  he  shrank  even  from 
doing  in  the  college  what  might  fairly  have  been  expected  of  him, 
for  fear  of  seeming  to  interfere.  Once  he  gave  some  admirable 
lectures  on  pastoral  practice,  at  my  request ;  but  I  had  to  urge  it, 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  495 

not  because  he  was  unwilling,  but  for  some  such  reason  as  was  just 
mentioned.  If  he  had  a  fault,  it  was  that  of  not  asserting  him- 
self enough  in  connection  with  the  business  of  the  college.  On 
several  important  occasions  I  thought  he  refrained  from  pressing 
his  own  larger,  wiser  judgment  out  of  deference  to  the  opinion 
of  men  altogether  smaller  than  himself.  It  was  ingrained  con- 
siderateness  and  respect  for  the  individuality  of  others  that 
chiefly  moved  him  thus  to  act.1 

His  position  made  him  keenly  alive  to  the  defects  and 
the  difficulties  of  the  college  system  of  the  Congregational 
churches.  He  welcomed  any  movement  towards  the 
amalgamation  of  separate  institutions,  and  any  attempt  to 
establish  some  organic  unity  between  them  ;  but  for  many 
years  he  did  not  see  his  way  to  a  new  departure.  That  "dis- 
like of  new  ventures  "  which  he  used  to  confess,  held  him 
back  from  any  open  rupture  with  the  policy  of  the  past. 
Even  when  it  was  apparent  that  before  long  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  would  open  their  doors  to  Nonconformists,  or 
would  have  them  forced  from  outside,  he  expressed  his 
conviction  that  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case  the  national 
universities  could  never  be  used  for  the  education  of 
Nonconformist  ministers.2  But  during  the  next  ten  years 
he  modified  his  opinions,  and  advised  that  some  of  the 
students  at  Spring  Hill  and  other  colleges  should  be  sent 
to  get  their  literary  training  at  the  universities,  returning 
to  the  denominational  colleges  for  their  theological 
instruction  ;  though  he  foresaw  that  the  existing  system 
must  still  be  maintained  for  those  who  had  to  repair 
the  deficiencies  of  their  earlier  education.  He  was  warned 
that  the  experiment  had  its  dangers  :  of  the  students  who 
entered  Oxford  or  Cambridge  some  would  drift  away  from 
their  Congregational  principles,  and  others  would  yield  to 
the  attractions  of  the  new  world  into  which  they  were 
thrown.  Dale  met  such  objections  in  the  heroic  strain. 
He  was  willing,  he  said,  to  lose  all  the  men  who  would  be 
lost ;  Nonconformity  at  the  universities  kept  as  a  rule  all 
the   men   who  were  worth  keeping.      It   was  too  bold  a 

1  British  Weekly,  2 1st  March  1895. 
2  Wolverhampton,  Congregational  Union  Meetings,  1869. 


496  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

statement  even  then  ;  and  when  college  office  as  well  as 
honours  became  open  to  Nonconformists,  the  situation  was 
wholly  changed.  Not  long  after  this  expression  of  opinion 
— it  may  have  been  in  consequence  of  it — Mr.  T.  H. 
Green,  of  Balliol — the  philosopher,  not  the  historian — 
wrote  to  him  in  urgent  appeal  that  Nonconformists  should 
realise  and  discharge  the  responsibilities  laid  upon  them  by 
the  opening  of  the  universities.  Mr.  Green  spoke  very 
frankly  of  the  mischief  that  their  indifference  was  doing. 


From  Mr.  Thomas  Hill  Green  l 

The  opening  of  the  national  universities  to  Nonconformists 
has  been,  in  my  judgment,  an  injury  rather  than  a  help  to 
Nonconformity.  You  are  sending  up  here,  year  after  year,  the 
sons  of  some  of  your  best  and  wealthiest  families ;  they  are  often 
altogether  uninfluenced  by  the  services  of  the  Church  which  they 
find  here,  and  they  not  only  drift  away  from  Nonconformity — 
they  drift  away  and  lose  all  faith ;  and  you  are  bound,  as  soon  as 
you  have  secured  the  opening  of  the  universities  for  your  sons, 
to  follow  them  when  you  send  them  here,  in  order  to  defend  and 
maintain  their  religious  life  and  faith. 

Dale  was  strongly  moved  by  this  appeal  coming  from 
a  man  in  character  and  ability  perhaps  the  most  remark- 
able of  his  generation  at  Oxford  ;  but  he  saw  no  immediate 
possibility  of  meeting  it.  He  visited  Cambridge,  however, 
where  at  that  time  the  need  was  most  urgent,  to  ascertain 
what  amount  of  sympathy  a  Congregational  college — 
should  one  be  established — could  reckon  on  among  the 
more  liberal  theologians  of  the  place.  He  was  received 
courteously,  but  without  encouragement,  and  the  plan 
went  no  farther.  There  the  matter  remained  for  several 
years,  so  far  as  he  was  concerned  ;  and  it  was  not  until  the 
idea  of  removing  Spring  Hill  to  Oxford  took  hold  of  him 
that  he  saw  the  way  open  to  effective  action — to  give 
Nonconformity  a   place    of   education   in  Oxford    and  a 

1  Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford,  afterwards  Whyte's  Professol 
of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Oxford. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  497 

centre  of  religious  life  and  influence,  for  the  training  of  its 
ministry  and  the  shepherding  of  its  laity. 

The  idea  was  not  his  ;  that  should  be  clearly  understood. 
Who  first  suggested  the  scheme,  and  in  what  shape,  it  is 
impossible  to  say.  Probably  the  credit  rests  with  Dr. 
Simon  who,  while  Principal  of  Spring  Hill,  urged  that  the 
college  should  be  transferred  to  a  university  town.  But 
Dr.  Fairbairn  and  Professor  James  Bryce  were  also  among 
the  pioneers.  Dale  always  acknowledged  himself  to  have 
been  a  convert — and  a  late  convert.  For  some  time  he 
was  dubious  ;  and  in  fact,  he  used  to  say,  he  converted 
himself  in  converting  his  friend,  Alderman  Manton,  now  as 
loyal  to  Mansfield  as  he  was  to  Spring  Hill.  But  without 
Dale,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  the  idea  would  have  been 
still-born.  In  the  world  of  action  "he  begins  who 
animates";  and  from  the  initiation  of  the  enterprise  to  its 
completion,  Dale  was  its  animating  force.  Without  the 
help  of  others  he  would  have  been  powerless.  Dr.  Fairbairn 
— marked  out  from  the  first  as  the  future  Principal — Mr. 
Albert  Spicer,  Dr.  Hannay,  Dr.  Mackennal,  and  many 
more,  shared  the  work  with  him  ;  but  he  bound  all  the 
workers  together.  It  was  his  part  to  lay  the  case  in  all  its 
bearings  before  the  Spring  Hill  trustees  and  to  secure  their 
adhesion — no  easy  task ;  and  he  conducted  the  negotiations 
with  the  Charity  Commissioners  to  obtain  their  sanction  of 
a  scheme  for  modifying  the  terms  of  the  original  trust. 

No  part  of  the  original  endowment — not  a  penny 
belonging  to  Spring  Hill — was  available  for  building 
purposes  ;  this  expense  had  to  be  met  by  special  contribu- 
tions. The  first  estimate  of  the  cost  was  ^25,000  ;  but  it 
proved  impossible  to  carry  out  the  scheme  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  the  place — Oxford,  as  Dr.  Jowett  told  them, 
"  is  critical  in  the  matter  of  building " — for  less  than 
.£45,000  ;  and  Dale,  with  Dr.  Fairbairn  and  others  to 
help  him,  went  about  the  country  from  place  to  place  to 
raise  the  sum  required  to  open  the  college  free  from  debt. 

The  negotiations  with  the  Charity  Commissioners  were 
long  and  delicate,  but  not  from  any  lack  of  sympathy  on  their 
part.  Dale,  who  had  often  criticised  their  policy  and  their 
2  K 


498  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

methods  with  some  severity,  was  eloquent  in  their  praise. 
"  I  found,"  he  said,  "  from  the  first  time  that  I  had  an  inter- 
view with  them  on  this  subject  to  the  very  end,  a  novel, 
intelligent,  and  eager  interest  in  this  scheme  ;  and  they 
did  all  in  their  power  to  promote  its  efficiency."  But  in 
dealing  with  the  doctrinal  clauses  of  the^original  trust- 
deed  the  Commissioners  felt  some  scruple  in  modifying 
the  provisions  to  the  extent  that  was  desired.  They  felt 
bound  to  retain  some  of  the  clauses  to  which  objection  had 
been  taken.  Finally,  a  compromise  was  effected  which 
gave  a  larger  freedom  to  the  Trustees  and  the  Professors 
than  they  had  hitherto  enjoyed,  and  in  the  cases  of  the 
students  and  the  committee  the  doctrinal  conditions  were 
abolished.  With  this  concession  the  advocates  of  freedom 
had  to  be  content.1 

As  soon  as  the  preliminary  arrangements  were  at  an 
end,  an  excellent  site  was  secured  on  the  cricket-ground 
of  Merton  College.  Mr.  Basil  Champneys  was  appointed 
architect;  and  building  operations  began   in  April   1887. 

1  The  original  trust-deed  contained  the  following  declaration  of  faith  : 
[He]  ' '  shall  profess  and  declare,  by  writing  under  his  hand,  that  he  is  a 
Dissenter  from  the  Established  Church,  that  he  believes  in  the  unity  of  the 
Divine  nature,  the  divinity  of  Christ,  the  Atonement  made  by  His  death  for 
sin,  the  divinity  and  personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  necessity  of  the 
Spirit's  influence  for  the  illumination  of  the  understanding  and  the  renovation 
of  the  heart,  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  the  Divine 
appointment  of  Infant  Baptism."     This  declaration  was  required  of  (i)  Tutors, 

(2)  Trustees,  (3)  Students  on  the  Foundation — who,  however,  were  allowed 
by  explicit  regulation  from  the  first  to  make  the  declaration  in  their  own 
language.  (The  Professors,  as  will  appear  later,  assumed  the  same  privilege. ) 
A  similar  declaration  was  required  of  (4)  the  members  of  the  College  Com- 
mittee, but  omitting  the  clauses  relating  to  Dissent  from  the  Established 
Church,  and  to  the  Divine  appointment  of  Infant  Baptism. 

The  declaration  of  faith  now  required  by  the  amended  scheme  of 
(1)  Professors,  (2)  Trustees,  is  as  follows :  [He]  "shall  declare  in  writing  under 
his  hand  that  he  believes  in  the  Unity  of  the  Godhead,  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Spirit,  in  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  in  the  Atonement  for  sin  made  by  His 
death,  and  in  man's  need  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  enlighten  his  mind  and  renew 
his  heart ;  that  he  believes  the  Holy  Scriptures  to  contain  a  revelation  of 
God's  grace  to  man,  and  the  rule  of  man's  faith  and  duty  to  God  ;  and  that 
he  accepts  and  approves  the  practice  of  Infant  Baptism.  He  shall  also  declare 
that  he  is  a  Dissenter  from  the  Established  Church." 

A  Professor  or  a  Trustee  is  now  explicitly  allowed  to  make  the  declaration 
in  such  form  of  words  as  he  shall  think  proper,  and  which  shall  be  approved 
of  by  the  Educational  Board.     No  doctrinal  declaration  is  now  required  of 

(3)  Students,  (4)  members  of  Committee. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  499 

The  plans  included  a  Principal's  house,  a  College  Library 
and  Lecture-rooms  in  the  west  wing  ;  a  College  Chapel  in 
the  east  wing ;  and  in  the  main  block  of  buildings  a 
Dining  Hall,  two  Common  Rooms,  and  accommodation 
for  the  resident  members  of  the  staff.1  Meanwhile,  for 
three  years,  during  the  progress  of  the  works,  rooms  were 
hired  in  the  High  Street,  opposite  All  Souls'  and  close  to 
St.  Mary's — not  without  historical  associations  ;  for  they 
had  been  occupied  by  Charles  I.  during  the  siege  of  Oxford, 
and  had  been  used  by  the  Union  Society  in  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's undergraduate  days  when  he  declaimed  against  the 
Reform  Bill  of  1832.  Dr.  Fairbairn  was  appointed 
Principal,  and  entered  upon  his  duties  in  October  1886. 

The  buildings  were  finished  and  ready  for  use  in 
October  1889.  The  opening  ceremonies  were  attended 
by  several  of  the  most  eminent  members  of  the  university, 
and  by  supporters  of  the  college  from  all  parts  of  the 
country — one  might  almost  say  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  ;  for  the  United  States  of  America  and  the  Australian 
colonies  were  represented  by  men  of  distinction.  Dr. 
Fairbairn  delivered  an  inaugural  lecture  ;  Dale  preached 
the  first  sermon  in  the  college  chapel.  Those  who  spoke 
at  other  meetings  in  the  name  of  Oxford — Dr.  Jowett,  the 
Master  of  Balliol  ;  Dr.  Fowler,  the  President  of  Corpus 
Christi  ;  and  Dr.  Jackson,  the  Rector  of  Exeter  College — 
were  most  cordial  in  the  welcome  which  they  gave  to  Dr. 
Fairbairn  and  his  colleagues  ;  and  Dr.  Hatch,  who  had 
supported  the  scheme  with  enthusiasm  from  the  first, 
declared  that  the  college  had  come  to  give  as  well  as  to 
gain  :  that  it  would  pour  a  stream  of  Evangelical  life  into 
the  university,  and  would  show  the  possibility  of  a  vigorous 

1  No  undergraduates'  rooms  were  provided,  for  Mansfield  was  not  intended 
to  be  a  residential  college  on  the  model  of  Keble  College,  Oxford,  or  Selwyn 
College,  Cambridge.  The  design  of  its  founders  was  that  its  members  should  be 
graduates  of  Oxford,  or  men  pursuing  their  literary  course  either  in  connection 
with  the  existing  colleges  or  as  unattached  students  of  the  university.  It  was 
established  to  give  a  theological,  not  a  literary  training ;  to  supplement,  not 
to  supersede,  the  work  of  the  university.  Its  students  are  not  cut  off  from 
the  social  life  of  the  place  ;  and  so  far  from  being  "consecrated  to  separation," 
it  is  "devoted  to  communion."  The  college  takes  its  name  from  the  Mans- 
field family  by  which  Spring  Hill  had  been  founded. 


500  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

Christianity  which  believes  in  Christ  and  yet  is  not  sacer- 
dotal. The  Times  expressed  approval  of  the  founda- 
tion of  the  college.  The  Guardian  said  that  it  was  to  be 
welcomed  in  the  interests  alike  of  the  university  and  of 
the  Church  of  England. 

If  it  is  impossible  for  Christians  to  be  one,  it  is  at  least 
something  that  they  should  know  why  they  are  many.  A 
theologically  instructed  Nonconformity  may  be  no  nearer  to  the 
Church ;  but  it  will,  at  least,  exert  a  better  influence  upon  the 
Church  from  which  it  stands  apart. 

The  letters  at  the  end  of  the  chapter  illustrate  Dale's 
part  in  the  enterprise.  He  continued  to  act  as  Chairman 
of  the  Council  and  of  the  Educational  Board  for  several 
years,  having  been  overruled  in  his  desire  that  a  younger 
man — with  superior  qualifications,  as  he  thought,  for  the 
work — should  take  his  place.  When  at  length  broken 
health  compelled  him  to  resign  office,  and  to  insist  that 
his  resignation  should  be  accepted,  it  was  a  painful  wrench. 
He  felt,  he  said,  as  if  he  had  lost  a  limb. 


To  his  Wife 

6(k  December  1884. 

I  saw  Hope,  one  of  the  Charity  Commissioners,  this  morning, 
and  had  from  him  the  informal  assurance  that  the  Commissioners 
grant  us  substantially  all  we  ask  for — removal  to  Oxford,  abolition 
of  residence,  abolition  of  non-theological  Chairs.  It  is  a  great 
business ;  one  of  the  greatest  that  I  have  ever  had  a  hand  in, 
and  it  means  much  anxious  work  for  the  next  two  years. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Fairbairn 

17//*  December  1884. 

We  have  had  a  meeting  of  the  Committee  of  Spring  Hill  this 
afternoon,  and  everything  has  gone  well.  The  minority  have 
accepted  the  position,  and  will,  I  believe,  work  heartily  with  us  in 
carrying  the  business  through.  The  trustees  will  be  called  together 
immediately,  and  will,  I  hope,  appoint  a  joint-committee  to  act  on 
their  behalf  with  the  Commissioners  in  proposing  a  scheme.     I 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  501 

have  made  a  discovery  this  evening  which  I  wish  I  had  made  a 
year  ago.  It  is  clear  to  me  now  that  by  signing  a  declaration 
of  belief  the  original  Deed  does  not  mean  signing  the  definitions 
— does  not  mean  this  exclusively — but  allows  an  equivalent 
statement  to  be  drawn  up  in  the  words  of  the  signer.  The 
Deed  requires  the  candidates  for  admission  to  sign  "  the  like 
declaration  "  with  professors,  trustees,  and  committee-men  ;  under 
the  power  given  to  the  committee  to  frame  General  Regulations, 
they  explicitly  provided — the  first  committee  did  it — that  candi- 
dates for  admission  might  make  the  declaration  in  their  own 
words  :  the  first  theological  professor  did  the  same. 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mackennae 

14///  March  1885. 

You  have  heard,  no  doubt,  of  our  scheme  for  removing  Spring 
Hill  to  Oxford.  The  heads  of  the  new  constitution  have  been 
agreed  upon,  and  are  now  before  the  Charity  Commissioners. 
They  are  prepared  to  concede  all  the  main  points.  I  enclose 
an  outline  of  it.  In  relation  to  the  education  of  our  own 
ministry  and  to  the  religious  future  of  Oxford  this  movement 
has  immense  importance.  If  it  is  begun  well,  it  will  by  God's 
blessing  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  time.  Fairbairn  is  invited 
to  be  Principal  and  Professor  of  Dogma.  I  think  he  will 
accept :  indeed  I  should  never  have  gone  so  far  with  the 
scheme  unless  I  had  had  the  strongest  reason  for  believing  that 
he  would. 

We  have  found  an  admirable  site  which  I  hope  will  be 
purchased,  just  under  the  shadow  of  Magdalen  tower.1 

Can  I  get  some  money  for  the  buildings  at  Bowdon  ?  I 
would  come  and  expound  the  scheme  to  any  men  you  could 
get  together.  It  is  a  great  sum  to  raise,  and  I  am  a  poor 
beggar.  But  I  am  relying  very  much  on  your  sympathy  and 
support. 

2.0th  June  1885. 

The  Commissioners  are  very  nervous  about  touching  the 
doctrinal  declaration.  We  have  asked  for  two  things — (1)  the 
modification  of  the  creed  itself.  It  is  really  not  a  close  and 
narrow  one.  The  list  of  doctrines  is  not  a  long  one ;  it  is  not 
touched  with  Calvinism  ;  and  with  two  exceptions  it  is  simply 

1  Afterwards  abandoned. 


502  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

an  enumeration  not  a  definition  of  belief.  The  exceptions  are 
the  phrases  "  plenary  inspiration  "  and  the  "  Divine  authority  of 
Infant  Baptism."  About  the  second  I  cannot  quite  see  the 
difficulty.  Unless  we  have  Divine  authority,  direct  or  mediate 
— in  apostolic  precedent  or  positive  precept — I  cannot  see  why 
we  baptize  children  at  all.  However,  the  difficulty  has  been 
felt  and  we  ask  for  a  modification. 

The  definition  contained  in  the  clause  about  inspiration  is 
more  serious.  We  have  taken  almost  the  same  words  as  were 
used  by  the  first  Professor  of  Dogmatics  who  was  appointed  by 
the  original  founders,  and  asked  to  insert  them  instead  of  "plenary 
inspiration."     The  question  is  still  undetermined. 

(2)  We  ask  for  an  explicit  statement  in  the  Scheme  that  every 
one  making  the  declaration  may  make  it  in  his  own  words.  This 
we  are,  I  hope,  likely  to  get.  By  express  regulation  the  students 
have  this  liberty ;  by  usage  beginning  with  the  appointment  of 
the  original  Professor,  the  Professors  have  it.  I  told  the  Com- 
missioner with  whom  we  have  had  specially  to  do,  that  even  if 
they  did  not  put  this  in  the  Scheme  we  should  certainly  follow 
the  usage  of  the  college.  .  .  .  There  is  nothing,  I  think,  at  issue 
between  the  Commissioners  and  ourselves  except  the  doctrinal 
question. 

As  to  my  going — how  can  I  leave  Birmingham  ?  Had  I 
entertained  any  purpose  of  going — indeed  had  I  thought  it  were 
possible — I  could  never  have  touched  the  project. 


To  his  Wife 

$lh  October  1S85. 

I  had  a  very  cold  journey  to  Manchester ;  but  the  luncheon 
was  excellent  and  made  one  forget  the  journey.  .  .  .  There  were 
fifty  or  sixty  there,  and  I  think  we  have  got  down  the  lines  for  a 
very  good  haul ;  but  it  will  be  necessary  to  see  some  of  the  men 
privately.  The  feeling  was  excellent.  The  following  promises 
were  made:  —  Abraham  Haworth,  ^1000;  Jesse  Haworth, 
^"999;  Henry  Lee,  ^500;  Fisher,  ^100;  Crewdson,  £50. 
...  I  think  we  shall  get  ^5000  out  of  Manchester  before  we 
have  done.  Lee  announced  himself  as  almost  converted : 
Professor  Wilkins  described  himself  as  a  "converted  sceptic." 
Dill,  the  Head-master  of  the  Manchester  Grammar  School — an 
Oxford  man — made  a  most  effective  speech  for  us.  I  have 
heard  from  Edward  Spicer;  he  will  have  a  gathering  at  his 
house  in  three  or  four  weeks'  time,  but  cannot  have  it  this  side 
of  Sunday. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  503 

To  Mrs.  J.  J.  Colman 

October  1886. 

You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  we  had  a  most  successful  open- 
ing day  at  Oxford  on  Monday.  Everything  went  off  as  well  as 
one  could  desire.  The  devout  seriousness  of  the  day  was  very 
remarkable,  and  was  full  of  promise  for  the  future.  The  new 
men  whom  we  admitted  made  a  most  favourable  impression. 
They  are  scholars  and  gentlemen,  and  their  religious  life  seemed 
very  true  and  Christian.  To  me  it  seemed  like  a  fair  dream. 
It  was  hard  to  believe  that  what  I  had  been  working  and  praying 
for,  sometimes  in  the  presence  of  great  difficulties,  had  really 
come,  and  come  so  soon. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Fairbairn 

yh  February  1887. 

I  think  that  the  proposal 1  requires  a  little  consideration.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Champneys  might  suggest  the  Apostles — if  he  can  think  of 
nothing  better — adding  that  it  would  be  well  to  get  the  Building 
Committee  to  look  at  the  subject.  It  seems  to  me  to  be  hardly 
in  our  line.  I  should  like  rather  some  other  group  of  twelve, 
e.g.  four  great  theologians  of  the  Catholic  Church,  including 
the  East  and  the  West,  e.g.  Augustine,  Athanasius,  Chrysostom, 
and  Gregory ;  then  the  English  Augustine,  and  Wyclif,  Luther, 
and  Calvin  ;  Cartwright,  Robinson,  Owen,  and  Howe.  What  do 
you  think  of  that  scheme  ?  ^  Or  striking  out  Chrysostom  and 
Gregory,  there  might  be  A  Kempis  and  Aquinas.  Other 
variations  are  possible. 

2nd  January  1888. 

Yes :  I  see  I  did  suggest  Hooker ;  and  I  have  now  recovered 
the  point  of  view  which  suggested  him,  and  I  am  willing  to  keep 
him  ;  but  if  we  cannot  get  Goodwin  in  without  parting  with  the 
"  Judicious  "  let  him  go. 
For  the  door  2 — 

Origen 
Athanasius  Augustine. 


1  For  statues  in  the  chapel. 

2  The  door  of  the  main  entrance  to  the  chapel.  The  scroll  in  Augustine's 
hand  bears  one  of  Dale's  favourite  mottoes:  "Da  quod  jubes  et  jube  quod 
vis."      ("  Give  what  Thou  biddest,  and  bid  what  Thou  wilt.") 


504  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 


6th  June 


As  I  understand,  the  stone  platform  is  provided  for  in 
the  contract.  What  is  necessary,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  a  very 
simple  Communion  table,  and  a  chair  and  reading-desk.  If  the 
wall  at  the  end  of  the  chapel  requires  some  treatment,  I  think 
that  temporarily,  at  least,  some  very  inexpensive  method  might 
be  adopted  which  would  suggest  that  it  is  provisional.  I  had 
the  impression  that  part  of  the  platform  was  intended  for  the 
choir,  and  am  not  sure  how  this  is  to  be  carried  out,  if  the 
canopied  stalls  are  adopted  as  shown  in  the  plan. 

What  I  feel  is  this:  with  a  possible  expenditure  of  £45,000 
we  have  .  .  .  .£38,500  in  round  figures.  This  leaves  £6500 
to  be  got  between  now  and  October.  Accept  the  canopied-stall 
proposal,  and  we  throw  up  the  amount  to  £7000 ;  and  my  own 
impression  is  that  an  unnecessary  expenditure  of  this  magnitude 
will  do  us  harm — and  ought  to  do  us  harm.  It's  pleasant  to 
wear  diamonds  if  we  can  pay  for  them  ;  but  not  if  we  have  to 
run  into  debt  for  them. 

26th  June  1889. 

I  was  dismayed  when  Albert  Spicer  told  me  that  it  was  pro- 
posed to  put  the  pulpit  at  the  corner  of  the  platform.  I  always 
understood  that  we  were  to  have  a  desk  in  the  middle  at  the 
front,  and  that  for  the  Communion  service  it  would  be  pushed 
aside.  For  us  to  have  a  pulpit  so  placed  as  to  leave  the  "  altar  " 
visible  to  the  congregation  is  nothing  less  than  a  scandal ;  and 
to  put  the  preacher  to  speak  cross-wise  for  the  sake  of  this  is 
not  only  to  dishonour  the  function  of  preaching  but  to  impair 
its  efficiency. 

$t  h  July  1889. 

If  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  voice  cannot  be  heard  except 
from  the  corner,  cadit  quaestio  ;  but  it  is  a  miserable  humiliation 
that  we  have  not  been  able  to  build  a  little  place  like  that  fit 
for  its  main  purpose.  I  wonder  what  would  be  said  of  architect 
and  building  committee,  if  after  they  had  erected  a  concert  hall, 
a  fiddler  could  be  heard  only  when  he  stood  in  a  corner. 


2,1st  January  1889. 

I  will  come  to  Oxford   before  very  long.       I  can  very  fully 
sympathise   with    your    feeling   of  loneliness   and   unshared   re- 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  505 

sponsibility.  But  that  is  the  fate,  my  dear  friend,  of  most  men 
who  are  charged  with  special  work  which  leads  them  into  new 
and  unknown  regions ;  and  while  there  is  something  depressing 
in  the  solitude,  there  is  something  exhilarating  in  the  conscious- 
ness which  expresses  itself  in  "  God  and  I  are  alive." 


iWiJuly  1889. 

If  there  is  a  lunch  [at  the  opening  of  the  college  buildings]  it 
ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  Building  Committee.  ...  I 
have  a  strong  dislike  to  inviting  second-rate,  third-rate  states- 
men.    Playfair,  I  thought  of,  on  educational  grounds  only.     

or would  be  a  fly  in  the  pot  of  ointment.     Nor  indeed  do 

I  care  to  have  statesmen  at  all.  What  have  we  to  do  with  them 
or  they  with  us  ?  If  the  troubles  had  not  come,  we  might  have 
invited  Mr.  Gladstone  ;  but  even  four  years  ago  I  should  have 
felt  that  such  an  invitation  would  have  been  undesirable.  There 
is  a  want  of  self-respect  in  asking  such  men  to  come.     And  to 

have  or  would   be  still  more  humiliating.      Don't 

imagine  that  this  is  any  fresh  feeling  of  mine.  Years  ago  I  felt 
a  kind  of  scorn  for  this  kind  of  thing  when  it  happened  with  us. 

It  is  petty  toadying ;  and  and are  such  very  small 

toads. 


21  st  July  1889. 

Thanks  for  your  letter.  We  are  well  rid  of  the  politicians.  I 
am  afraid  that  it  would  not  occur  to  the  ordinary  worldly  mind 
that  we  had  invited  them  to  do  them  good.  It  certainly  would 
not  occur  to  them. 


17/A  October  1889. 

In  the  hurry  of  Tuesday  and  Wednesday  I  had  no  opportunity 
of  saying  what  I  want  to  say  about  your  address  on  Tuesday 
morning.  With  all  my  heart  I  thank  God  for  the  grace  that 
was  given  you.  You  will  have  heard  much  from  others  about 
its  power  and  brilliance ;  but  for  me  these  were  not  its  chief 
merits.  It  would  have  been  so  easy  to  make  a  mistake.  Some 
fault  of  temper  was  almost  inevitable — but  there  was  none.  It 
was  more  than  all  that  those  who  love  you  best  and  care  most 
for  Mansfield  hoped  for.  And  now  I  trust  that  in  the  quieter 
work  the  same  full  and  abundant  blessing  of  God  may  rest  on 
you.     I  could  not  help  saying  this. 


506  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Fisher 

14/5  April  1890. 

It  was  a  very  great  pleasure  to  me  to  receive  your  letter  and  to 
find  that  my  deliverance  at  the  opening  of  Mansfield  had  secured 
the  approval  of  one  for  whose  judgment  I  have  so  great  a  re- 
spect. It  was  a  memorable  time ;  how  I  wish  that  you  had 
been  there  !  And  everything  is  going  as  well  as  it  could  go — 
excepting  that  we  sorely  need  a  much  larger  income.  The 
success  of  the  chapel  services  surprises  us.  The  men  whom 
we  are  receiving  as  students  are,  for  the  most  part,  able  and 
earnest ;  and  they  are  all  far  in  advance  educationally  of  the 
run  of  candidates  for  our  ministry  for  many  years  past.  Fair- 
bairn's  energy  and  fire  are  wonderful ;  but  I  sometimes  tremble 
for  him.  God  has  given  him  many  things,  but  has  withheld  that 
kind  of  wisdom  which  would  restrain  his  work  within  reasonable 
limits.  .  .  .  Hatch's  death  was  a  great  loss  every  way — specially 
great  to  us  at  Mansfield.  He  was  the  man  in  the  university  on 
whom  we  could  most  rely.  He  spoke  to  me  of  the  sermon,  as 
I  came  out  of  the  pulpit,  with  an  emotion  that  touched  me  a 
great  deal. 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Fairbairn 

[1890?] 

[I  have  desired  for  some  time  to  withdraw  from  the  Chair- 
manship, and  have  come  to  the]  conclusion  that  Mackennal 
would  be  the  best  man  [to  take  my  place].  There  are  very 
many  reasons  for  this.  He  is  younger  than  I  am  ;  he  has  great 
influence  with  our  people,  and  especially  with  those  of  them  who 
can  do  most  to  help  us ;  and  he  has  more  mental  flexibility 
than  I  have,  and  would,  I  think,  be  more  likely  than  I  am  to 
work  Mansfield  in  the  lines  in  which  it  is  destined  to  go ;  he 
would  do  it,  I  mean,  with  more  of  prescient  sympathy.  His 
affection  and  regard  for  you,  though  not  greater  than  mine,  would 
ensure  his  working  with  you  very  happily  and  harmoniously. 
These  are  some  of  the  grounds  on  which  I  want  to  see  him  in 
the  Chair  ;  it  is  a  matter  of  which  I  have  thought  a  good  deal 
during  the  last  six  months.  Now  my  friends  are  so  kind  that 
they  would,  I  know,  be  unwilling  to  propose  a  change ;  and  they 
may  be  even  reluctant  to  accept  one.  But  if  you  and  I  are 
agreed  we  can  carry  it,  and  it  promises  much  for  Mansfield. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  507 


itfhjutte  1894. 

Thank  you  very  much  for  your  affectionate  letter.  It  is 
absolutely  clear  to  me — and  has  been  for  a  long  time — that  it 
was  necessary  for  me  to  resign  my  responsibilities  in  connection 
with  Mansfield ;  but  when  it  was  done  I  felt  like  a  man  who  has 
lost  a  limb — there  was  a  great  deal  less  of  me. 

I  appreciate  very  gratefully  your  desire  to  invent  some  posi- 
tion for  me  by  which  I  might  be  retained  in  visible  connection 
with  the  college ;  but  I  do  not  think  it  possible ;  I  take  the  will 
for  the  deed.  I  cannot  imagine  any  post  which  it  would  become 
the  college  to  create  for  a  person  like  myself. 


CHAPTER    XX 

THE    DISCIPLINE   OF    SORROW 

Management  of  the  church — Mr.  Mander's  impressions — Pastoral  oversight — 
A  life  of  labour — Methods  of  work — Preparation  and  delivery  of  sermons 
— A  Birmingham  presentation — The  Glasgow  degree — The  D.D.  and 
LL.  D.  degrees — Death  of  his  brother — Death  of  his  youngest  daughter 
— Letters  in  sorrow — Illness  and  recovery — Miscellaneous  letters. 

The  preceding  chapters  of  this  book  have  been  concerned 
almost  entirely  with  Dale's  public  activity  ;  a  few  words 
should  be  said  about  the  personal  side  of  his  work.  The 
letters  which  for  the  sake  of  convenience  have  been  col- 
lected at  the  end  of  this  chapter,  tell  their  own  story  with 
sufficient  clearness.  But  it  may  be  well  to  point  out  one 
or  two  facts  that  might  otherwise  escape  notice. 

It  is  often  assumed  that  ministers  of  prominence  and 
power  are  exempt  from  the  difficulties  and  annoyances 
that  beset  their  less  successful  brethren  ;  that  they  can 
take  their  own  course  in  the  direction  of  church  affairs, 
and  can  disregard  the  prejudices  and  the  whims — and  even 
the  convictions — of  church  officers  and  church  members. 
A  strong  man,  no  doubt,  can  force  his  way  through 
obstacles  if  he  so  chooses,  but  by  doing  so  he  will  not 
strengthen  the  life  of  his  church,  nor  will  he  increase  his 
influence  for  good.  His  people  will  give  way  ;  but  ac- 
quiescence is  not  sympathy,  and  they  will  do  grudgingly 
what  they  might  have  done  with  cheerfulness  and  en- 
thusiasm. Dale  had  learnt  from  his  earlier  experience 
how  much  may  be  effected  by  patience  and  conciliation. 
Even  in  matters  about  which  he  greatly  cared  he  was 
willing   to   wait — to   wait   for    years    if   needs    be.      Ten 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  509 

years  he  did  not  think  too  long,  if  he  could  bring  the 
church  to  do  what  he  felt  to  be  the  right  thing  and  to  do 
it  in  the  right  way.  And  while  he  was  not  to  be  turned 
from  his  course  in  what  touched  the  substance  of  his 
preaching,  he  was  always  ready  to  explain  the  principles 
by  which  he  was  guided,  and  in  the  details  of  the  service 
to  meet,  so  far  as  he  could,  the  wishes  of  those  to  whom 
he  ministered.  If  it  happened,  as  it  often  did,  that  the 
objection  or  the  demand  was  unreasonable,  he  did  his  best 
to  conciliate  where  concession  was  impossible. 

Mr.  Mander,  who  was  one  of  his  deacons  for  forty 
years,  points  out  some  of  the  secrets  of  his  success. 

His  wisdom  was  conspicuous  in  the  government  of  the  church.  Mr-  E- 
Among  nine  hundred  and  more  members  there  are  sure  to  be  *"  er* 
some  more  or  less  awkward  to  manage.  He  allowed  more  free- 
dom of  discussion  than  we  had  been  used  to.  He  listened  to 
suggestions  with  a  willing  ear.  He  encouraged  speech  among 
those  who  had  long  been  silent.  He  was  easy  of  access,  and 
able  to  see  imperfections  if  pointed  out  by  another.  All  these 
things  may  account  for  the  unbroken  harmony  which  prevailed 
through  so  many  years.  He  ruled  indeed,  but  it  was  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  gracious  lady  described  by  Pope— who 

If  she  rules  him  never  shows  she  rules  ; 
Charms  by  accepting  ;  by  submitting  sways. 

...  I  loved  him  for  his  charity.  I  was  struck  by  it  first  of 
all  in  his  treatment  of  the  poor  when  coming  into  the  church. 
To  the  surprise  of  some,  but  to  the  delight  of  nearly  all,  no 
distinction  was  made  between  those  who  came  from  wealthy  and 
those  from  lowly  dwellings.  The  poor  were  never  reminded  of 
their  poverty  and  the  hindrances  it  placed  in  their  way,  nor  the 
rich — when  there  happened  to  be  such — of  the  more  abundant 
service  they  could  render.  The  difference  between  the  two 
classes  never  appeared  to  be  recognised. 

The  importance  that  he  attached  to  the  pastoral  rela- 
tion grew  with  years.  To  see  much  of  his  people  in  their 
homes  as  they  became  more  and  more  widely  dispersed, 
was  altogether  beyond  his  power.  But  he  was  regularly 
to  be  found  in  his  vestry  at  Carr's  Lane  on  fixed  evenings 
to  see  any  one  who  wished  to  consult  him  ;  and  those  who 


510  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

wrote  to  him  never  failed  to  receive  an  answer.  Indeed, 
he  did  much  by  his  letters  to  keep  up  intimate  relations 
with  many  members  of  the  church  and  with  others  who 
had  left  the  town  and  had  passed  away  into  churches  else- 
where. His  letters  were  often  brief,  but  they  always  had 
a  word  of  exhortation,  encouragement,  or  consolation  for 
the  inner  life.  In  later  as  in  earlier  years,  he  could  break 
through  the  reserve  which  he  never  wholly  lost,  more  easily 
in  writing  than  in  speech  ;  and  those  to  whom  he  wrote 
very  often  came  closer  to  him  than  those  whom  he  met 
and  talked  with  every  day. 

Work  on  such  a  scale,  so  continuous,  so  many-sided, 
could  not  have  been  accomplished  without  system  and 
rule,  or  without  sacrifice.  Dale  took  life  seriously  :  he  was 
severe  with  himself,  and  resolutely  turned  his  back  on 
many  pleasant  things  that  he  might  give  himself  to  duty 
without  reserve.  In  1868,  when  he  was  beginning  to  feel 
the  increasing  pressure  of  public  work,  he  removed  from 
Calthorpe  Road,  where  he  had  been  living  for  several 
years  after  Mr.  James's  death,  to  Winterslow  House 1  in 
the  Bristol  Road.  His  new  home  was  larger  and  more 
convenient  than  the  old.  It  had  a  pleasant  garden  with 
fields  beyond.  But  it  was  not  this  that  drew  him  there. 
It  lessened  his  distractions.  Calthorpe  Road  was  too 
accessible  to  the  casual  caller,  and  it  was  not  always  easy 
to  refuse  to  see  those  who  came,  even  if  the  business  that 
brought  them  was  of  trivial  importance.  As  he  grew 
older  he  hardened  his  heart,  and  during  the  morning  hours 
his  study  was  obdurately  closed  against  intrusion.  But 
he  found  it  unpleasant  to  give  offence  to  people  who  did 
not  understand  that  serious  work  cannot  be  put  aside  and 
taken  up  again  at  pleasure,  and  he  determined  to  protect 
himself  by  other  means.  Bristol  Road  lay  remote  from 
the  main  current  of  social  life,  and  with  the  change  the 
number  of  callers  was  lessened  by  at  least  a  half. 

The  afternoon  was  spent  as  a  rule  in  committees.     The 

1  Winterslow,  on  the  edge  of  Salisbury  Plain,  had  been  the  early  home 
of  Mrs.  Dale's  father.  The  little  inn  there,  Winterslow  Hut,  was  a  favourite 
resort  of  William  Hazlitt  and  his  friends. 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  511 

evening,  if  free  from  public  engagements,  was  jealously 
reserved  for  study.  He  dined  early  until  his  doctors 
ordered  him  to  change  his  way  of  living,  and  his  habit  was 
to  work  for  three  hours  before  supper  and  for  another  hour 
or  more  after  it.  Very  rarely  would  he  consent  to  dine 
out.  He  saw  his  friends  either  at  the  Club  in  the  interval 
between  one  engagement  and  another,  or  more  frequently 
in  business  and  in  council.  It  was  only  now  and  then 
that  he  allowed  himself  to  break  through  his  rule,  or  that 
the  welcome  visit  of  a  friend  warranted  an  evening's  leisure. 
But  he  did  not  lose  his  taste  for  society,  and  revelled  in 
freedom  when  it  came. 

Even  this  rigid  self-denial,  this  strenuous  thrift  of  time, 
would  not  have  carried  him  through  his  work  without 
method  and  the  faculty,  sedulously  cultivated,  of  com- 
manding his  whole  intellectual  force  at  will.  Rapidity  of 
work,  within  certain  limits,  he  regarded  as  essential  to 
efficiency.  To  spend  three  hours  on  a  task  that  could 
be  done  in  two,  and  well  done,  he  held  to  be  not  only 
a  waste  of  time  but  injurious  to  the  mind.  Another 
habit  saved  him  much  labour.  He  refers  to  it  in  his 
lectures  to  the  students  at  Yale. 

Always  have  your  note-sheets  on  your  desk.  Whatever  you 
are  reading  —  theology,  philosophy,  history,  poetry,  fiction, 
biography,  science — may  at  any  moment  give  you  something 
that  will  be  of  use  in  the  pulpit.  Sometimes  you  will  get  a  sub- 
ject for  a  sermon,  sometimes  a  strong,  epigrammatic  statement 
of  a  great  ethical  truth  which  you  will  be  glad  to  quote,  some- 
times a  felicitous  illustration.  Do  not  be  satisfied  with  recording 
a  mere  reference  to  the  page  of  the  book  where  you  have  found 
anything  that  you  mean  to  use,  or  with  simply  indicating  the 
subject  or  the  line  of  thought  which  the  book  has  suggested. 
Develop  the  illustration  so  that  it  may  be  almost  ready  to  be 
transferred  to  your  sermon  when  you  want  it.  Indicate  in  your 
"  notes  "  briefly,  but  distinctly,  how  the  subject,  or  the  line  of 
thought,  which  has  occurred  to  you  should  be  treated.  Write 
out  the  sentence  at  length  which  you  mean  to  quote,  and  as  you 
write  it,  you  will  probably  think  of  an  effective  "  setting  "  for  it — 
something  will  occur  to  you  that  will  naturally  lead  up  to  it.   .   .   . 

Read  the  Bible,  as  well  as  other  books,  with  your  note-sheets 
at  hand.  .   .   .   Half  an  hour's  reading  will  often  give  you  the 


512  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

substance  of  three  or  four  sermons.  Instead  of  hunting  for  a 
text  or  a  subject  when  Sunday  is  coming  near,  you  will  only 
have  to  turn  to  the  drawer  in  which  your  notes  are  kept,  and 
you  will  find  a  score  of  sermons  half  ready.  Two  or  three  sets 
of  notes  will  sometimes  run  naturally  together  into  one  discourse, 
and  in  using  them  you  will  have  hardly  anything  to  do  except 
to  prepare  an  introduction  and  a  conclusion.  Sometimes  such 
light  and  fire  will  suddenly  flash  out  of  a  sentence  or  a  phrase 
that  a  whole  sermon  will  come  to  you  at  once,  and  you  will  be 
able  to  transfer  to  your  notes  the  rough  outline  of  an  effective 
discourse.1 

This  reference  to  pulpit  work  brings  to  mind  Dale's 
method  of  preparation.  One  must  distinguish — and  the 
distinction  has  been  often  disregarded  —  between  the 
sermons  delivered  on  special  occasions  and  the  sermons 
preached  to  his  own  people  in  the  ordinary  course  of  his 
ministry  ;  for  although  the  substance  of  his  thought  served 
him  for  both  purposes,  the  form  of  it  was  almost  always 
modified  according  to  the  circumstances  of  time  and  place. 
The  outline  of  his  sermons  was  carefully  prepared,  but  it 
was  seldom  that  the  sermons  preached  at  Carr's  Lane  were 
written  in  full.  Only  a  part — sometimes  three-quarters, 
sometimes  a  half — is  to  be  found  in  the  manuscript.  The 
opening  passages  are  the  most  complete  :  almost  invariably, 
after  the  middle  of  the  discourse  is  reached,  the  notes 
become  briefer ;  a  sentence  stands  for  a  paragraph,  and 
towards  the  close  a  sentence  is  represented  only  by  a  word. 
In  dealing  with  complex  subjects  he  wrote,  of  course,  at 
greater  length  ;  but  even  then  he  often  broke  away  from  the 
manuscript  into  unpremeditated  speech,  in  which  thought 
and  feeling  took  shape  as  they  came.  It  was  a  danger- 
ous habit,  for  sometimes  he  swamped  the  effect  of  his  careful 
meditation  with  a  sudden  torrent  of  eloquence,  the  rushing 
splendour  of  which  was  remembered  long  after  the  rest  of 
the  discourse  had  been  forgotten.  On  special  occasions — 
and  it  was  then  that  his  ways  were  observed  and  criticised 
— he  wrote  the  whole  except  the  conclusion  in  full,  and 
read  his  sermon  from  the  manuscript  without  disguise, 
shifting  the  little  sheets  from  left  to  right  as  he  proceeded. 

1  Lectures  on  Preaching,  pp.  119,  1 20. 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  513 

But  whether  he  wrote  at  length  or  not,  he  never 
failed  to  prepare  himself  carefully  before  entering  the 
pulpit ;  and  careful  preparation  means  conscientious 
work. 

One  precaution  in  his  activity  he  carefully  observed — 
to  have  always  on  hand,  even  in  the  study,  two  very 
different  forms  of  work.  Variety,  he  found,  kept  the  mind 
from  staleness  and  from  strain.  And,  so  far  as  he  could,  he 
arranged  to  combine  work  that  was  a  trouble  with  work 
that  was  a  pleasure,  so  giving  free  play  to  natural  tastes 
and  powers,  and  also  correcting  intellectual  defects  at  the 
same  time.  Such  methods  when  described  must  seem  to 
be  mechanical  ;  but  they  are  less  so  in  experience  than 
in  description.  All  habit  is  mechanical  in  a  greater  or  a 
less  degree  ;  its  value  is  that  it  enables  us  to  do  instinc- 
tively what  would  otherwise  involve  deliberate  effort.  It 
economises  energy.  And  in  this  discipline  of  the 
intellectual  powers  the  process  that  is  conscious  in  its 
beginning  soon  becomes  a  habit  and  establishes  itself  in 
the  character. 

His  life  had  been  singularly  laborious.  He  had  spent 
his  strength  without  reserve  in  the  service  of  the  church,  the 
city,  and  the  nation.  Now,  after  many  years  of  devotion, 
he  received  more  than  one  welcome  tribute  of  public 
gratitude.  After  he  retired  from  the  School  Board  in 
1880,  his  friends  in  Birmingham  presented  him  with  a 
costly  bookcase  filled  with  books  of  his  own  choosing  ; 
and  the  sincerity  and  affection  of  the  speeches  at  the 
presentation  were  even  more  precious  to  him  than  the 
magnificent  heirloom.1  Eighteen  months  later,  the  Uni- 
versity of  Glasgow,  during  Mr.  Bright's  Lord-Rectorship, 
made  him  a  Doctor  of  Laws.  The  honour  gave  him  real 
pleasure,  and  the  title  was  one  that  he  had  no  scruple  in 
using.  He  gave  the  following  account  of  the  ceremony  of 
admission  : — 

1  The  bookcase  bears  the  following  inscription  :  —  Presented  to  Robert 
William  Dale,  M.A.,  by  a  few  of  his  fellow-townsmen  on  the  occasion  of  his 
retirement  from  the  School  Board,  in  token  of  their  appreciation  of  eminent 
services  rendered  by  him  to  the  cause  of  liberty  and  progress  and  to  every 
department  of  the  public  life  of  this  town.  Birmingham,  1881. 
2  L 


514  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

To  his  Wife 

Glasgow,  23rd  March  1883. 

The  installation  was  a  very  fine  affair.  I  went  up  to  the 
University  at  a  quarter  to  eleven,  and  met  the  other  men  who 
were  to  have  the  Degree,  and  the  Professors.  They  had  carriages 
to  drive  us  down  to  St.  Andrew's  Hall.  I  went  down  with  Burn, 
the  Tutor  of  Trinity.1  At  the  Hall  we  were  put  into  our  gowns 
— black — and  the  red  hood  was  put  on  to  our  arms  to  carry. 
Bright  was  grand  in  his  robes — black  silk  and  gold.  The  Hall 
is  an  immense  place.  The  body  was  filled  with  students  with 
red  and  blue  caps — red  Liberal,  blue  Conservative.  The  plat- 
form was  occupied  with  Professors  and  other  great  people,  the 
galleries  with  visitors.  They  said  that  there  were  5000  or  6000 
people  in  the  Hall.  When  Bright  came  in  he  had  a  wonderful 
reception.  Then  Caird  2  read  a  Latin  prayer  which  the  students 
cheered.  Bright  was  made  doctor  first;  then  the  rest  of  us. 
The  Dean  made  a  little  Latin  speech  about  each  of  us ;  then 
Caird  put  the  velvet  cap  for  a  moment  on  the  top  of  our  head  ; 
then  the  Janitor  put  the  hood  over  our  shoulders.  The  Liberal 
students  gave  me  a  very  hearty  cheer.  You  have  seen  Bright's 
address ;  there  were  fine  passages  in  it,  but  it  was  not  the  old 
Bright.  We  were  driven  back  to  the  University  and  lunched. 
I  had  a  pleasant  time.  I  sat  next  Dr.  Dixon,  one  of  the  Pro- 
fessors, and  Lord  Shand,  a  Scotch  Judge.  ...  I  am  going  to 
see  Bright  receive  the  Freedom  of  the  City  this  morning,  and 
dine  at  Dr.  Goodrich's  this  evening. 

To  Mr.  E.  A.  Lawrence 

list  July  1893. 

Your  letter3  .  .  .  would,  I  think,  give  an  inaccurate  im- 
pression of  the  reason  why  I  have  not  used  my  Yale  degree.  It 
was  not  because  it  came  from  America,  but  because  I  have  a 
sentimental  objection  —  perhaps  it  is  something  more  —  to 
Divinity  degrees.  If  it  had  been  a  Doctorship  of  Laws  I  should 
have  used  it  as  I  use  my  Glasgow  degree.4     My  American  friends 

1  The  Rev.  Robert  Burn,  formerly  Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge  ;  author  of  Rome  and  the  Campagna. 

2  The  Rev.  John  Caird,  D.D.,  Principal  and  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Glasgow. 

3  The  letter  was  not  published. 

4  "I  have  no  scruples  about  the  LL.D.  as  I  had  about  the  D.D.  ;  and 
though  '  Mr.5  is  more  after  my  manner,  I  shall  yield  to  my  friends  and  be 
Dr.  R.  W.  Dale." — To  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers. 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  515 

have  been  rather  pained  by  my  not  using  it,  and  they  have  been 
pained  because  they  thought  that  I  did  not  value  it  because  it 
was  American.  I  have  tried  to  remove  this  error,  but,  I  am 
afraid,  not  very  successfully. 

Soon  after  these  honours  came  a  dark  and  stormy  time 
which  left  a  lasting  scar  upon  Dale's  life.  Early  in  the 
summer  of  1883,  his  only  brother,  Thomas  Dale,  died  at 
Cambridge  after  a  few  days'  illness.  He  had  taken  a  high 
degree — third  wrangler — in  the  Mathematical  Tripos  of 
1862.  He  was  elected  to  a  Trinity  Fellowship,  and 
settled  at  Cambridge,  where  he  won  a  considerable  reputa- 
tion as  a  "  coach "  and  as  a  college  lecturer.  He  lived 
with  his  pupils :  it  was  his  habit  to  spend  even  his  vaca- 
tions with  some  of  them  at  the  English  Lakes  or  in  Wales  ; 
and  he  took  no  part — so  engrossed  was  he  in  his  own 
work  —  in  college  or  university  administration.  But 
latterly  he  had  been  drawn  out  of  his  seclusion.  He  had 
given  up  his  pupils,  and  had  made  his  influence  felt  in  the 
reorganisation  of  the  educational  system  in  his  own  college. 
He  was  in  fact  just  entering  upon  an  entirely  new  field  of 
usefulness,  developing  qualities,  especially  in  debate,  with 
which  he  had  never  been  credited.  Dale  had  always 
loved  him  with  more  than  a  brother's  tenderness  ;  and  his 
pride  was  as  strong  as  his  affection. 

The  letters  that  passed  between  Dale  and  his  brother 
were  almost  all  destroyed  at  this  time.  Nothing  remains 
that  would  serve  to  illustrate  the  growth  of  affection 
or  to  indicate  the  nature  of  the  influence  which  each 
exerted  on  the  other.  All  that  can  be  said  is  that  their 
intimacy  was  close  and  unbroken.  But  widely  separated  as 
they  were  in  age,  they  had  none  of  those  early  associations 
— the  "  bright  hours,"  the  "  blissful  dreams  "  1 — on  which 

1  This  phrase  of  Keble's  recalls  the  fact  that  the  stanzas  in  which  it  occurs 
(S.  Andrew's  Day,  "  When  brothers  part  for  manhood's  race  ")  were  among 
Dale's  favourite  passages.  The  last  stanza — quoted  in  an  address  on  "  Friend- 
ship "  only  a  few  weeks  before  his  death — had  come  to  have  a  personal  note 
for  him : — 

That  so,  before  the  judgment-seat, 

Though  changed  and  glorified  each  face, 
Not  nnremembered  ye  may  meet, 
F01  endless  ages  to  embrace. 


Si6  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

memory  delights  in  later  years  to  dwell.  One  letter — the 
only  one  available — suggests  rather  than  expresses  the 
depth  and  the  strength  of  their  brotherly  love. 


To  Mr.  Thomas  Dale 

loth  December  1879. 

It  is  not  very  easy  to  believe  that  I  was  fifty  last  week ;  it  is 
still  harder  to  believe  that  you  will  be  forty  to-morrow.  But  I 
suppose  it  is  true,  and  it  is  a  great  thing  to  have  forty  years 
behind  you,  without  any  great  catastrophe  and  shame.  As  time 
goes  on,  I  think  I  feel  more  and  more  vividly  a  sense  of  relief 
when  those  I  love  are  safely  through  another  year  :  the  sense  of 
relief  is  still  keener  in  relation  to  myself,  for  I  suppose  every  man 
thinks  his  own  perils  greatest.  The  ice  cracks  in  such  unex- 
pected places — the  ship  is  so  apt  to  strike  on  rocks  when  the 
chart  gave  no  warning  of  them — that  mere  safety  seems  to  me  a 
much  greater  reason  for  thankfulness  than  it  used  to  be.  To  do 
some  great  thing  is  the  craving  of  early  ambition ;  to  do  quiet 
duty  honestly  and  without  serious  falls  satisfies  the  heart  when 
youth  disappears.  We  both  have  reason  to  rejoice  in  the 
humbler  satisfaction  ;  and  we  both  have  reason  to  be  grateful  for 
many  years  of  work  which  has  been  honourable  as  well  as  useful, 
and  which  has  brought  with  it  many  pleasures. 

For  you  I  trust  that  there  are  reserved  "  many  happy  returns  " 
of  to-morrow.  I  still  cherish  my  old  hope  that  you  will  be  able 
before  long  to  see  your  way  to  lessening  your  work,  or  rather,  to 
changing  it.  A  man  should  try,  if  he  can — and  you  have  the 
power — to  do  a  little  piece  of  fresh  work,  and  to  leave  something 
bearing  the  image  of  his  mind  behind  him. 

We  are  all  hoping  to  see  you  soon. 

The  possibility  of  outliving  his  brother  had  never 
occurred  to  Dale's  mind.  He  saw  him  in  his  last  illness, 
and  only  two  or  three  days  before  the  end,  without  any 
grave  alarm.  When  he  was  told  that  his  brother  was 
dead,  he  could  hardly  believe  it.  The  loss — so  sudden,  so 
unforeseen — absolutely  crushed  him.  He  seemed  like  a 
great  tree  torn  up  by  an  autumn  gale  and  clinging  to  the 
earth  with  only  half  its  roots.  He  poured  out  his  sorrow 
to  his  more  intimate  friends  with  unwonted  unreserve. 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  517 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Westcott1 

yd  July  1883. 

I  am  very  grateful  to  you  for  your  kind  words  about  my 
brother  and  for  your  friendly  sympathy.  He  had  a  high  esteem 
for  you,  and  to  him  your  recognition  of  his  power  and  worth,  and 
your  respect  for  his  memory — could  he  have  anticipated  them — 
would  have  been  very  precious.     They  are  precious  to  me. 

It  has  been  a  time  of  great  agony.  I  have  not  been  disci- 
plined to  die,  and  a  great  part  of  all  that  I  was  seems  to  have 
died  in  him.  For  a  time  I  had  no  relief;  but  at  last  in  the 
depth  of  my  anguish  Christ  revealed  to  me  in  quite  a  new  way 
that  He  is  my  brother's  Brother  and  mine.  It  is  in  the  eternal 
commonplaces  of  the  Faith  that  all  strength  lies,  and  all  consola- 
tion and  all  hope.  Other  forms  of  comfort  have  followed  the 
first. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

June  1883. 

.  .  .  One  element  of  great  sadness  comes  from  my  feeling 
that  he  was  just  entering  a  new  and  in  some  respects  larger  life, 
in  which  his  power  and  his  knowledge  would  have  produced 
wider  and  deeper  effects.  At  my  earnest  solicitation  he  had 
gradually  withdrawn  himself  from  private  pupils — over  whom, 
however,  he  had  in  many  cases  exerted  a  most  admirable  influ- 
ence— and  he  had  begun  to  make  himself  felt  in  college  affairs. 
His  great  personal  force,  his  fearlessness  and  tenacity,  had  just 
carried  through  important  reforms  in  the  educational  organisa- 
tion of  Trinity,  and  the  chief  reliance  of  those  who  had  followed 
his  lead  was  in  his  vigour  and  courage  for  putting  the  reforms 
into  practice.  I  have  little  doubt  that  in  a  very  short  time  his 
power  would  have  extended  from  Trinity  to  the  University 
generally  and  would  have  been  altogether  beneficial.  I  was 
hoping,  too,  that  with  his  escape  from  the  heavy  pressure  of 
coaching  he  would  begin  to  make  use  of  his  historical  knowledge, 
which  in  some  directions  was  very  rich  and  minute,  and  had 
been  so  mastered  that  he  had  formed  clear  and  definite  judg- 
ments of  a  kind  likely  to  provoke  interesting  thought. 

But  it  is  all  over.  I  had  thought  of  him  as  likely  to  care  for 
my  wife  when  I  am  gone,    and   to  be   a   second   father  to  my 

1  Then  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Cambridge,  now  Lord  Bishop  of 
Durham. 


518  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

children,  of  whom  he  was  very  fond.  He  has  been  very  much 
to  me,  not  only  in  affection  but  in  making  whole  provinces  of 
life  mine  which  but  for  him  would  have  been  very  remote. 
The  future  seems  narrower  as  well  as  darker  and  colder.  It  was 
what  I  had  never  thought  of.  Always  I  had  taken  it  for  granted 
that  he  would  be  near  me  as  long  as  I  lived.  Death  has  come 
to  me  rarely ;  I  am  not  disciplined  to  bear  it.     God  help  me  ! 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Crosskey 

Hth  July  1883. 

Your  letter  has  deeply  moved  me.  Had  I  replied  to  it  at 
once  it  would  have  been  with  tears,  not  with  words.  The  trouble 
is  a  very  great  one  :  a  great  part  of  my  life  seems  to  have 
suddenly  fallen  away.  For  many  years  he  was  rather  a  son 
than  a  brother,  and  as  he  gradually  became  the  able  and 
accomplished  man  he  was,  much  of  the  special  tenderness  of 
the  old  relationship  continued  to  blend  with  the  proud  and  more 
robust  affection  of  the  new.  We  were  never  estranged  even  for 
a  moment.  He  loved  my  children  and  my  wife,  and  so  new 
elements  of  tenderness  were  added  to  those  which  bound  us 
more  directly  to  each  other. 

For  two  or  three  days  the  darkness  was  deep,  and  the  agita- 
tion and  writhing  and  distress  had  no  relief.  The  relief  began 
to  come  with  a  new  and  more  vivid  revelation  of  the  brother- 
hood of  Christ.  In  my  agony  there  came  a  blessed  discovery  of 
the  passion  and  depth  of  His  love  for  us — for  He  is  my  brother's 
Brother  and  mine.  Since  then,  and  through  Him  who  in  so 
many  ways  is  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life,  there  has  gradually 
come  a  sense,  at  times  vivid  and  animating,  of  the  larger  life  into 
which  he  has  entered.  But  the  clouds  return,  and  often  they 
are  very  dark. 

Everything  I  hear  from  Cambridge  confirms  my  own  impres- 
sion that  he  was  just  making  his  strength  felt  in  the  organisation 
and  government  of  his  college,  and  that  ten  years  more  of  life 
would  have  enabled  him  to  do  a  work  which  would  have  had 
immense  and  beneficent  influence.  .   .  . 

This  is  very  bitter.  It  is  sad  to  look  on  unaccomplished 
work.  And  yet  I  ought  to  believe — and  sometimes  do — that 
the  share  of  service  God  had  given  him  to  do  was  done,  and 
that  it  was  well  for  him  to  begin  other  service  elsewhere. 
But  one  side  of  life  has  become  quite  dark  for  me.  My  other 
brothers  died  in  childhood  before  he  was  born.  I  never  had  a 
sister.     God  has  given  me  much  love  of  other  kinds — but  the 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  519 

heart  aches  for  what  is  lost  and  can  never  come  back.  We  shall 
be  restored  to  each  other,  but  under  other  conditions ;  the  old 
affection  will  be  transfigured,  but  it  will  not  be  the  same.  We 
cling  to  the  life  that  now  is  as  well  as  to  the  life  that  is  to  come. 

Writing  to  his  friend  Mr.  Lawrence,  who  conducted 
the  funeral  service  at  Birmingham,  he  gave  a  sketch  of 
his  brother's  life  and  character,  adding  one  or  two  fresh 
details. 

To  Mr.  E.  A.  Lawrence 

Tfithjime  1883. 

.  .  .  You  did  not  know  my  brother.  He  was  a  man  of  re- 
markable vigour  of  character  as  well  as  of  great  mental  force 
and  high  accomplishment.  He  had  a  deep  and  serious  loyalty 
to  Christ.  There  was  a  generous  devotion  in  him  to  his  work, 
and  his  pupils,  to  whom  he  was  exceedingly  kind,  and  some  of 
whom — the  most  brilliant — had  a  great  affection  for  him.  .  .  . 
He  was  originally  a  Congregationalist,  and  became  a  member  of 
a  Congregational  church  when  very  young ;  but  he  saw  an  ugly 
side  of  our  church  life  in  London,  and  became  a  Churchman 
soon  after  going  to  Cambridge.   .  .   . 

I  thought  that  you  would  like  to  know  these  things.  Of 
course  we  do  not  want  an  address,  but  I  like  to  have  some 
knowledge  of  the  dead  as  well  as  the  living  for  my  prayer. 

The  strain  through  which  he  passed  affected  his  health  ; 
he  could  not  abandon  his  work,  but  he  found  the  burden 
of  it  to  be  almost  intolerable.  Before  he  recovered,  a 
fresh  calamity  overtook  him.  His  youngest  daughter 
Claire,  a  girl  of  eighteen,  showed  symptoms  of  lung  disease, 
and  it  was  found  necessary  to  send  her  to  Bournemouth 
out  of  the  bleak  and  bitter  climate  of  Birmingham.  She 
was  away  from  home  for  several  weeks,  and  unfortunately 
the  arrangements  made  for  her  comfort  were  not  satis- 
factory. She  became  worse ;  her  mother  was  sent  for ; 
the  original  complaint  was  complicated  by  other  ailments  ; 
for  three  weeks  she  lay  in  a  critical  condition.  Dale 
himself  was  too  ill  to  leave  home,  and  anxiety  for  his 
child  told  upon  him  with  serious  effect.  His  letters 
written  during  this  period  of  suspense  reflect  from  day  to 


520  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

day  every  alternation  of  hope  and  fear.  The  east  wind 
terrifies  him.  A  burst  of  warmth  and  sunshine  revives 
his  courage.  He  passes  at  a  bound  from  one  extreme  to 
the  other.  At  last  the  child  was  brought  home  to  wait 
for  death  ;  the  waiting  was  not  long.  While  the  shadow 
impended,  Dale  had  to  fulfil  an  engagement  to  preach 
the  annual  sermon  for  the  London  Missionary  Society 
during  the  May  Meetings.  He  preached,  with  a  supreme 
effort,  but  upheld  by  a  strength  greater  than  his  own. 
His  letter  to  Dr.  Mackennal  was  in  reply  to  an  expression 
of  sympathy  assuring  him  that  in  his  weakness  he  had 
touched  men's  hearts  more  closely  than  in  the  time  of  his 
strength.  When  the  end  came,  he  was  ill  and  confined  to 
his  bed,  but  he  was  able  to  cross  the  landing  and  to  be 
with  the  child  at  the  last. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

14/A  May  1884. 

You  will  be  grieved  to  hear  that  the  doctors  take  the 
gloomiest  views  concerning  the  future  of  my  darling.  I  know  of 
another  future  which  lies  beyond  them,  and  this  is  very  bright. 
But  if  we  lose  her  much  of  the  sunshine  and  brightness  will  pass 
out  of  life. 

16 t h  May  1884. 

You  will  be  grieved  to  hear  that  my  darling  seems  to  make 
no  progress.  Pray  for  her — pray  for  me — for  my  dear  wife  who 
is  heart-broken.  All  things  are  possible  to  God,  who  is  more 
truly  her  Father  than  I  am.  I  thought  that  I  had  finally  parted 
with  her  to  Christ,  and  the  surrender  was  accepted ;  and  yet  as 
I  told  the  people  on  Wednesday,  I  have  fellowship  with  Him, 
and  what  is  His  is  still  mine  and  more  truly  mine  than  ever,  and 
securely.  It  may  be  He  will  see  well  to  spare  her  to  me  for  a 
time. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mackennal 

1  %th  May  1884. 

My  brethren  are  so  kind  to  me  in  this  time  of  trouble  that  I 
ought  to  have  a  strong  faith  in  the  tenderness  of  the  Divine 
love.     The  children  cannot  be  better  than  the  Father.      God 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  521 

who  knows  our  frame  and  remembers  that  we  are  dust  will  not 
think  hardly  of  me  for  it,  but  both  in  preparing  the  sermon  for 
Wednesday  and  in  delivering  it  my  heart  was  filled  with  thought 
and  solicitude  for  my  sick  child,  which  almost  drove  out  the 
solicitude  I  ought  to  have  felt  for  God's  great  work  and  human 
redemption.  ...  It  was  very  good  of  you  to  write.  I  am  very 
grateful. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

Zthjune  1S84. 

My  darling  Claire  went  to  her  true  home  on  Friday  morning 
at  a  quarter  past  six.  She  was  conscious  almost  to  the  last ; 
she  suffered  very  little.  I  said  to  her  a  little  before  six,  "  Christ 
is  with  you  and  loves  you,  my  darling  "  ;  and  she  gave  the  prompt, 
sharp  nod  which  was  characteristic  of  her.  I  have  had  a  far 
more  vivid  sense  of  her  presence  with  Him  than  of  her  departure 
from  us.  God  has  been  very  good.  Mrs.  Dale  and  the  girls 
are  bearing  up  bravely. 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Fisher1 

iph  October  1884. 

Your  very  kind  letter  has  touched  me  deeply.  A  great 
sorrow  brings  with  it  wonderful  discoveries  of  the  tenderness, 
depth,  and  constancy  of  human  affection,  and  therefore  of  the 
infinite  love  of  God ;  for  man  is  the  image  of  God,  and  all  that 
is  most  gracious  in  man  reveals  God.  That  with  three  thousand 
miles  of  ocean  between  us  you  should  sympathise  with  me  in 
my  trouble,  brings  home  to  me  afresh  the  unity  of  those  who  are 
in  Christ — their  unity  in  Him.  The  loss  of  my  child  was  a 
great  blow.  She  always  seemed  to  me  one  of  those  elect 
children  of  God  who  are  unsoiled  by  contact  with  the  world. 
With  a  frank  delight  in  all  pleasant  things  there  was  an  un- 
definable  freedom  from  all  touch  of  what  our  fathers  called 
worldliness.  But  though  for  a  time  the  agony  of  suspense  was 
hard  to  bear,  God  taught  me  that  she  was  His  rather  than  mine, 
and  mine  for  ever  because  she  was  His.  He  taught  me  this 
some  weeks  before  He  called  her  to  His  side,  and  this  gave 
peace.  When  she  went  home  the  peace  became  a  joy,  though 
the  joy  could  not  extinguish  the  grief. 

1  Of  New  Haven,  Connecticut. 


522  LIFE  07  DR.  DALE 

For  several  weeks  after  this  fresh  bereavement  Dale 
continued  in  a  state  of  profound  prostration,  and  as  the 
summer  advanced  his  condition  became  alarming.  Signs 
of  serious  trouble  appeared,  and  his  doctors  saw  reason  to 
believe  that  he  was  menaced  by  organic  disease  of  an 
incurable  kind.  They  sent  him  to  be  examined  by  Sir 
Henry  Thompson  who,  to  his  relief  and  amazement, 
assured  him — "  with  the  most  emphatic  reiteration  "  and 
"  with  a  confidence  as  great  as  that  of  twenty  popes  " — 
that  he  was  organically  sound,  and  that  his  illness  was 
the  accidental  result  of  the  distress  through  which  he  had 
been  passing,  combined  with  the  exhausted  state  in  which 
the  distress  found  him.  He  was  ordered  to  give  up  active 
work  for  a  time,  but  to  take  heart  and  to  look  forward 
with  confidence  to  the  future.  Fortified  with  this  assur- 
ance, he  soon  began  to  regain  his  strength  ;  and  after 
three  months'  absence  he  returned  home  early  in 
September,  with  his  sorrow  in  some  measure  assuaged 
by  the  sympathy  that  he  had  received  from  all  who  knew 
him,  and  with  renewed  hope  in  the  possibility  of  public 


To  Mr.  George  Dixon 

yd  September  1884. 

I  found  your  very  kind  note  waiting  for  me  when  I  reached 
home  yesterday  morning ;  it  was  one  of  many  pleasant  welcomes 
back  to  work.  The  sorrow  and  the  prostration  of  strength 
which  compelled  me  to  leave  Birmingham  for  three  months 
have  been  the  occasion  for  innumerable  manifestations  of 
affection.  There  is  something  more  than  comradeship  among 
those  who  work  together  in  public  affairs  in  this  dear  town. 
From  men  of  all  creeds  and  both  political  parties  as  well  as 
from  my  own  church  I  have  received  proofs  of  sympathy 
which  have  touched  me  very  deeply.  .  .  .  Whether  I  have  really 
recovered  my  normal  strength  can  be  tested  only  by  work.  I 
mean  to  be  wary  until  I  am  sure.  But  I  see  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  I  shall  have  to  give  up  much  of  my  work.  I  may 
not  be  able  to  speak  and  preach  as  much  away  from  home,  and 
may  have  to  diminish  my  literary  work  for  a  time ;  but  I  trust 
that  this  will  prove  the  limit  of  what  prudence  will  require. 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  523 

In  course  of  time  his  interest  in  public  affairs  revived, 
and,  as  we  have  seen,  he  took  his  part  in  the  struggles  of 
the  two  eventful  years  that  followed.  But  the  delight  of 
battle  was  dying  within  him  ;  and  when  the  crisis  came 
and  brought  disruption  to  the  Liberal  party,  after  doing 
what  he  could  to  heal  the  division,  he  withdrew  from  the 
agitation  and  the  conflict  of  politics  with  a  sense  of  relief 
not  unmixed  with  regret. 


The  following  letters  illustrate  some  of  the  character- 
istics referred  to  in  this  chapter.  They  are  arranged 
according  to  subjects  and  not  in  order  of  time ;  and  a  few 
written  at  a  later  period  have  been  placed  here  for 
special  reasons. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Westcott 

30  f A  October  1883. 

Many  weeks  ago,  while  the  distress  of  my  brother's  death 
was  still  fresh,  you  were  good  enough  to  send  me  your  Com- 
mentary on  the  Epistles  of  St.  John.  Now  that  I  have  read  the 
volume  I  feel  that  I  cannot  adequately  express  my  sense  of  its 
value.  Some  time  ago  I  began  to  read  Haupt,  and,  though  I 
agree  with  you  that  he  has  great  merits,  I  felt  that  he  did  too 
little  for  me  to  incline  me  to  read  him  through.  You  will 
receive  from  other  men,  whose  judgment  is  much  better  worth 
considering  than  mine,  testimonies  to  the  greatness  of  the  service 
which  you  have  rendered  to  the  Church  both  in  this  volume  and 
in  your  Commentary  on  the  Gospel;  but  none  can  be  more  grate- 
ful for  it. 

I  should  have  been  glad,  if  I  may  presume  to  say  so,  to  see  a 
fuller  development  of  your  conception  of  the  objective  aspects 
of  our  Lord's  sacrifice  than  you  have  given  in  either  of  the  two 
Commentaries.  In  the  Commentary  on  the  Gospel  I  remember 
that  there  is  a  passage  in  which  you  say,  truly  enough,  that 
John  dwells  more  on  the  subjective  than  on  the  objective 
aspects  of  it ;  but  there  are  two  or  three  passages  in  the  First 
Epistle — especially  ii.  2,  on  which  you  have  an  "additional 
note  " — which  are  very  remarkable ;  and  I  should  have  felt  very 
grateful  for  a  fuller  account  of  what  you  think  John  meant  by 
describing  our  Lord  as  an  "Advocate"  and  as  a  "Propitiation." 
I   am   not  at  all  clear  that   in  2  Cor.  v.  18,   19,  to  which  you 


524  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

refer,  the  meaning  is  that  man's  hostility  to  God  is  removed. 
The  passage  in  Matt.  v.  24 — though  the  word  is  different — ■ 
points,  I  think,  to  another  meaning :  to  be  reconciled  to  our 
brother  is  for  the  offender  to  remove  the  resentment  of  the 
offended  person — not  to  lay  aside  his  own  resentment. 

I  am  the  more  anxious  to  see  a  full  investigation  of  this 
subject  by  yourself,  because  I  believe  that  the  solution — as  far 
as  it  can  be  solved — of  the  question,  why  "  the  blood  of  Christ" 
avails  objectively  for  the  remission  of  sins,  is  to  be  found  in 
that  mystical  relation  between  Christ  and  Humanity  which  is 
realised  in  the  Church,  to  which  your  mind  has  been  so  strongly 
drawn.  I  had  some  glimpse  of  this  eight  or  nine  years  ago 
when  I  published  a  volume  of  lectures  on  the  Atonement;  I  think 
I  see  it  much  more  clearly  now,  and  if  I  had  to  write  the  lectures 
again,  I  should  endeavour  to  insist  more  earnestly  on  the 
necessity  of  reaching  the  objective  aspect  of  the  Death  of  Christ 
\  through  the  subjective.  In  experience  and  life  the  objective 
must,  I  think,  as  a  rule  be  believed  first :  in  theory  it  is  reached 
last. 

Excuse  me  for  troubling  you  with  so  long  a  letter ;  it  is  rather 
an  ungracious  return  for  your  kindness. 

Cannot  you  prevail  on  the  Bishop  of  Durham 1  to  give  us 
another  book  ?  If  he  had  not  been  made  a  bishop  we  should 
have  had  two  or  three  books  from  him  by  this  time.  His 
silence  gives  us  Congregationalists  another  argument  against 
Episcopacy. 

26M  May  1883. 

I  was  unwilling  to  acknowledge  the  copy  of  The  Historic 
Faith  which  you  were  good  enough  to  send  me  until  I  had  read 
it.  Had  I  acknowledged  it  at  once,  it  would  have  been  with  the 
warmth  of  gratitude  I  feel  for  your  earlier  works ;  now  that  I  have 
read  it,  my  gratitude  is  still  more  cordial.  I  was  delighted  to 
see  that  you  had  resigned  your  Canonry  with  the  intention  of 
securing  more  time  for  your  professorship ;  for  I  hoped  that  this 
meant  more  books ;  but  the  delight  was  checked  by  the  remem- 
brance that  it  is  to  the  Canonry  that  we  owe  The  Historic  Faith. 

You  may  not  be  much  in  the  way  of  hearing  with  what 
affection  and  honour  you  are  regarded  by  Nonconformists. 
There  are  very  many  of  them  to  whom  your  two  books  on  the 
Resurrection  and  your  John  are  priceless. 

Forgive  me  for  saying— do  not  let  them  make  you  a  bishop. 
I  do  not  know  what  Dr.  Lightfoot  may  have  done  for  Durham  ; 

1  Dr.  Lightfoot. 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  525 

for  those  of  us  who  are  outside  he  has  done  nothing  since  his 
elevation.  It  is  the  extinction  of  a  sun  ;  let  us  hope  it  is  only 
an  eclipse. 

•Jfk  April  1890. 

I  should  like  to  tell  you — though  you  do  not  need  to  be 
told — that  you  will  go  to  Durham  l  with  the  prayers  of  many 
that  are  outside  the  Church  of  England  that  you  may  have  all 
the  grace  and  light  and  strength  that  your  new  responsibilities 
will  make  necessary.  Among  those  who  have  received  the 
eternal  life  which  God  gave  us  in  His  Son,  there  is  something 
more  than  that  solidarity  of  which  our  French  neighbours  have 
spoken,  and  in  which  you  have  long  seen  something  deeper  and 
more  wonderful  than  the  men  who  gave  the  word  its  vogue 
suspected.  And  you  have  done  so  much  for  many  of  us  of 
whom  you  know  nothing,  that  you  may  be  certain  that  in  your 
new  work  you  will  have  the  sympathy  and  intercession  of  those 
who  are  "  scattered  abroad "  in  many  churches  and  in  many 
lands.  They  will  give  God  thanks  for  jour  success  in  the  higher 
provinces  of  life  as  they  give  God  thanks  for  their  own. 


To  Mr.  E.  A.  Lawrence 

19M  January  1885. 

It  is  a  hard  question,  but  easier  to  answer  in  practice  than  in 
a  formula. 

People  want  to  be  comforted — ought  we  to  comfort  them  ?  or 
ought  we  to  lecture  to  them  on  Congregational  principles  in 
which  they  find  no  comfort  ?  This  is,  in  substance,  what  you 
ask.  You  add  by  way  of  comment  that  they  are  "  in  no  special 
sorrow."  But  that  comment  is  precisely  the  critical  point ;  and  I 
imagine  that  most  of  us  have  so  preached  the  gospel  that  men 
and  women,  though  "in  no  special  sorrow,"  need  consolation — 
really  need  it,  and  do  not  merely  long  for  it.  I  came  to  that 
conclusion  some  years  ago,  but  have  never  been  able  to  amend 
my  ways  as  I  wish.  I  try,  and  sometimes  have  a  partial  success ; 
but  the  success .  is  only  partial.  Four  or  five  months  ago,  I 
preached  a  sermon  on  Rest  in  the  Lord,  and  began  to  think  I  had 
found  the  track  ;  but  if  I  did,  I  lost  it  again.  Last  Sunday  week 
I  preached  on  "  As  far  as  the  east  is  from  the  west,  so  far  hath 
He  removed  our  transgressions  from  us."  That,  I  think,  was 
still  nearer  to  the  right  thing ;  but  I  cannot  keep  it  up. 

1  After  his  appointment  to  the  Bishopric  of  Durham. 


526  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  Justification  has  lost  its  great 
place  among  us  ?  Depend  upon  it,  Luther  was  right  in  insist- 
ing on  its  supreme  importance.  It  appears  to  me  that  I  rarely 
use  the  word ;  and  although  it  is  quite  true,  as  I  think  I  have 
said  in  my  lectures  on  the  Ephesians,  that  Paul  could  make  a 
great  statement  of  the  breadth  and  power  of  the  Christian 
Redemption  without  using  it,  he  had  the  conception  for  which 
the  word  stands  wrought  into  the  substance  of  his  life  and 
thought :  I  fear  that  I  have  been  sparing  of  the  word  because  I 
have  not  grasped  the  thing.  It  has  come  to  me  of  late,  with 
much  vividness  and  force;  I  wonder  whether  it  will  remain 
and  grow.  It  lies  in  immediate  and  vital  contact  with  the 
Atonement. 

...  I  keep  very  well  when  I  do  not  work  on  Saturday,  and  am 
beginning  to  think  that  the  old-fashioned  people  were  right  who 
insisted  on  the  perpetual  obligation  of  the  Fourth  Commandment. 


To  the  Rev.  F.  H.  Stead 

iyh  September  1886. 

Do  not  be  out  of  heart  with  regard  to  Gallowtree  Gate. 
Carr's  Lane  is  much  farther  from  the  wealthier  suburbs  of 
Birmingham  than  Gallowtree  Gate  can  be  from  the  wealthier 
parts  of  Leicester ;  and  Birmingham  is  now  encircled  with  Con- 
gregational chapels.  The  number  of  people  we  have  sent  out 
during  the  last  twenty  years  has  been  immense.  When  young 
people  marry  and  begin  to  have  children,  they  cannot  come  in, 
and  we  nearly  always  lose  them ;  and  the  supply  of  new  people 
is  largely  cut  off  by  the  suburban  chapels.  But  I  think  that  our 
congregations  are  better  than  they  have  been  at  any  time  for  the 
last  twenty  years.  The  evening  congregation  is  certainly  better, 
and  the  morning  has  not  suffered  much.  After  talking  to  the 
people  about  it,  at  every  fair  opportunity,  for  ten  years,  I 
induced  them  two  years  and  a  half  ago  to  throw  open  the  chapel 
at  night  every  Sunday — "  no  reserved  seats."  The  success  of 
the  change  has  been  decisive.  Even  financially  there  has  been 
no  loss.  Some  people,  I  believe,  gave  up  their  sittings  because  they 
could  not  have  them  reserved  in  the  evening ;  but  they  were  very 
few.  Working  people  who  cannot  come  out  in  the  morning  are, 
I  think,  ceasing  to  take  sittings.  But  the  increase  of  the  weekly 
offering,  which  we  now  collect  from  pew  to  pew  at  both  services, 
has  more  than  compensated  for  the  loss. 

Be  of  good  courage.  If  a  man  has  anything  to  say  from 
God  to  the  people,  they  will  come  to  hear  him,  and  their  hearts 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  527 

will  be  touched.  What  he  has  to  say  on  his  own  account  they 
will  not  care  for  very  long,  unless  he  is  a  man  of  a  million ;  and 
even  then  their  interest  in  his  preaching  is  comparatively  languid. 


To  the  Rev.  S.  March 

$th  May  1885. 

Our  rule  for  many  years  has  been  to  withhold  the  vote  from 
all  Church  members  under  twenty-one,  and  I  am  completely 
satisfied  of  its  wisdom  and  justice.  In  my  judgment  there 
ought  to  be  nothing  in  the  organisation  of  a  church  to  prevent 
it  from  receiving  into  membership  all  those  of  whose  love  for 
Christ  it  is  completely  assured;  but  to  entrust  the  control  of 
church  affairs  to  children  of  twelve  or  thirteen  is  obviously 
irrational.  It  is  a  function  which  they  are  unable  to  discharge. 
A  church  does  not  entrust  all  its  members  with  the  function  of 
leading  prayer  and  teaching :  those  who  are  best  qualified  for 
these  functions  are  entrusted  with  them.  Why  should  it  entrust 
with  the  function  of  voting  those  who  are  obviously  unfit  ?  To 
vote  is  to  discharge  a  duty  rather  than  to  exercise  a  right ;  I 
regard  it  as  a  responsibility  rather  than  a  privilege  ;  and  the 
responsibility  should  not  rest  on  those  who  are  plainly  incapable 
of  discharging  it. 

It  may  be  said  that  there  are  persons  above  twenty-one  who 
are  also  unfit  for  this  trust ;  but  the  normal  condition  of  a 
Christian  man  or  woman  above  the  age  of  twenty-one  is  such  as 
to  carry  with  it  the  qualification  for  deciding  broadly  as  to  what 
is  the  mind  of  Christ  on  the  questions  submitted  to  a  church. 
To  remove  from  the  voting  register  those  over  twenty-one  who 
are  not  qualified,  to  place  on  it  those  under  twenty-one  who  are 
qualified,  would  be  impossible  proceedings. 

I  think  that  the  law  should  be  prospective,  and  should  not 
disqualify  any  at  present  voting. 

To  the  Rev.  C.  Leach 

l&th  October  1886. 

I  know  nothing  of  the  Hanover  Road  congregation  and  can- 
not, therefore,  form  any  judgment  on  its  claims.  But  there  are 
plainly  very  strong  reasons  why  you  should  remain  in  Birmingham. 

(1)  You  have  created  a  congregation:  are  you  sure  that  it 
has  yet  acquired  those  elements  of  solidity  and  strength  which 
would  enable  it  to  meet,  without  peril,  the  strain  which  would 


528  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

be  imposed  on  it  by  your  removal?  When  a  nail  is  driven 
in,  a  good  workman  clenches  it.  There  is  something  less 
exhilarating  in  disciplining  and  educating  a  congregation  than  in 
gathering  it ;  but  I  am  not  sure  that  we  have  a  right  to  choose 
the  most  exciting  kind  of  work. 

(2)  You  have  a  position  here,  and  the  elements  of  power  in 
it  you  can  measure ;  the  confidence  of  your  brethren,  and  of 
your  people,  and  a  considerable  following  in  the  town.  These 
you  lose,  and  to  win  corresponding  force  elsewhere  will  be  a  work 
of  time. 

(3)  You  know  that  the  people  of  Birmingham  will  listen  to 
you  week  after  week ;  you  cannot  tell,  till  you  have  tried, 
whether  it  will  be  the  same  anywhere  else. 

Mr.  James  used  to  tell  me  that  when  he  was  very  much  in- 
clined to  leave  Birmingham,  Mrs.  James  said  to  him,  "  Never  you 
leave  till  you  see  your  way  out  of  Birmingham  as  clearly  as  you 
saw  your  way  into  it."  That  seemed  to  me  wholesome  advice. 
It  has  helped  to  keep  me  here. 

But  I  believe  that  God  whom  we  serve  grants  us  clear  guid- 
ance when  our  only  desire  is  to  do  the  work  that  He  wants  us 
to  do,  and  to  do  it  where  He  wants  us  to  do  it.  To  Him  I 
commend  you. 

To  Miss  Frances  Power  Cobbe 

2lst  October  1882. 

Thank  you  very  much  tor  your  kindly  note  and  for  the  Peak  in 
Darien  which  reached  me  yesterday. 

I  have  read  the  paper  on  Magnanimous  Atheism  with  great 
interest  and  with  deep  sympathy.  Polemically,  it  was  probably 
necessary  to  avoid  the  question  how  far  our  sense  of  Righteousness 
requires  that  in  the  long-run  Happiness,  in  a  high  but  rich  and 
varied  sense,  should  come  to  those  who  are  loyal  to  the  idea  of 
Duty ;  but  I  believe  in  a  heaven  for  all  the  capacities  and 
faculties  of  human  nature. 

There  are  some  striking  sentences,  too,  in  Romola  about  the 
moral  uses  of  Fear. 

Will  you  allow  me  to  take  this  opportunity  of  expressing  my 
obligations  to  you  for  very  substantial  services  which  you  rendered 
to  me  long  ago  ?  Your  Intuitive  Morals  was  a  favourite  book  of 
mine  when  I  was  a  young  man,  and  I  have  never  lost  my  esteem 
for  it.  Among  the  moral  duties  which  are  very  ill  discharged  is 
the  duty  of  acknowledging  the  light  and  strength  which  have 
come  to  us  from  men  and  women  who  are  personally  strangers, 
but  some  of  whom  have  done  more  for  us  than  most  of  our 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  529 

friends.  We  cannot  give  the  assurance  to  the  dead — perhaps 
they  know  it  without — that  they  have  helped  us ;  but  it  seems  a 
graceless  thing  to  let  the  living  miss  whatever  cheer  and  courage 
might  come  from  hearing  a  voice  out  of  the  darkness  saying, 
"Well  done — you  have  given  me  some  fresh  light  and 
fire." 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wace 

Llandudno,  25th  January  1884. 

You  were  good  enough  to  send  me  ten  days  or  a  fortnight 
ago  your  new  book  about  Luther.  Since  I  have  been  here  I 
have  been  able  to  read  the  greater  part  of  it.  The  translations 
are  most  readable,  and  give  one  a  fresh  impression  of  Luther's 
real  genius  for  religion — to  use  a  modern  phrase — as  well  as  of 
his  superhuman  energy.  I  have  not  yet  attacked  Dr.  Bucheim, 
but  your  essay  has  interested  me  greatly. 

Whenever  I  find  a  man  has  learnt  the  secret  which  Paul, 
Augustine,  and  Luther  knew,  I  am  always  conscious  of  a  sense 
of  brotherhood  with  him.  The  kinship  is  quite  of  another  order 
than  that  which  comes  from  identity  of  mere  intellectual  or 
ethical  thought ;  and  it  is  wonderful  how  the  Divine  light  which 
is  in  a  man  shines  through  what  may  seem  to  one  to  be  grave 
error  in  the  intellectual  and  ethical  region. 

I  think,  however,  that  in  your  form  of  conceiving  the  truth 
as  well  as  in  the  truth  itself  I  am  wholly  with  you.  For  purposes 
of  historical  theology  I  have  the  impression — but  your  knowledge 
of  Luther's  works  may  correct  it — that  sufficient  importance  has 
not  been  given  to  the  relation  between  Luther's  way  of  stating 
the  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith  and  his  conception  of 
Baptism.  Indulgences  were  meant  to  deal  with  offences  com- 
mitted after  Baptism,  which  an  imperfect  "  contrition  "  had  not 
removed.  Luther  said  :  Your  trouble  comes  from  not  seeing 
that  in  Baptism  you  received  eternal  life  and  remission  of  sin, 
and  that  these  gifts  of  God  are  still  yours :  hold  them  fast  by 
Faith — which  with  him  was  constantly  fiduria — and  so  get  the 
comfort  and  life  of  them.  How  Luther  would  have  formulated 
his  doctrine  had  he  seen  less  power  in  Baptism,  I  cannot  quite 
imagine.  I  sometimes  appeal  to  Baptism  in  connection  with 
remission  of  sins  and  all  the  blessings  of  the  Christian  Redemp- 
tion, but  in  another  way — a  way  which  I  suppose  Mr.  Maurice 
would  have  approved.  I  remind  my  congregation  that  Baptism 
was  the  personal,  direct  assurance  to  them  that  they  belong  to 
the  race  which  is  Christ's  own,  for  which  He  died,  which  He  has 
2  M 


530  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

redeemed,  which  He  defends,  over  which  He  reigns ;  and  that 
Redemption  is  therefore  theirs  —  only  they  can  reject  and 
despise  it.  I  find  it  very  useful  to  talk  to  my  children's  class 
in  this  way. 

If  I  may  trouble  you  with  a  still  longer  letter  than  I  have  written 
already,  I  should  like  to  tell  you  of  something  that  was  much  in 
my  thoughts  during  the  recent  Luther  celebration.  You  re- 
member the  kind  of  criticism  to  which  Mr.  Moody  was  subjected 
nine  years  ago.  It  was  said  that  he  did  not  preach  Repentance  ; 
taught  men  that  they  were  saved  by  believing  something,  and  so 
forth.  During  his  present  visit  no  such  criticisms  have  been 
general.  Mr.  Gill,  a  clergyman  at  Lee,  wrote  to  the  Guardian 
in  that  strain,  but  his  letter  called  out  several  strong  protests. 
When  Mr.  Moody  was  in  Birmingham  early  last  year,  I  was 
struck  by  the  change  in  the  general  tone  of  his  preaching.  He 
insisted  very  much  on  Repentance — and  on  Repentance  in  the 
sense  in  which  the  word  is  now  used  by  "  Evangelical  "  as  well 
as  other  divines,  as  though  it  were  a  doing  of  penance  instead  of 
a  metanoia — a  self-torture,  a  voluntary  sorrow,  a  putting  on  of 
spiritual  hair-shirts. 

Now  observe  the  effect  of  this.  He  was  just  as  earnest,  as 
vigorous,  as  impressive  as  before.  People  were  as  deeply  moved. 
Hundreds  went  into  the  inquiry  room  every  night.  But  the 
results,  as  far  as  I  can  learn,  have  been  inconsiderable.  Evangeli- 
cal clergymen,  Methodists,  my  own  friends,  all  tell  the  same  story. 
I  have  seen  none  of  the  shining  faces  that  used  to  come  to  me 
after  his  former  visit.  From  first  to  last  in  1875  I  received 
about  200  Moody  converts  into  communion,  and  I  reckon  that 
75  per  cent  of  them  have  stood  well.  As  yet  I  have  not 
received  a  dozen  as  the  result  of  his  last  visit. 

In  1875  he  preached  in  a  manner  which  produced  the  sort  of 
effect  produced  by  Luther,  and  provoked  similar  criticism.  He 
exulted  in  the  free  grace  of  God.  The  grace  was  to  lead  men 
to  repentance — to  a  complete  change  of  life.  His  joy  was  con- 
tagious. Men  leaped  out  of  darkness  into  light,  and  lived  a 
Christian  life  afterwards.  The  "  do  penance  "  preaching  has 
had  no  such  results.  I  wrote  to  him  about  it  a  few  weeks  ago. 
He  said  in  reply  that  it  had  "set  him  a-thinking,"  and  he 
wanted  to  talk  it  over  with  me ;  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  see 
him.     It  struck  me  that  you  would  be  interested  in  this. 

I  congratulate  you  very  heartily  on  your  Principalship,1 
which,  I  suppose,  gives  you  new  chances  of  impressing  on 
others  what  God  has  taught  you.  I  hope  that  it  will  not  stop 
the  books    ,  .  . 

1  Of  King's  College,  London. 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  531 


To  Mr.  R.  H.  Hutton 

21st  February  1885. 

Allow  me  to  thank  you  for  the  kindly  article  on  "  Christian 
Worldliness  "  in  last  week's  Spectator}  If  I  had  not  been  very 
much  occupied  all  the  week  my  virtue  would  perhaps  have  been 
too  feeble  to  resist  the  temptation  to  offer  some  observations  in 
reply,  and  to  ask  you  to  insert  them.  But  both  the  questions 
raised  in  the  article  are  really  too  large  for  discussion  in  the 
columns  of  a  newspaper. 

On  the  first — the  correspondence  between  the  Puritan  and 
the  Catholic  idea  of  saintliness — two  criticisms  are  possible, 
one  historical  and  the  other  theological. 

I  should  contest  the  truth  of  the  traditional  conception  of 
the  Puritan.  Perhaps  you  know  Dr.  Halley's  Puritanism  in 
Lancashire  ;  the  Puritans  in  that  county  played  billiards,  hunted, 
and  lived  a  life  very  remote  from  asceticism.  But  it  may  be 
fairly  alleged  that  the  type  in  the  South  was  different.  Take 
then  Colonel  Hutchinson,  who  was  a  fair  example  of  the  Puritan 
saint  among  educated  men  :  he  was  an  accomplished  gentleman 
and  passionately  fond  of  hawking.  Take  John  Owen  :  the  im- 
pression one  has  of  him  is  that  he  was  a  man  of  great  physical 
vigour,  and  he  appears  to  have  had  a  weakness  for  unclerical 
dress  of  rather  a  showy  sort.  To  give  another  test :  look  at  the 
way  in  which  a  man  like  Baxter  discusses  the  ethics  of  hunting ; 
nothing  can  be  more  sensible  or  more  free  from  a  false  un- 
worldliness. 

Theologically  the  difference  between  the  place  of  suffering  in 
the  Puritan  and  in  the  Catholic  ideal  was  very  wide.  The 
Catholic  found  a  value  in  the  suffering  itself:  it  was  necessary 
for  the  removal  of  the  guilt  of  venial  sin.  The  Puritan  cared 
only  for  the  disciplinary  influence  of  suffering.  If  it  came  from 
God's  hand  he  believed  that  it  would  be  a  means  of  grace.  He 
had  no  right  to  inflict  it  on  himself;  if  he  did,  he  would  have  no 
right  to  look  for  the  grace  that  would  give  it  sanctifying  power. 
He  avoided  most  pleasant  things,  but  it  was  because  they  were 
regarded  as  sinful  —  and  many  of  them  were  in  those  days 
actually  sinful,  or  lay  in  the  near  neighbourhood  of  sin.  I 
rather  doubt  whether  the  technical  idea  of  "  worldliness  "  which 
has  prevailed  among  the  later  Evangelicals  had  much  hold  on 
the  Puritans  in  their  best  days. 

On  the  larger  question  of  the  true  Christian  ideal,  I  suppose 

1  The  Spectator,  14th  February  1885. 


532  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

that  the  answer  comes  out  of  the  innermost  life  of  a  man,  and 
discussion  is  unavailing. 

It  is  many  years  since  I  first  felt  the  spell  of  the  wonderful 
sermon  of  Newman's  to  which  you  refer ; x  and  when  I  turned 
to  it  a  few  months  ago  I  found  the  spell  still  unbroken.  The 
beauty  of  his  vision  of  the  saintly  life  is  enough  to  tempt  the 
angels  from  their  thrones.  There  are  two  or  three  pages  of  that 
sermon  which  can  hardly  be  surpassed  in  the  prose  literature  of 
England. 

But,  frankly,  the  vision  does  not  seem  to  me  to  have  been 
suggested  by  the  four  Gospels,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  or  the 
Epistles.  What  is  that  sentence  of  Bacon's — I  cannot  quite 
remember  it — about  the  mixture  of  a  lie  always  adding  pleasure  ? 
I  sometimes  tell  my  people  to  try  the  health  and  soundness  of 
their  spiritual  taste  by  asking  whether  any  devotional  book  or 
life  seems  to  them  to  have  a  fascination  which  they  cannot  find 
in  the  four  Gospels.     If  it  has,  there  is  something  wrong  in  it. 

My  faith  in  the  Trinity  and  the  Incarnation — where  I  find 
the  roots  of  all  ethics  and  of  all  politics,  which  indeed  in  their 
higher  aspect  are  a  part  of  ethics — prevents  me  from  yielding  to 
the  charm  of  the  Catholic  ideal.  It  is  in  the  air.  It  touches 
earth  too  lightly,  and  misses  heaven.  The  Christian  ideal  is 
near  to  both  and  touches  both.  The  Catholic  is  the  old 
Gnosticism  over  again,  applied  to  life  instead  of  thought. 

I  meant  to  have  acknowledged  that  the  Puritan  ideal,  like 
our  own,  was  too  much  shadowed  by  the  traditions  of  many 
Catholic  centuries. 


To  Miss  .Martin 

$th  October  1878. 

Thank  you  very  much  for  your  kind  letter :  the  knowledge  of 
how  deep  and  earnest  is  the  desire  of  many  in  the  church  for 
the  success  of  all  our  church  work  is  a  great  source  of  strength 
to  me,  and  should  be  a  great  source  of  strength  to  all  of  us.  I 
am  sorry  that  you  have  been  so  much  troubled  by  the  organ  at 
the  Lord's  Supper ;  I  will  speak  about  it :  I  do  not  suppose  that 
any  one  would  object  to  have  silence ;  and  I  can  quite  under- 
stand that  the  music,  however  soft  and  quiet,  may  be  to  some  a 
hindrance  to  thought. 

The  anthem,  however,  is,  I  believe,  to  many — I  know  it  is  to 
some — one  of  the  most  helpful  parts  of  the  service.  I  don't 
think  that  any  sermon  on  the  words  "  The  Lord  is  mindful  of 

1  •'  The  Apostolic  Christian."     Sermons  on  Subjects  of  the  Day,  pp.  275  foil. 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  533 

His  own  "  could  do  so  much  for  me  as  the  anthem  when  it  is 
well  sung ;  and  my  case  is  that  of  many  others.  I  can  hardly 
imagine  that  even  those  who  receive  no  benefit  from  it,  can  be 
really  pained  by  it ;  if  they  are,  those  of  us  to  whom  it  is  of  so 
much  use  might  perhaps  be  called  to  give  it  up ;  but  the 
sacrifice  would  be  a  heavy  one.  I  think  part  of  the  mistake 
lies  in  supposing  that  the  anthem  ought  always  to  be  worship ; 
but  very  often  it  is  a  statement  of  truth,  and  to  me,  a  more 
pathetic  and  impressive  statement  of  truth  than  any  sermon. 
When  the  anthem  is  not  in  the  book  I  read  the  words,  and 
indeed  I  generally  read  them  when  it  is ;  and  I  should  have 
thought  that  as  the  words  are  generally  very  few,  it  would  not  be 
difficult  to  remember  them. 

In  what  you  say  about  the  anthem  leading  any  one  to  leave 
us  I  think  you  must  be  mistaken.  So  far  as  I  know,  those  who 
have  left  us  during  the  last  few  months  are  very  few,  and  I  have 
too  good  an  opinion  of  them  to  suppose  that  they  could  have 
dissolved  their  relationship  with  us  because  they  find  no  help 
in  a  part  of  the  service  which  is  very  helpful  to  others,  and  which 
lasts  only  five  or  six  minutes. 


To  Miss  Phipson 

24th.  December  1880. 

I  am  grateful  for  your  letter.  Perhaps  you  are  hardly  in 
possession  of  the  real  circumstances  which  are  every  now  and 
then  brought  home  to  me  in  forms  which  occasion  great  anxiety. 
While,  on  the  one  hand,  I  am  from  time  to  time  greatly 
encouraged  by  the  discovery  in  unexpected  quarters  of  a  large 
growth  of  faith  and  earnestness  and  of  joy  in  God,  I  am  also 
greatly  troubled  by  the  extent  to  which,  here  and  there,  all  faith 
in  Christ  is  being  shaken — even  among  church  members — by 
intellectual  difficulties  of  a  kind  that  ought  not  to  disturb  faith. 

I  find  that  the  only  effective  way  of  dealing  with  these 
difficulties  is  to  put  aside — as  being  for  the  moment  of  no 
importance  —  everything  not  involved  in  the  main  issue.  A 
man  may  have  a  very  firm  and  deep  and  invigorating  faith  in 
Christ  who  is  in  grave  doubt — not  only  on  such  matters  as  I 
referred  to  last  Sunday  morning,  but  on  topics  lying  still  nearer 
the  centre  of  things  ;  and  it  is  a  very  common  and  fatal  snare 
for  people  to  imagine  that  they  can  cover  their  faltering  confi- 
dence in  Him  by  appealing  to  these  secondary  difficulties. 

The  questions,  so  far  as  I  remember  them,  which  I  referred 
to  last  Sunday  are  and  must,  I  think,  for  a  long  time,  be  open 


534  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

questions  among  the  most  loyal  and  devout  Christians  who  have 
grown  up  among  the  conflicts  of  the  last  twenty  years. 

What  you  say  in  your  letter  lies  in  another  province.  That 
God  in  divers  manners  spoke  in  times  past  by  the  prophets,  that 
Judaism  was  from  Him — these  are  not  open  questions  to  any 
who  have  got  beyond  the  elements  of  Christian  Faith ;  but 
whether  the  Book  of  Jonah  is  literal  history — whether,  that  is,  it 
was  meant  to  be  literal  history — whether  the  early  chapters  of 
the  Book  of  Genesis  were  meant  to  be  literal  history,  whether 
the  Books  of  Chronicles  were  written  under  a  sacerdotal  bias — 
are  questions  which  may  be  determined  in  a  sense  contrary  to 
that  of  tradition  without  touching  the  Divine  and  supernatural 
character  of  the  ancient  revelation  ;  it  is  to  this  latter  that  Christ 
and  Christianity  are  pledged. 

Thank  you  very  much  for  your  kind  Christmas  present.  I 
hope  that  the  changing  years  are  bringing  to  you  an  ever  deep- 
ening joy  in  Him  whom  it  was  your  happiness  to  know  in  years 
which  were  comparatively  untroubled  by  the  storms  which  are 
beating  on  the  faith  of  so  many  of  our  younger  friends. 

I2/A  April  1882. 

Thank  you  very  much  for  your  letter.  It  touches  more 
questions  than  I  can  discuss  on  paper,  but  I  am  thankful  for 
every  assurance  of  interest  and  concern  in  the  deeper  life  of  the 
church.  About  this  I  have  been  for  some  time  past  more  than 
anxious.  For  the  three  winters  preceding  that  which  is  just 
passing  away,  I  declined  all  engagements  out  of  Birmingham  of 
a  controversial  and  agitating  kind,  and,  at  home,  dwelt  per- 
sistently on  the  central  and  elementary  aspects  of  the  gospel. 
The  result  was  profoundly  disappointing ;  the  apparent  success 
of  the  work  at  Carr's  Lane  was  less  than  during  the  time  that 
Mr.  Rogers  and  I  were  taking  our  heavy  work  on  behalf  of  the 
Liberation  Society. 

There  is  one  sentence  in  your  letter  which  struck  me  as 
indicating  a  grave  misconception.  You  speak  of  "  remarks  of  a 
depreciating  character"  on  "the  inspired  record"  made  for  the 
"conciliation  of  unbelievers."  If  any  such  purpose  as  this 
influenced  my  public  or  private  teaching  I  should  be  guilty  of 
what  seems  to  me  the  basest  treachery  to  truth.  But  I  am 
constantly  coming  across  indications  of  the  fatal  effect  of  refusing 
to  recognise  the  true  character  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  from 
time  to  time  am  grateful  for  the  discovery  that  God  has  used 
my  own  teaching  in  these  matters  to  prevent  a  wreck  of  faith. 
My  only  doubt  in  this  matter  is  whether  I  should  not  give  more 
frequent  prominence  to  what  I  fear  pains  others  besides  yourself. 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  535 

I  am  afraid  that  if  I  were  charged  with  desiring  to  conciliate 
believers,  most  impartial  judges  would  say  that  there  was  ground 
for  the  charge.  But  my  desire,  however  far  I  fall  short  of  it,  is 
to  bear  witness  to  the  truth. 


To  Mr.  E.  Mander 

2nd  December  18S6. 

You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  my  journey  to  London  on 
Tuesday,  which  deprived  me  of  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you, 
succeeded  beyond  hope.  An  arrangement  was  reached  which 
promises  to  terminate  troubles  which  have  extended  over  many 
years,  and  which  were  on  the  point  of  taking  two  great  Christian 
communities  into  the  law  courts  as  rivals  and  enemies.1 

I  am  sorry  to  hear  so  discouraging  an  account  of  your  health. 
One  of  the  hardest  things  in  connection  with  pain  and  weakness 
seems  to  be  that  whatever  merciful  help  we  receive  from  God, 
nothing  seems  to  come  of  it.  In  work,  if  God  gives  us  grace, 
there  is  something  to  show.  In  suffering,  God  may  give  us 
equal  grace,  and  it  all  seems  exhausted  in  merely  keeping  us 
from  impatience,  irritability,  and  discontent.  Perhaps  it  is  well 
for  us  all  to  have  some  months  in  life  during  which  Divine  help 
reaches  us  in  forms  which  cannot  minister  to  self-complacency. 
We  are  apt  to  take  some  credit  for  work,  though  we  acknowledge 
that  everything  that  is  good  in  it  comes  from  God ;  but  when 
the  whole  result — as  far  as  we  can  see — of  what  God  does  for 
us  is  to  keep  us  from  resentment,  melancholy,  and  other  forms 
of  evil  temper,  we  can  find  nothing  to  claim  as  our  own  :  our 
own  is  simply  the  evil  from  which  we  are  kept.  And  yet  during 
all  this  time  there  may  be  a  steady  growth  in  elements  of  life 
and  power  which  will  make  all  things  new  to  us  when  the  time 
for  activity  returns. 

I  earnestly  trust  that  you  may  have,  not  only  this  deliverance 
from  evil,  but,  if  God  sees  fit,  much  of  tranquil  joy  in  His  pre- 
sence and  love. 

To  the  Rev.  H.  Arnold  Thomas 

2$tk  October  1889. 
My  old  woman's  blessing  sent  me   on  to  the  hills;2  your 
letter  has  greatly  humbled  me.     It  seems  so  strange  and  im 

1  The  "  Tooting  Case  "  :  a  conflict  between  Congregationalists  and  Presby- 
terians for  possession  of  a  chapel. 

2  Mr.  Thomas  wrote  after  a  sermon  preached  at  Kensington — "Helping 
the  Minister  " — in  which  Dale  told  an  experience  of  his  own  : — 

"  There  are  times  when  the  most  buoyant  sink  into  despondency,  when  a 


536  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

possible  that  anything  I  have  said  can  have  been  of  any  service 
to  you  in  the  highest  ways,  that  I  can  hardly  believe  it  enough  to 
be  thankful  for  it.  But  I  feel  very  deeply  the  kindness  of  your 
letter,  and  am  more  grateful  for  that  than  I  can  say. 

How  natural  it  is  to  be  restless  and  dissatisfied  with  all  that 
we  can  do — not  natural  merely,  but  necessary,  inevitable,  if  we 
think  of  it  at  all.  I  have  almost  given  it  up  ;  the  results,  when  I 
think  at  all  of  my  own  work,  are  so  miserable.  But  when  a 
man  whom  I  never  saw  gets  on  to  the  step  of  a  railway  carriage 
and  thanks  me  with  tears  in  his  eyes — as  happened  some  time  ago 
— or  a  poor  woman  blesses  me  in  the  streets,  I  take  heart  and  am 
happy.  The  great  thing,  however,  is  self-oblivion  and  the  con- 
stant thought  of  Christ  and  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and  the  vision 
of  God.  I  never  knew  any  man,  however,  except  my  dear  old 
friend  T.  H.  Gill,  the  author  of  the  hymns,  with  whom  that 
vision  was  constant.  He  told  me  some  years  ago  that  for  many 
years,  except  for  the  briefest  intervals,  he  had  lived  in  the  very 
light  of  God ;  that  when  the  cloud  came  he  prayed,  and  the 
light  returned.  It  seemed  to  me  very  wonderful.  I  am  not 
quite  sure  that  the  unbroken  glory  is  what  we  all  ought  to  expect. 

Do  you  remember  expressing  your  apprehensions  to  me  about 
parts  of  a  sermon  I  preached  at  Highbury  once  on  "  Not  having 
my  own  righteousness  "  ?  I  thought  I  knew  something  about 
that  truth  then  ;  I  think  now  that  perhaps  your  apprehensions 
were  excited  because,  through  not  knowing  enough,  I  put  it  very 
imperfectly.  Of  late  it  has  come  to  me  with  such  clearness  and 
force  that  I  feel  that  I  never  knew  it  before ;  but  I  cannot  put 
it ;  what  I  say  seems  to  miss  the  best  part  of  what  I  have  seen. 
Dr.  Wace  called  on  me  a  few  days  ago ;  his  loyalty  to  Luther 
made  him  kindle  when  I  spoke  of  it.  I  wonder  whether  we 
shall  soon  get  a  statement  of  Justification  by  Faith  that  will  be 
intellectually  satisfactory.  The  Atonement  and  Justification — 
not  Forgiveness  merely — are  rooted,  as  I  now  see,  in  the  same 
truth,  and  it  is  not  very  easy  to  hold  the  one  completely  without 
the  other.     The  new  apprehension  of  what  Justification  means 

gray,  chilly  mist  creeps  over  the  soul  of  those  who  have  the  largest  happiness 
in  the  service  of  God,  and  then  they  feel  as  if  all  their  strength  was  gone. 
Not  very  long  ago — if  I  may  venture  once  more  to  speak  of  myself — one  of 
these  evil  moods  was  upon  me  ;  but  as  I  was  passing  along  one  of  the  streets 
of  Birmingham,  a  poor  but  decently  dressed  woman,  laden  with  parcels, 
stopped  me  and  said,  '  God  bless  you,  Dr.  Dale  !  '  Her  face  was  unknown 
to  me.  I  said,  '  Thank  you,  but  what  is  your  name  ?  '  '  Never  mind  my 
name,'  she  answered  ;  'but  if  you  could  only  know  how  you  have  made  me 
feel  hundreds  of  times,  and  what  a  happy  home  you  have  given  me  ! — God 
bless  you  ! '  The  mist  broke,  the  sunlight  came,  I  breathed  the  free  air  of 
the  mountains  of  God." — Fellowship  with  Christ,  pp.  301,  302. 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  537 

has  greatly  contributed  to  confirm  all  that  I  believed  before  about 
the  Atonement. 

But  I  did  not  intend  to  write  you  so  much  ;  but  only  to  thank 
you  from  my  heart  for  the  strength  and  joy  that  will  come  to 
me  some  day  from  the  remembrance  of  your  letter,  and  for  the 
kindness  which  moved  you  to  write  it,  which  already  gives  me 
great  pleasure. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Crosskey 

Ztfh  August  18S6. 

From  my  very  heart  I  sympathise  with  you  in  your  great 
trouble ; 1  but  there  is  little  to  be  said  except  to  commend  you 
to  God.  It  is  the  sense  of  His  presence,  apart  from  any  con- 
solation that  can  be  put  into  words,  that  gives  strength  to  bear 
the  desolation.  Leo  had  a  great  charm  even  for  friends  like 
myself  who  saw  him  rarely.  What  he  must  have  been  to  you 
and  Mrs.  Crosskey,  I  cannot  imagine. 

To  you  and  me  who  have  to  talk  to  other  people  in  then- 
sorrow,  these  cruel  experiences  are,  I  suppose,  among  the 
necessary  elements  of  our  discipline ;  they  compel  us  to  touch 
ground  and  to  verify  our  own  words.  I  suppose  that  God 
Himself  could  not  be  our  Consoler  unless  in  a  very  real  and 
deep  sense  the  sorrows  of  the  creation  caused  Him  grief. 

God  be  with  you  and  yours,  who  are  also  His. 


To  

zyhjuly  187S. 

Your  last  letter  troubles  me.  I  was  hoping  when  you  were 
here  that  you  had  learned  what  seemed  to  me  to  be  the  truth 
which  for  the  hour  has  supreme  claims  on  you  :  "  They  also 
serve  who  only  stand  and  wait."  You  say  you  are  eager  to 
"  live  "  ;  but  you  have  been  "  living  "  at  so  intense  a  rate  that 
but  for  some  pause,  and  a  tolerably  prolonged  one,  life  would 
soon  be  spent.  Indeed  quietness  is  indispensable  if  you  are  tc 
have  the  fruit  of  past  suffering  and  thought.  Not  until  you 
have  recovered  completely  from  all  the  agitation  and  excitement, 
can  you  so  master  the  contents  of  your  own  present  thinking  as 
to  make  it  possible  either  for  yourself  or  others  to  say  how  much 
is  to  endure,  how  much  is  to  pass  away. 

Take  the  chief  point  you  raise  in  your  last  letter,  that  the 

1  The  death  of  a  son. 


538  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

philosophical  side  of  revelation  seems  to  you  greater  than  its 
redemptive  element ;  I  suppose  this  really  means  that  when  for 
the  first  time  the  redemptive  work  of  Christ  takes  its  place  in 
the  eternal  life  of  God,  the  temporal  incidents  of  His  redemptive 
work  are  dwarfed  by  the  infinite  abysses  from  which  they 
emerge.  The  impression  is  a  very  natural  one,  but  I  should 
like  to  know  how  it  looks  to  you  when  the  tumult  with  which 
you  have  welcomed  this  aspect  of  truth  is  over.  Perhaps  then 
you  may  see  that  the  temporal  incidents  of  Christ's  redemptive 
work  suggest  a  great  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  Divine  relation 
to  the  universe,  and  constitute  the  visible  manifestation  of  the 
supreme  moment  in  the  eternal  life  of  God.  But  time,  peace, 
and  the  subsidence  of  the  recent  exaltation  are  necessary  for 
the  review. 

"  Cumbering  the  ground  "  ?  no — you  want  God's  will  done 
in  your  life — His,  not  yours ;  don't  quarrel  with  Him,  or  become 
restless,  if  you  find  that  His  will  is  not  what  you  would  like  it 
to  be ;  it  must  be  better. 

Have  you  ever  thought  of  Christ's  thirty  years  before  His 
ministry  began  ?  I  wonder  whether  He  was  eager  to  begin  to 
live ;  I  think  not.  He  had  learnt  the  last  secret  which  you,  I 
hope,  will  learn  soon — that  the  law  of  life  is  to  leave  all  to  the 
Divine  will — to  do  nothing  if  that  seems  the  result  of  leaving  all 
to  God's  will. 

I  do  not  know  whether  I  have  made  my  meaning  clear. 
God  keep  you. 

TO  

26th  May  1883. 

I  suppose  that  the  intolerable  sense  of  void  and  chaos  which 
comes  to  us  at  times  is  one  of  the  necessary  conditions  of  a  new 
creation,  and  in  the  history  of  the  soul  new  creations  come 
often.  Geologists  may  be  right  in  being  suspicious  of  cata- 
strophes, but  in  the  diviner  regions  evolution  is  not  a  peaceful 
movement — it  goes  on  through  darkness,  agitation,  confusion. 
But  you  know  the  beginning — the  thought  of  God  ;  and  the  end 
— the  perfect  recovery  of  God.     Have  courage  and  wait. 


To  Miss  Gertrude  Smith 

yd  Maixh  1879. 

I  think  that  we  must  "  give  account "  of  all  the  deeds  done 
in  the  body.     God  removes  our  sins  from  us  "  as  far  as  the  east 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  539 

is  from  the  west,"  not  permitting  them  to  come  between  our- 
selves and  Him,  not  permitting  them  to  interfere  with  the 
manifestation  of  His  love  and  the  free  communication  of  His 
Spirit ;  and  yet  they  will  affect  our  eternal  position.  Forgive- 
ness removes  all  personal  antagonism  on  God's  part  towards  us, 
but  does  not  undo  all  the  effects  of  our  wrong-doing.  The  sins 
which  we  have  repented  of  and  forsaken  will  not  bring  us  into 
"condemnation,"  but  there  will  be  so  much  less,  on  their 
account,  for  God  to  reward. 

Self-examination  is  a  very  necessary  thing  now  and  then,  but 
I  think  that  when  we  are  at  the  Lord's  Supper  we  should  think 
of  Christ,  not  of  ourselves. 

I  hope  that  you  are  well  and  happy,  working  hard  in  order  to 
please  God,  and  rejoicing  in  your  knowledge  of  His  love  to 
you. 


in  d  December  1886. 

You  cannot  tell  what  pleasure  it  gave  me  to  find  that  you 
remembered  my  birthday  in  Rome.  The  letter  came  yesterday 
and  the  flowers  this  morning.  You  tell  me  that  Bertha  and  you 
sent  violets ;  but  a  fairy  must  have  put  in  a  rose  on  the  road. 
Is  not  that  a  happy  omen  ? 

Yes ;  I  had  heard  of  your  engagement,  and  that  "  Harry  "  is 
said  to  be  very  nice.  You  must  excuse  me  for  speaking  of  him 
so  disrespectfully,  but  I  do  not  think  that  I  have  heard  his  other 
name.  However,  as  I  tell  my  children's  class,  our  Christian 
name  is  our  real  name ;  the  other  is  mere  surplus,  or  surname. 
That  is  always  a  pleasant  thought  to  me.  My  real  name — my 
own  name — is  that  which  reminds  me  of  my  relation  to  Christ. 

I  hope  that  you  are  dreaming  dreams  and  seeing  visions  of 
future  happiness.  Don't  be  afraid  of  expecting  too  much  from 
earthly  affection  ;  only  expect  more  from  the  Divine  love.  God 
bless  you  both — I  mean  you  and  "Harry." 


To  Miss  Colman 

December  1881. 

Hearty  thanks  for  the  very  pretty  Christmas  card  and  a 
Happy  New  Year  to  you. 

I  hope  that  your  Newnham  life  will  yield  you  all  the  accessions 
of  intellectual  interest  and  strength  that  you  are  hoping  to 
receive  from  it.     The  years  in  which  we  are  consciously  ad- 


540  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

vancing  into  new  provinces  of  intellectual  activity  are  years  of 
romance  and  are  memorable  for  ever. 

I  suppose  that  like  all  the  specially  intense  forms  of  life  this, 
too,  has  its  perils ;  you  are  happy  if  these  perils  are  not  touch- 
ing you.  To  me  the  chief  form  of  danger  seems  to  lie  in  the 
influence  which  intellectual  excitements  sometimes  exert  in 
withdrawing  us  from  those  personal  relationships  in  which  the 
ethical  life  reaches  its  complete  development.  Some  of 
us  are  more  likely  to  give  way  to  this  inducement  than 
others :  the  life  of  the  home,  of  society,  of  the  church,  loses  its 
hold  on  us  when  we  are  under  the  spell  of  the  enchanted 
lands  of  the  intellect ;  books  become  dearer  to  us  than  friends 
and  kindred;  and  the  commonplace  interests  of  everyday  life, 
since  they  do  not  bring  with  them  any  intellectual  stimulus, 
cease  to  be  attractive.  If  without  presumption,  as  one  who 
has  known  something  of  this  danger,  I  may  venture  to  speak  of 
it  to  you,  I  should  like  to  suggest  that  it  is  very  real,  very  subtle, 
and  very  grave.  And  yet,  looking  at  your  life,  I  think  you 
must  be  safer  from  it  than  many  are. 

The  direct  religious  peril  seems  to  me,  in  most  cases,  far  less 
serious  than  the  ethical  danger ;  and  if  the  ethical  danger  is 
overcome,  religious  faith  and  earnestness  are,  I  think,  likely  to 
be  uninjured. 

You  are  having,  I  trust,  a  very  merry  Christmas  ;  this,  too,  is 
a  most  wholesome  defence  against  the  intellectual  absorption  of 
which  I  have  ventured  to  speak. 


To  Miss  Helen  Colman 

4///  December  1SS2. 

I  wonder  how  it  is  that  you  are  all  so  good  to  me.  I  was 
charmed  at  receiving  your  card  and  good  wishes  last  Friday. 
It  must  seem  to  you  a  very  long  way  from  your  age  to  mine ; 
but  looking  back  you  will  find  it  very  short.  And  what  strikes 
one  more  and  more  is  the  permanence  of  one's  early  life — the 
identity  between  youth  and  mature  manhood.  I  do  not  mean 
that  God  has  not  lifted  me  out  of  many  unsatisfactory  things 
which  surrounded  and  entangled  me  when  I  was  your  age,  but 
that  every  habit,  good  and  evil,  of  those  early  years  seems  to 
have  permanently  affected  my  whole  life.  The  battle  is  largely 
lost  or  won  before  it  seems  to  begin.  The  Temptation  in  the 
Wilderness  determines,  or  largely  determines,  our  fate.  You, 
my  dear  Helen,  are  I  trust  making  a  good  fight. 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  541 

To  Miss  Colman 

29th  July  18S4, 

Looking  back  upon  the  time — it  seems  very  long  ago 
— when  I  was  your  age  I  think  I  remember  regarding  the 
customary  birthday  wish  as  a  very  poor  one.  Happiness  seemed 
to  me  in  those  days  an  ignoble  thing.  I  have  learnt  since 
what  a  wonderful  blending  of  many  rare  and  precious  things — 
of  high  personal  elements  in  oneself  and  others  and  of  felicitous 
circumstances — is  necessary  to  make  happiness  possible.  Not 
in  childhood — for  children  achieve  happiness  easily.  But  as 
life  goes  on,  happiness  comes  to  be  more  and  more  the  crown 
of  loyalty  to  the  ideal  of  life :  and  even  this  is  not  enough ; 
those  whose  lives  are  a  part  of  our  life  must  share  the  loyalty, 
or  else  happiness  is  impossible.  So  that  I  have  come  to  regard 
happiness  as  being  something  much  greater  than  it  seemed  to 
be  when  life  was  all  before  me ;  and  in  wishing  you  happiness  I 
include  nearly  everything  that  can  contribute  to  what  in  the  very 
highest  sense  of  the  word  is  a  successful  life. 

I  am  reading  Maurice's  Life  again,  or  rather  am  having  it 
read  to  me.  He  seems  to  have  had  more  than  a  suspicion  that 
the  discomfort  with  which  he  received  the  affection  and  honour 
of  his  friends  lay  very  near  the  root  of  all  false  relations  to  God. 
He  did  not  quite  learn  the  secret,  but  he  nearly  learnt  it.  What 
he  wanted  was  to  be  conscious  that  he  deserved  all  the  love  and 
trust  that  came  to  him.  I  am  more  and  more  clear  about  this, 
that  we  must  be  content  to  know  that  the  best  things  come  to 
us  both  from  man  and  God  without  our  deserving  them.  We 
are  under  grace,  not  under  law.  Not  until  we  have  beaten  down 
our  pride  and  self-assertion  so  as  to  be  able  to  take  everything 
from  earth  and  heaven  just  as  a  child  takes  everything,  without 
raising  the  question,  Do  I  deserve  this  or  not  ?  or  rather  with 
the  habitual  conviction  that  we  deserve  nothing  and  are  content 
that  it  should  be  so,  do  we  get  into  right  relations  either  with 
our  Father  in  heaven  or  with  the  brothers  and  sisters  about  us. 
That  principle  is  capable  of  a  most  fatal  conception,  but  in  its 
truth  it  is  one  of  the  secrets  of  righteousness  and  joy.  The  crav- 
ing to  deserve  can  never  be  satisfied ;  we  have  rather  to  try  to  be 
grateful  for  what  we  do  not  deserve. 

I  am  not  sure  what  has  led  me  into  this  dissertation  so  unfit 
for  a  birthday  letter ;  it  came,  however,  from  what  I  said  about 
happiness. 


542                                       LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 
TO   


$th  December  1885. 


It  was  really  very  good  of  you  to  write  to  me.  To  be  assured 
that  God  has  used  words  of  mine  to  suggest  fresh  discoveries  of 
His  grace  and  power  to  those  who  have  listened  to  me,  is  a 
delight  which  never  loses  its  freshness — is  as  fresh  as  the  sun- 
shine is,  and  as  welcome. 

I  trust  that  you  are  getting  back  your  physical  strength  and 
are  conscious  of  it.  As  for  strength  of  the  higher  kind,  I  am 
gradually  coming  to  see  more  clearly  what,  of  course,  we  have 
all  seen  more  or  less  dimly  from  the  first — that  the  consciousness 
of  strength  is  nothing  more  than  the  consciousness  of  God. 
Strength  is  never  in  any  true  sense  ours :  we  are  but  streams 
from  the  eternal  Fountain.  It  is  the  consciousness  of  the  ful- 
ness of  the  Fountain  that  gives  us  courage.  But  we  are  all,  I 
suppose,  inclined  to  wish  to  be  lakes — or,  at  least,  little  pools — 
with  waters  of  our  own  to  be  conceited  about. 


To  Miss  Colman 

1st  December  1886. 

It  has  been  in  my  heart  to  write  to  you  nearly  every  day 
since  I  heard  that  you  had  been  unwell.  Not  that  it  seemed 
necessary  to  say  anything  to  you  that  would  not  occur  to  your 
own  mind,  but  chiefly  to  assure  you  of  what  you  very  well  know 
— that  when  the  even  course  of  a  friend's  life  is  broken  either 
by  sorrow  or  weakness,  or  by  joy,  there  is  a  special  appeal  to 
affectionate  thought  and  sympathy. 

These  periods  of  weakness  which  seem  to  come  to  you  every 
now  and  then  must  not  be  thought  of  as  though  they  were  waste 
places  in  life,  nor  need  you  be  curious  and  anxious  to  discover 
what  profit  they  yield  either  to  yourself  or  others.  It  is  part  of 
that  faith  which  the  infinite  goodness  and  wisdom  of  God  should 
command,  to  believe  that  He  is  still  disciplining  us  to  perfection 
and  drawing  from  our  lives  the  power  of  service  He  desires,  even 
when  all  activity  is  interrupted.  I  wonder  whether  you  have 
discovered  that  in  times  of  physical  depression  the  great  common- 
places of  our  higher  knowledge  seem  to  gain  infinitely  in  charm 
and  dignity.  In  health  and  vigour  we  are  apt,  especially  in 
youth,  to  be  adventurous;  we  press  to  the  boundaries  of 
ascertained  truth  and  try  to  cross  them  ;  but  if  I  may  judge 
from   experience  and    observation,    we    come    home   when   our 


THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  SORROW  543 

strength  abates  and  learn  that  the  freshest  things  are  the  oldest, 
and  the  most  wonderful  the  most  familiar. 


To  

1st  December  1890. 

M.  says  you  don't  eat  enough  and  don't  sleep  enough.  If  I 
were  re-editing  the  Ten  Commandments  I  should  add  another 
two  and  make  them  twelve.  These  ancient  Jews  did  not  need 
any  command  either  to  sleep  or  to  eat ;  they  did  both  whenever 
they  had  a  chance.  But  we  have  invented  new  sins :  we  who 
ought  to  have  learned  something  of  the  mystery  of  the  trans- 
figuration of  matter  and  the  wonderful  kinship  of  dust  and  the 
spirit  of  man,  have  come  to  be  careless  about  the  body,  and 
treat  it  as  a  foe,  not  as  an  ally  and  a  friend.  Philosophical  and 
religious  asceticism  is  responsible  for  a  great  deal  of  misery  and 
sin.  Please  eat  more  and  sleep  more,  and  be  happy,  and  so 
contribute  to  the  happiness  of  your  friends. 

Thank  you,  too,  for  your  letter,  and  thank  you  very  much. 
I  cannot  answer  your  main  question ;  but  I  think  I  see  the 
direction  in  which  the  answer  lies.  Mr.  Latham  in  his  Pastot 
Pastorum  brings  out  very  forcibly  a  truth  which  I  suppose  most 
thoughtful  Christian  people  have  always  recognised  more  or  less 
distinctly — that  Christ  in  His  treatment  of  His  apostles  always 
respected  their  personal  freedom,  never  mastered  them  by  the 
sheer  force  of  the  manifestation  of  all  that  He  was.  They  were 
not  granted  the  more  overpowering  disclosures  till  the  less  im- 
pressive had  had  time  to  work  and  to  pass  into  life.  And  so 
the  manifestations  of  Himself  after  the  Resurrection  were  given 
only  to  those  who  had  already  believed  on  Him. 

I  can  imagine  that  some  manifestations  of  Christ  would 
destroy  rather  than  perfect  our  freedom :  we  have  to  grow  to 
them.  But  it  is  a  large  subject.  How  often  in  past  years  have 
I  had  the  thought  which  you  express  in  your  letter !  It  would 
save  us  so  much,  we  think,  if  what  comes  to  most  of  us  late 
came  early ;  but  I  suppose  we  are  not  able  to  bear  it. 


TO  

S>th  December  1894. 

Thank  you  very  much  for  the  portrait.1     It  is  very  beautiful. 
I   could   not   have  imagined   that   any  photograph   could    have 

1  Of  the  Bishop  of  Durham. 


544 


LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 


given  so  perfectly  what  one  desires  to  see  in  a  portrait  of 
Westcott.     It  will  be  a  happiness  and  consolation  to  look  at  it. 

Thank  you,  too,  very  much  for  your  letter.  I  am  grateful 
for  everything  that  encourages  me  to  hope  that  I  may  still  be  a 
channel  through  which  God's  grace  reaches  men :  the  channel 
seems  to  me  at  times  almost  closed  in  places,  and  in  other  places 
broken  ;  but  if  the  Divine  waters  can  still  trickle  through,  and  are 
not  made  too  brackish  by  the  impurities  over  which  they  pass,  I 
am  very  thankful. 

I  have  been  very  glad  lately  to  think  that  you  seemed  more 
vigorous  and  buoyant,  and  to  hope  that  this  was  a  sign  that  your 
spiritual  heaven  was  clearer  of  clouds.  But  it  is  a  great  thing 
to  be  able  to  bear  up  notwithstanding  the  clouds.  I  sometimes 
think  that  in  the  case  of  those  who  are  not  tried  by  sharp  out- 
ward temptations  to  break  God's  commandments,  the  trial  may 
come  in  inward  temptations  to  distrust  His  grace.  It  would  be 
a  bad  business  for  us  if  we  were  not  tried  in  some  way. 


BOOK   IV 


2   N 


CHAPTER    XXI 

THE    EDUCATION    COMMISSION    AND    THE    AUSTRALIAN 
VISIT 

A  new  stage  in  life — The  Royal  Commission  on  Elementary  Education — His 
colleagues — Examination  of  witnesses — The  conscience  clause  —  The 
Education  Act  of  1S70  not  a  concession  to  Nonconformists — Religious 
Education  and  its  nature— Nonconformist  grievances— The  Australian 
visit — The  outward  voyage — Arrival  at  Hobart — "  Impressions  of 
Australia  " — A  purely  religious  mission — Work  in  South  Australia — 
Illness  in  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales — Results  of  the  work — Letter 
from  the  Bishop  of  Adelaide — The  voyage  home. 

On  looking  back,  it  is  plain  that  the  year  1886  was  Aged  56. 
the  beginning  of  a  new  period  in  Dale's  life,  when  the 
activities  and  interests  that  had  drawn  so  largely  on  his 
time  and  strength  were  rapidly  to  decline.  Such  changes 
indeed  are  rarely  apparent  at  their  coming.  The  stages 
of  our  progress  melt  imperceptibly  one  into  another.  The 
ridge  is  reached  and  passed  before  we  know  it ;  and  not 
until  it  lies  behind  us  do  we  discern  the  downward  slope 
and  the  streams  racing  with  us  to  the  valley  and  the  sea. 
Quite  apart  from  all  other  troubles,  Dale  was  already  en- 
feebled and  depressed  by  a  succession  of  calamities — the 
death  of  his  brother,  the  loss  of  his  child,  his  own  illness. 
And  now  each  year  as  it  passed  taught  him  more  of  the 
sad  experiences  of  age — in  the  loosening  of  ties,  the  sur- 
render of  hopes,  the  ebb  of  vital  energy  which  debars  from 
work  that  was  once  a  delight.  But  the  passage  from 
strength  to  infirmity  was  gradual.  The  shadows  lengthened 
slowly ;  darkness  did  not  come  at  one  stride.  There  was 
still  time  for  service. 

For  more  than  two  years  he  was   kept  in   touch  with 


548  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

public  affairs  and  public  men  by  his  duties  as  a  member 
of  the  Royal  Commission  appointed  to  inquire  into  the 
working  of  the  Elementary  Education  Acts  in  England 
and  Wales  ;  even  after  he  had  withdrawn  from  general 
politics,  this  tie  remained  unbroken.  When  the  nomina- 
tion was  first  offered  to  him  in  1885,  he  accepted  it  with 
reluctance.  The  burden,  he  knew,  would  be  heavy.  An 
inquiry  covering  so  wide  a  range  and  including  such  a 
mass  of  detail  could  not  fail  to  be  protracted.  And  as  a 
representative  of  Nonconformist  interests,  he  foresaw  that 
he  would  have  to  fight  ineffectually  against  a  hostile 
majority.  But  he  felt  that  he  could  not  honourably  refuse 
to  serve,  and  he  learnt  with  relief  that  he  would  have  for 
a  colleague  Mr.  Henry  Richard  who,  though  not  an  expert 
in  educational  affairs,  had  taken  an  active  part  in  the 
controversies  of  1870,  and  thoroughly  understood  the 
religious  difficulties  that  would  inevitably  be  raised.  Mr. 
Mundella's  resignation  before  the  Commission  had  settled 
to  its  work,  made  room  for  Mr.  Lyulph  Stanley,  whose 
help  Dale  had  always  been  anxious  to  secure,  on  account 
of  his  mastery  of  the  Education  Acts  in  every  detail  of 
their  operation,  and  also  for  the  courage  and  the  tenacity 
with  which  he  had  upheld  the  national  as  against  the 
denominational  system  ;  his  accession  doubled  the  strength 
of  the  minority.1  Several  letters  passed  between  Dale 
and  Mr.  Richard  before  the  Commission  assembled,  and 
while  the  order  of  its  procedure  was  under  discussion. 
Another  letter,  written  to  his  wife,  gives  us  a  glimpse  of 
what  went  on  inside  the  Committee  room  at  Westminster. 

1  The  Commissioners  were — Viscount  Cross  (Chairman),  Cardinal  Man- 
ning, the  Earl  of  Harrowby,  Earl  Beauchamp,  the  Bishop  of  London  (Dr. 
Temple),  Lord  Norton,  Sir  Francis  Sandford  (Under-Secretary  for  Scotland), 
Mr.  Mundella,  Sir  John  Lubbock  (M.P.  for  the  University  of  London),  Sir 
Bernhard  Samuelson  (M.P.  for  Banbury),  Dr.  Rigg,  Dr.  Dale,  Canon  Gregory, 
Canon  B.  F.  Smith,  the  Rev.  T.  D.  C.  Morse,  Mr.  C.  H.  Alderson  (one  of 
the  Charity  Commissioners),  Mr.  J.  G.  Talbot  (M.P.  for  the  University  of 
Oxford),  Mr.  S.  C.  Buxton,  Mr.  T.  E.  Heller,  Mr.  B.  C.  Molloy  (M.P.  for 
Birr  division,  King's  County,  Ireland),  Mr.  Samuel  Rathbone,  Mr.  Henry 
Richard  (M.P.  for  Merthyr  Tydvil),  Mr.  George  Shipton. 

Mr.  Heller  was  appointed  as  representing  the  Teachers  in  Elementary 
Schools ;  Mr.  Shipton  as  representing  the  Trades  Unions  and  the  working 


THE  EDUCATION  COMMISSION  549 

To  Mr.  Henry  Richard 

2%th  December  1SS5. 

I  am  very  glad  that  you  have  consented  to  serve  on  the 
Royal  Commission.  My  own  judgment  was  that  I  was  bound 
to  serve  even  if  I  was  alone,  and  in  this  both  Chamberlain  and 
Crosskey  concurred.  The  best  man  we  could  get  would,  I 
imagine,  be  Lyulph  Stanley — better,  for  this  purpose,  than  Illing- 
worth. 

I  have  been  off  the  School  Board  for  five  years ;  I  found  the 
work  too  oppressive  in  addition  to  my  governorship  of  the 
Grammar  School,  which  has  been  a  very  serious  business.  I  am, 
therefore,  not  so  familiar  with  questions  affecting  the  Code  as  I 
was,  and  I  suppose  that  Stanley  is  fresh  in  that  department  of 
the  subject. 

My  present  judgment  is  that  we  should  work  for  the  extreme 
position — universal  School  Boards,  free  education,  and  pure 
secularism,  with  whatever  arrangements  are  necessary  for  making 
a  transition  to  that  position. 

26th  January  1886. 

Do  you  not  think  that  it  would  be  well  for  us  to  have  a  talk 
before  the  meeting  of  the  Commission  on  Thursday  ?  I  know 
nothing  about  the  way  that  Commissions  go  to  work,  and  you 
could  tell  me.  We  might  also  consider  what  our  line  is  to  be. 
It  strikes  me  that  we  shall  be  very  much  alone. 

13th  February  1S86. 

I  agree  with  you  that  something  should  be  done  to  strengthen 
our  side,  and  we  will  have  a  talk  about  men.  On  examining 
Temple's x  proposals,  I  found  that  some  of  the  most  important 
questions  have  been  overlooked,  and  I  have  made  notes  for 
suggestions  on  Tuesday.  The  two  main  points  I  propose  to 
raise  are  the  insertion  of  two  additional  main  sections — the 
first,  raising  the  contentious  matter  suggested  by  every  sub-divi- 
sion under  (2);  the  second,  raising  the  question  of  the  compara- 
tive educational. efficiency  of  board  schools  and  denominational 
schools ;  in  this,  we  shall  get  the  aid  of  a  fair  number  of  our 
present  colleagues,  and  it  is  a  vital  question  for  us. 

My  preference  is  for  Temple's  order:  Morse's  points — most  of 
them — come  under  one  or  other  of  Temple's ;  and  the  rest,  with 
one  possible  exception,  are  covered  by  mine. 

1  Now  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 


55o  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 


To  his  Wife 

National  Liberal  Club, 
gtk  March  1886. 

I  had  a  very  pleasant  journey  up :  it  was  not  very  cold,  and 
the  train  kept  excellent  time.  After  lunch  I  got  to  the  Commis- 
sion, and  we  had  a  long  discussion  on  proposals  for  the  guidance 
of  our  inquiry.  Mine  were  accepted  without  any  objection. 
The  Cardinal1  is  becoming  more  insinuating  and  gracious  than 
ever.  I  was  talking  to  Canon  Gregory,  and  he  came  up  to  us 
and  said  :  "  Now  we  must  find  out  some  scheme  under  which  all 
our  schools  can  work  freely ;  if  we  three  could  agree  on  any 
scheme  we  should  settle  the  whole  question."  He  then  looked 
at  me  and  said  :  "You  must  help  us  to  agreement."  I  laughed 
and  said :  "  Your  Eminence  seems  to  think  that  you  and  Canon 
Gregory  need  the  help  ;  I  will  do  what  I  can."  The  old  man 
seemed  amused.     We  had  a  long  and  a  rather  tedious  sitting. 

The  Commission  met  on  Tuesday  and  Wednesday  in 
every  week.  As  a  rule  Dale  went  up  to  London  on  the 
Tuesday  morning  and  returned  on  the  Wednesday  night ; 
sometimes,  however,  the  work  broke  into  another  day. 
During  the  first  eighteen  months  he  very  rarely  missed  a 
meeting.  Outside  the  Commission  many  hours  had  to  be 
spent  in  studying  the  details  of  the  questions  coming  up 
for  discussion,  and  in  preparation  for  examining  witnesses 
on  the  evidence  they  were  expected  to  give.  In  fact, 
while  the  Commission  was  sitting,  it  entirely  absorbed  his 
leisure.  But  though  the  strain  was  severe,  he  enjoyed  the 
work.  To  be  associated  in  such  a  task  with  men  like  the 
Bishop  of  London,  Cardinal  Manning,  Canon  Gregory,  and 
Dr.  Rigg,  was  an  honour  and  a  pleasure.  From  Viscount 
Cross— the  Chairman — and  from  Lord  Norton,  he  met 
with  much  courtesy  and  consideration.  He  was  accus- 
tomed to  work  with  friends,  and  he  made  friends  in  work- 
ing. His  personal  relations  with  his  colleagues  were  very 
cordial,  especially  with  those  who  took  the  most  active 
part  in  the  inquiry.  For  Mr.  Richard,  of  whom  in  spite 
of    political   sympathy  and   co-operation  he  had  known 

1  Cardinal  Manning. 


THE  EDUCATION  COMMISSION  55: 

but  little,  he  came  to  feel  a  strong  affection,  not  without 
regret  that  acquaintance  had  been  so  late  in  ripening  into 
friendship. 

His  earlier  interest  in  elementary  education  and  its 
problems  soon  revived.  The  Minutes  of  evidence  as 
reported  in  the  three  thick  volumes  issued  by  the  Com- 
mission attest  his  vigour  and  assiduity.  His  experience 
at  the  Birmingham  School  Board  had  made  him  familiar 
with  most  of  the  points  on  which  evidence  was  taken,  and 
he  had  done  what  he  could  to  extend  his  knowledge  to 
the  more  recent  developments  of  the  educational  system. 
It  would  be  useless  to  attempt  even  to  indicate  the  variety 
of  the  subjects  which  came  under  consideration  :  the 
syllabus  of  "  points  for  inquiry "  fills  six  pages  of  the 
Blue  Book,  and  almost  every  one  of  these  "  points " 
involves  a  number  of  subordinate  details.  Questions  of 
religion  and  morality  ;  methods  of  mental,  technical,  and 
physical  instruction  ;  methods  of  organisation,  inspection, 
and  examination  ;  the  position  and  qualifications  of 
teachers  already  in  employment  and  of  those  under  train- 
ing for  their  profession  ;  the  various  requirements  of  pupils 
of  all  ages  and  capacities — boys,  girls,  infants  ;  questions 
relating  to  children  at  school,  to  those  who  should  have 
been  there  but  were  not,  and  to  those  who  had  left  school  ; 
the  relation  of  central  to  local  authority  ;  economic 
questions  of  grants  in  aid  and  of  fees  ;  the  interests  of 
denominational  schools  in  competition  with  board  schools, 
of  schools  in  the  country  and  schools  in  the  town  ; — all 
these  matters,  and  many  others  of  equal  importance  and 
complexity,  had  to  be  discussed  and  dealt  with  from  every 
point  of  view. 

From  the  outset  Dale  took  an  active  part  in  question- 
ing the  witnesses  who  presented  themselves  before  the 
Commissioners,  and  in  his  cross-examination  he  showed 
skill  and  resource.  Most  of  the  points  at  issue  were  of  a 
technical  kind,  but  one  or  two  examples  may  be  selected 
that  will  be  generally  intelligible,  though  as  they  relate 
only  to  one  type  of  questions  they  inadequately  represent 
the  diversity  of  his  interests. 


552  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

One  of  the  matters  in  dispute  was  the  efficiency  of  the 
conscience  clause  as  a  means  of  protection  for  the  children 
of  Nonconformists,  especially  in  the  rural  districts.  In 
reply  to  the  Earl  of  Harrowby,  the  Rev.  D.  J.  Stewart, 
one  of  H.M.  Chief  Inspectors  of  Schools  asserted  his 
belief  that  the  conscience  clause  was  quite  effective. 
Dale  then  proceeded  to  elicit  his  conception  of 
"  efficiency." 

You  said  I  think,  yesterday,  that  in  your  judgment  the  con- 
science clause  is  quite  effective  ? — I  should  say  so. 

Can  you  tell  us  what  it  "effects"? — Perfect  protection  for 
the  child  and  the  child's  parents. 

But,  as  I  understand,  you  have  rarely  seen  a  child  protected 
by  it  ? — I  said  that  I  had  rarely  seen  a  child  withdrawn. 

Will  you  explain  how  it  is  effective  if  it  protects  no  child  ? — I 
have  never  seen  any  cases  of  difficulty  about  the  religious 
instruction  given  to  children. 

But  a  provision  to  be  effective  must  "  effect  "  something  ? — 
Yes. 

And  as  I  understand  you  do  not  know  a  case  in  which  it  has 
effected  the  protection  of  a  child  from  religious  teaching  to 
which  its  parents  might  object? — I  have  never  heard  of  the 
parents  objecting  to  the  religious  teaching  in  the  schools  that  I 
have  had  to  visit. 

Would  you  not  rather  say  that  it  is  inoperative,  than  that  it  is 
effective,  if  it  is  never  put  into  operation  ? — I  should  not  say 
that. 

How  can  you  tell  the  effectiveness  of  a  provision  that  is 
never  used  ? — I  do  not  know  to  what  extent  it  may  be  used. 
All  I  say  is,  that  I  have  not  seen  more  than  one  or  two  cases  of 
children  being  withdrawn. 

How  do  you  know  that  there  is  no  desire  for  it  ? — So  far  as 
the  school  snowed  it  there  was  none. 

But  in  order  to  discover  that  you  must  examine  the  parents, 
must  you  not  ? — But  if  the  parents  had  objected,  I  think  I  must 
have  seen  it  in  the  schools. 

If  the  parents  wished  to  use  the  conscience  clause  you  mean 
that  you  would  have  seen  the  children  withdrawn  ? — Yes. 

But  supposing  that  the  parents  regarded  the  conscience 
clause  as  an  ineffective  instrument,  then  you  would  not  have 
seen  the  children  withdrawn  ? — I  cannot  say. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  so  far  as  you  are  aware,  the  conscience 
clause  does  not  protect  children  j  you  have  never  seen  children 


THE  EDUCATION  COMMISSION  553 

protected  by  it  ? — I  have  never  seen  children  withdrawn  in  any 
number.1 


It  has  often  been  alleged  by  the  supporters  of  de- 
nominational education  that  the  School  Board  system  as 
established  by  the  Act  of  1870  practically  amounts  to 
the  endowment  of  Nonconformist  principles  in  religion. 
Mr.  T.  W.  Allies — a  distinguished  convert  to  Roman 
Catholicism,  and  a  prominent  advocate  of  Roman  Catholic 
interests — assented  to  that  opinion  when  suggested  by 
Canon  Gregory  ;  he  also  described  voluntary  schools  as 
the  shelter  of  religious  liberty.  Dale  then  took  him  in 
hand. 

In  reply  to  Canon  Gregory  I  think  you  stated  that,  in  your 
judgment,  the  Act  of  1870  was  practically  an  endowment  of  the 
general  Nonconformist  type  of  religion  ? — In  so  far  as  it  erected 
what  had  been  the  practice  of  the  Nonconformist  schools  into 
the  principle  upon  which  the  board  schools  were  to  be  governed. 

Do  you  remember  that  there  was  a  very  serious  division  in 
the  Liberal  party  in  1870  on  the  question  of  the  Education 
Act  ? — Yes. 

Do  you  remember  who  it  was  that  opposed  the  religious 
settlement  of  1870? — I  think  that  great  opposition  was  made  to 
Mr.  Forster  upon  the  subject. 

But  by  whom  ? — I  forget  by  whom. 

Was  it  not  made  by  the  Nonconformists  of  England  generally  ? 
— I  think  so. 

They  did  not,  therefore,  regard  the  religious  settlement  as  a 
settlement  in  their  favour  ? — Perhaps  they  wanted  to  get  it  still 
more  in  their  favour. 

They  did  not  regard  it  as  a  settlement  in  their  favour  ? — I 
think  they  did ;  but  they  might  have  liked  something  more,  too. 
They  would  not  produce  it  of  their  own  accord ;  but  supposing 
that  it  was  produced,  as  now,  by  their  opponents,  they  would 
take  pride  in  the  fact  that  the  English  legislature  had  taken 
their  principles  of  school  government  and  applied  them  to  a  new 
class  of  school. 

Are  you  aware  that  there  was  a  considerable  secession  of 
Nonconformists  from  the  Liberal  party    on  the  ground  of  the 

1  First  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  work- 
ing of  the  Elementary  Education  Acts,  England  and  Wales,  1886  (3972- 
3984),  p.  149. 


554  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

settlement  of  1870?  That  does  not  look  as  if  they  were 
satisfied  with  it  ? — They  never  were  satisfied,  and  they  never 
will  be  satisfied,  I  think. 

You  would  hardly,  however,  claim,  I  presume,  to  be  an 
authority  on  Nonconformist  views  of  religion  and  education  ? — 
I  should  claim  to  understand  generally  their  principle,  because 
I  could  not  write  on  any  subject  of  the  kind  without  knowing  it. 

On  the  same  ground  as  a  Nonconformist  might  claim  to  be 
an  authority  upon  Catholic  opinion  ? — Yes,  if  he  thought  upon 
such  subjects. 

You  said,  did  you  not,  that  in  your  judgment  the  State  should 
give  the  same  assistance  to  all  schools  doing  the  same  work  ?■ — 
Yes. 

Does  not  that  principle  lead  to  the  entire  abolition  of  any 
voluntary  contributions  for  denominational  schools  ? — I  do  not 
see  it. 

How  can  board  schools  have  voluntary  contributions  ? — That 
is  only  putting  in  a  very  strong  form  the  objection  to  board 
schools,  as  it  seems  to  me. 

You  object  to  board  schools  altogether? — Yes,  certainly.1 

You  spoke  of  voluntary  schools  as  the  shelter  of  religious 
liberty,  I  think  ? — Yes. 

Are  you  aware  that  there  are  large  districts  in  England,  in 
which  it  is  impossible  for  there  to  be  more  than  one  school 
without  great  disadvantage  to  education  ? — Yes,  I  am  well  aware 
of  that  from  past  experience. 

And  under  the  present  denominational  system  the  children 
of  Nonconformists  are  obliged  to  attend  the  schools  of  the 
English  Church  from  which  their  parents  dissent  ? — Yes ;  that  is 
your  quarrel  with  the  Established  Church,  with  which  I  have 
nothing  to  do. 

I  wanted  to  know  exactly  how  in  such  cases  the  voluntary 
schools  were  the  shelter  of  religious  liberty? — I  suppose  you 
would  have  the  conscience  clause,  and  I  cannot  help  thinking 
that  with  regard  to  you,  as  well  as  with  regard  to  the  Established 
Church,  the  clause  is  perfectly  efficient  to  protect  you.  I  per- 
fectly recognise  the  condition  of  the  country  parishes,  because  I 
have  had  experience  of  that  very  state  of  things  which  you 
mention,  and  I  think  the  clause  there  will  protect  you  very 
fairly.  It  would  not  protect  us,  because  our  system  is  one  of 
definite  religious  teaching,  which  cannot  be  assimilated  with  the 

1  First  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  'work- 
ing of  the  Elementary  Education  Acts,  England  and  Wales,  1S86  (9565- 
9578),  P.  353- 


THE  EDUCATION  COMMISSION  555 

state  of  things.  It  is  a  positne  hardship  to  the  Catholic 
child. 

You  are  not  contrasting  your  religion  with  mine  on  the  point 
of  definite  religious  teaching,  are  you? — Not  at  all.  But  the 
difference  which  exists  between  the  position  of  the  Established 
Church  inhabitants  in  a  village  and  the  Dissenting  inhabitants, 
whoever  they  may  be,  is  very  slight  in  comparison  with  the 
difference  between  either  class  and  our  children,  if  they  are  put 
into  a  board  school  or  into  a  school  governed  by  the  conscience 
clause. 

Of  course,  of  that  we  are  the  best  judges  in  the  last  resort  ? 
— I  do  not  know  whether  you  are.1 

Another  witness — a  Wesleyan  schoolmaster — making 
light  of  the  religious  difficulty,  stated  that  in  one  case 
Jewish  parents  had  deliberately  allowed  him  to  teach  the 
Wesleyan  Catechism  to  their  child.  Dale  took  this  oppor- 
tunity of  bringing  out  the  exact  nature  of  what  often  goes 
by  the  name  of  "  religious  "  or  "  Christian  "  teaching. 

You  said,  did  you  not,  in  reply  to  Canon  Smith,  that  the 
parents  of  the  children  valued  the  religious  teaching  very  much  ? 
— I  think  they  do. 

But  did  you  not  also  say,  in  reply  to  him,  that  you  thought 
they  did  not  very  much  care  what  kind  of  religious  teaching  it 
was  ? — No,  I  do  not  think  I  said  that. 

Did  not  Canon  Smith  ask  you  whether  parents  were  parti- 
cular about  the  denomination  with  which  the  school  was  con- 
nected ? — You  refer  not  so  much  to  the  tone  of  the  religious 
teaching  as  to  the  denominationalism  ? 

Yes. — I  cannot  form  any  opinion  upon  that  point.  I  think 
that  the  parents  value  the  religious  teaching,  because  they  do 
not  withdraw  their  children  from  it. 

Is  that  the  ground  upon  which  you  make  that  statement  ? 
—Partially. 

Is  that  the  principal  ground  ? — Parents  have  told  me  little 
bits  of  Bible  lessons  that  the  children  have  carried  home,  and 
they  have  seemed  to  value  the  instruction  very  much. 

Do  you  think  that  the  parents  of  the  little  Jew  who  was  not 
withdrawn  greatly  valued  your  Wesleyan  teaching  because  they 
did  not  withdraw  the  child  ? — No,  I  do  not  think  that  the  parent 

1  First  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  appointed  to  inquire  into  the 
working  of  the  Elementary  Education  Acts,  England  and  Wales,  1S86  (9590- 
9595),  P-  354- 


556  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

valued  the  Wesleyan  teaching,  but  I  think  he  knew  that,  so  far 
as  I  could,  I  would  not  injure  the  conscience  of  the  child.  He 
has  sent  me  pieces  of  Passover  bread  and  notices  of  Jewish 
festivals,  and  so  on,  thinking  that  I  took  an  interest  in  his  faith. 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  he  wants  his  child  to  be  a  Methodist 
at  all ;  no  doubt  he  wants  his  child  to  be  a  Jew,  for  he  sends 
him  to  a  Hebrew  school  on  a  Tuesday  afternoon  ;  but  I  think 
he  has  confidence  that  the  child's  conscience  will  not  be  injured, 
and  that  there  will  be  nothing  unfair  done. 

You  think  he  believes  that  your  teaching  is  not  likely  to  make 
the  child  a  Christian  ? — I  cannot  say  that. 

Do  you  think  that  he  would  have  consented  to  send  the 
child  to  your  religious  instruction  if  he  had  thought  that  it  was 
likely  to  make  the  child  a  Christian  ? — I  think  he  would  have 
objected  if  my  teaching  had  been  constantly  dogmatic  and 
denominational. 

You  have  hardly  answered  my  question.  If  he  had  thought 
that  your  teaching  was  likely  to  make  the  child  a  Christian,  do 
you  think  that  he  would  have  permitted  the  child  to  remain  ? 
— No,  I  should  think  not. 

Then  the  parent  had  no  reason  to  suppose  that  your  teach- 
ing was  likely  to  make  the  child  a  Christian  ? — So  far  as  the 
Christian  Faith  is  not  a  matter  of  morality  or  of  general  religion, 
but  of  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  I  think  he  would  have  with- 
drawn the  child  if  he  had  thought  that  the  child  was  likely  to 
accept  what  we  consider  to  be  religious  teaching  with  regard  to 
the  person  of  Christ. 

Do  you  attach  much  value  to  religious  teaching  which  does 
not  incline  children  to  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ? — I 
think  that  so  far  as  elementary  teaching  is  concerned  the  main 
part  of  the  religious  teaching  for  us  as  morality  has  its  foundation 
in  religion  and  the  Bible. 

The  general  religious  truths  that  are  common  to  all  religious 
sects,  whether  Jews  or  Christians  ? — I  would  rather  aim  at  mak- 
ing a  child  a  Christian  than  at  making  a  child  a  Methodist,  if  I 
may  put  it  so. 

But  do  you  mean  that  morality  should  be  founded  on  what 
is  common  to  all  religious  sects,  Jews  and  Christians  alike,  or 
upon  that  which  is  specifically  Christian  ? — There  is  only  one 
morality,  and  it  is  founded  upon  that  which  is  common  to  all 
sects.1 

Dale  himself  attached  very  little  value  to  religious 
teaching  that  was   not  definite,  and  in  which  the  central 

^  Second  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission,  18S7  (1 7837-1 7850),  p.  137. 


THE  EDUCATION  COMMISSION  557 

truths  of  the  Christian  faith  were  diluted  or  ignored.  He 
did  not  believe  in  the  efficacy  of  "  undenominational  "  re- 
ligion as  a  mode  of  belief  or  as  the  basis  of  conduct. 
He  explained  his  position  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Norton. 

To  Lord  Norton 

utjuly  1887. 

I  can  quite  understand  that  what  I  said  on  Tuesday  after- 
noon in  reply  to  your  earnest  appeal,  by  which  I  was  greatly 
touched,  seemed  unsatisfactory.  Let  me  deal  with  the  question 
in  a  concrete  form. 

In  the  first  place  —  no  concordat  between  Evangelical 
Christians  and  Unitarians  on  the  subject  of  religious  teaching 
can  possibly  be  satisfactory.  Unless  our  Lord  is  spoken  of  with 
the  reverence,  awe,  and  wonder  which  His  Divinity  should  in- 
spire, I  think  that  to  talk  to  children  about  His  earthly  history 
must  discourage  faith  rather  than  contribute  to  it. 

In  the  second  place — no  concordat  is  possible  with  the 
Roman  Catholics :  they  are  obliged,  with  their  views  of  the 
Church,  to  meet  the  proposal  with  an  unconditional  refusal. 
The  attempt,  as  far  as  it  was  made,  in  Ireland  was  a  failure  from 
the  beginning. 

In  the  third  place — no  concordat  is  possible  between  Non- 
conformists and  that  party  in  the  English  Church  which  at 
present  is  most  vigorous  and  powerful,  and  is  showing  the  most 
earnest  religious  life — I  mean  the  High  Church  party. 

With  the  sanction  of  the  Baptismal  Office  and  of  the 
Catechism,  they  insist  that  in  baptism  a  child  receives  super- 
natural grace  and  is  made  a  member  of  Christ.  This,  if  true, 
is  a  truth  of  immense  practical  importance  in  the  teaching  of 
children.  Those  who  believe  it  are  in  the  habit  of  reminding 
children  that  if  they  lie,  or  steal,  or  commit  other  grave  sins 
they  will  forfeit  the  great  baptismal  gift.  I  have  no  right  to  ask 
men  who  hold  this  opinion  to  be  silent  about  it  in  the  school  if 
any  religious  teaching  is  given  at  all :  if  I  asked  them  to  be 
silent  they  would  very  properly  refuse.  For  myself  this  doctrine 
— with  the  implication  it  carries  that  those  children  who  are 
unbaptized  have  not  received  the  gift  and  must  therefore,  as 
the  English  Church  provides,  be  buried  without  the  words  ot 
hope  with  which  the  Church  inters  baptized  persons — is  a 
pernicious  superstition.  I  believe  that  Christ  died  for  all  men, 
baptized  and  unbaptized ;  that  every  child  that  is  born  into  the 
world — child  of  heathen  or  of  Christian,  of  savage  or  of  saint — 


558  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

is  infinitely  dear  to  God's  heart,  and  is  destined  by  God,  through 
Christ,  to  eternal  blessedness.  This  great  inheritance  may  be 
forfeited  by  revolt  against  God  and  by  the  refusal  to  receive  His 
salvation ;  but  children  who  die  young  do  not  forfeit  it,  and 
whether  baptized  or  not  they  live  with  God.  To  me  baptism 
does  not  give  a  child  a  part  in  these  great  things,  but  declares 
that  the  child  already  has  a  part  in  them — just  as  the  Coronation 
did  not  make  the  Queen  our  Sovereign,  but  declared  that  she 
was :  she  was  Queen  a  year  before  she  was  crowned. 

Excluding  those  whom  I  have  named,  there  remain  only  the 
Evangelical  Nonconformists  and  those  members  of  the  English 
Church  who  appear  to  me  to  explain  away  the  clear  teaching  of 
her  formularies. 

This,  however,  is  only  an  illustration  of  the  difficulties  of  a 
concordat.  We  may  all  see  the  same  sun  and  stars ;  but  our 
astronomical  theories — our  teaching  about  them — may  differ. 

The  difficulty  of  securing  masters  and  mistresses  who  will 
teach  so  as  really  to  reach  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  the 
children  is  also  serious. 

My  conclusion  is  —  Let  the  school  be  secular ;  let  the 
churches  find  how  to  draw  the  children  to  Christ.  I  have  great 
faith  in  Sunday  Schools.  Out  of  800  or  900  communicants  in 
my  own  church,  at  least  400  were  led  to  live  a  Christian  life  by 
the  Sunday  School.  Mr.  Towers's  evidence  shows  that  the 
overwhelming  majority  of  children  in  public  elementary  schools 
are  also  in  Sunday  schools ;  and  if  the  clergy  would  give  the 
strength  to  Sunday  schools  which  they  now  give  to  Day  schools, 
I  believe  that  the  difficulty  would  be  solved. 

He  had  already  developed  this  line  of  argument  in  his 
examination  of  the  Rev.  J.  Duncan,  who  stated,  in  reply- 
to  his  questions,  that  moral  teaching  must  be  based  on 
religious  truths. 


Do  you  suppose  that  the  religious  truths  upon  which  moral 
teaching  should  be  based  are  those  truths  by  which  church  is 
distinguished  from  church,  or  the  truths  which  are  held  in 
common  by  nearly  all  the  churches  which  profess  to  be 
Christian  ? — I  do  not  see  how  you  can  pick  and  choose  amongst 
doctrines  which  are  equally  true.  Of  course  it  is  difficult  to 
discuss  first  principles  in  this  way,  because  one  does  not  see  in 
a  moment  all  the  bearings  of  a  statement ;  but  it  seems  to  me 
that  you  cannot  teach  effectively  without  teaching  the  whole  of 
what  you  believe  to  be  true ;  and  I  do  not  see  how  you  can 


THE  EDUCATION  COMMISSION  559 

decide  amongst  the  religious  truths  you  accept  which  are  more 
important  and  which  are  less. 

I  do  not  wish  to  discuss  the  matter ;  I  should  probably  agree 
very  much  with  what  you  are  saying ;  but  I  wanted  to  know 
what  your  own  view  was.  Is  such  moral  teaching  as  you  would 
give  to  a  child  based  upon  the  truths  specially  distinctive  of  a 
particular  church,  or  is  it  based  upon  truths  which  are  held  in 
common  by  most  Christian  churches  ? — I  do  not  know  that  I 
have  studied  very  much  the  differences  between  different  bodies, 
but  I  imagine  that  some  truths  are  very  generally  held  by  all 
bodies,  and  that  there  are  others  which  only  the  Church  holds 
and  which  ought  by  no  means  to  be  kept  back  in  teaching  the 
children. 

And  the  moral  teaching  in  your  schools  would  be  partly 
rested  upon  those  distinctive  truths,  you  think  ? — Certainly. 

Perhaps  I  might  instance  the  doctrine  of  the  grace  given  in 
baptism ;  that  may  be  made  the  ground  of  moral  teaching  ? — 
Our  Catechism  puts  that  in  the  very  forefront,  and  I  do  not  see 
how  it  can  be  evaded  at  all.1 

He  conducted  what  may  be  described  as  the  examina- 
tion in  chief  of  the  Rev.  E.  F.  M.  MacCarthy  and  Dr. 
Crosskey,  who  were  called  as  representatives  of  the 
progressive  policy  adopted  by  the  Birmingham  School 
Board,  and  also  of  the  five  witnesses  who  appeared,  if 
not  to  substantiate  the  grievances  of  Nonconformists,  to 
explain  the  grounds  of  their  dissatisfaction  with  the 
existing  system — Mr.  Thomas  Snape,  Mr.  Robert  Clough, 
Dr.  Bruce  of  Huddersfield,  the  Rev.  John  Atkinson,  Pre- 
sident of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Connexion,  and  the 
Rev.  Charles  Williams,  then  Chairman  of  the  Baptist  Union. 
To  obtain  precise  evidence  of  unfair  treatment,  however 
notorious,  was  not  easy.  Injustice  does  not  always 
exhibit  itself  in  a  specific  and  tangible  shape  ;  and  those 
who  have  suffered  most  from  its  influence  are  most  averse 
from  giving  evidence,  lest  a  formal  and  public  complaint 
should  aggravate  oppression.  To  Dale  this  part  of  his 
work  was  both  most  difficult  and  most  distasteful.  He 
did  his  best  to  obtain  positive  proof  of  disabilities  which 
he  knew  existed,  but  he  was  dissatisfied  with  the  results 

1  First  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission,  1886  (10964-10967),  p.  410. 


56o  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

hen  this  portion  of 


of  his  efforts,  and  heartily  rejoiced  when  this  portion  of 
the  inquiry  was  dismissed. 


To  Mr.  Henry  Richard 

pkjune  18S6. 

I  wish  you  could  think  of  people  who  could  give  evidence 
worth  having  on  our  side ;  I  have  been  trying,  but  unsuccess- 
fully. Browne  of  Wrentham  was  my  sheet-anchor,  and  he  is 
dead,  dear  fellow. 

zothjuly  1886. 

The  question  of  evidence  on  our  side  is  exercising  me  a 
great  deal.  I  have  had  letters  written  to  the  Secretaries  of 
County  Associations  all  over  England,  inquiring  for  persons  who 
could  give  evidence  on  the  grounds  of  Nonconformist  dissatis- 
faction with  the  present  system.  There  is  abundance  of  vague 
discontent,  but  as  soon  as  people  are  pressed  for  definite  facts 
there  is  nothing  to  be  had — at  least  nothing  available  for 
evidence.  This  is  inevitable,  I  suppose,  from  the  nature  of  the 
case.  I  might,  I  dare  say,  get  a  number  of  people  up  to  say 
that  the  present  system  works  very  unjustly,  but  even  apart  from 
the  difficulty  of  sustaining  definite  grievances  there  is  an  absence 
of  a  firm  grasp  of  the  question.  The  controversy  will  have  to 
be  fought  over  again,  and  more  thoroughly  than  before.  .   .   . 

...  If  nothing  else  can  be  done  I  will,  if  you  wish  it,  tender 
myself  as  a  witness.  This  would  save  the  time  of  the  Commission, 
as  I  could  give  the  substance  of  a  great  deal  of  correspondence 
that  has  been  going  on  at  intervals  for  some  years. 

2,0th  April  1S87. 

Barring  this,1  I  think  we  may  be  very  well  satisfied  with  the 
achievements  of  our  five  men  this  week.  Atkinson,  about 
whom  I  was  very  anxious,  had  an  easy  time.  He  stood  Talbot's 
questioning  admirably. 

I  am  afraid  that  I  have  too  little  of  the  fighting  element  in 
me.  This  part  of  our  business — though  it  is  the  special  part 
for  which  I,  at  least,  am  put  on — is  extremely  distasteful  to  me. 

1  A  case  in  which  a  witness,  after  giving  evidence,  asked  leave  to  with- 
draw an  important  statement. 


THE  AUSTRALIAN  VISIT  561 


The  Australian  Visit 

In  the  middle  of  July  1887  his  work  on  the  Commis- Aged  57. 
sion  was  interrupted  by  a  journey  to  Australia.  The 
evidence  by  this  time  was  nearly  complete ;  and  some 
time  must  necessarily  elapse  before  the  draft  report  was 
ready  for  discussion.  So  his  absence  then  was  less  incon- 
venient than  it  would  have  been  either  at  an  earlier  or  at 
a  later  stage  of  the  inquiry.  He  had  often  been  urged  to 
visit  the  Australasian  colonies.  Twenty  years  had  passed 
since  the  churches  there  had  come  under  the  personal 
influence  of  any  recognised  leader  of  British  Congrega- 
tionalism, and  Mr.  Binney's  visit  in  1868-69  had  now 
become  but  a  memory  to  the  old  and  a  tradition  to  the 
young.  At  this  time,  several  of  the  colonies  were  about 
to  celebrate  the  Jubilee  of  Australian  Congregationalism, 
and  the  desire  was  general  that  some  one  should  be 
present  who  could  speak  with  authority  in  the  name  of 
the  churches  of  the  mother  country. 

At  first  Dale  refused  to  consider  the  proposal  that  he 
should  go  out  as  a  delegate.  He  had  but  just  recovered 
from  a  serious  illness  ;  he  feared  that  the  work  and  the 
climate  might  overtax  his  strength,  and  that  his  prolonged 
absence  might  injuriously  affect  the  church  at  Carr's  Lane. 
But  Mr.  Searle  of  Adelaide,  who  was  most  active  in  the 
matter,  would  take  no  refusal  ;  and  his  "  kindly  persist- 
ence" so  far  prevailed  that  the  question  was  referred  for 
consideration  to  the  church  officers.  To  Dale's  surprise, 
they  decided  that  if  he  felt  he  could  go  with  safety  they 
must  not  hinder  him,  and  that  the  interests  of  a  single 
church  ought  not  to  stand  in  the  way  of  any  larger  ser- 
vice that  he  might  be  capable  of  rendering  to  the  cause  of 
Congregationalism  elsewhere.  In  due  course  a  formal 
invitation  from  the  Congregational  Unions  of  the  Aus- 
tralian colonies  was  received  and  accepted.  It  was  ulti- 
mately arranged,  to  his  great  delight,  that  Mr.  Albert 
Spicer  should  accompany  him  as  a  colleague  to  share  the 
work  ;  Mrs.  Spicer,  Mrs.  Dale,  and  a  daughter  went  with 
2  O 


562  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

them.  They  sailed  in  the  Arawa  from  Tilbury  on  12th 
July,  going  out  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  so  avoiding 
the  fiery  heat  of  the  Suez  Canal  and  the  Red  Sea  in  the 
height  of  summer. 

On  6th  August  they  touched  at  Cape  Town  and  spent 
a  few  hours  on  shore.  As  soon  as  they  landed,  they  were 
met  by  representatives  of  the  Congregational  churches, 
who  presented  an  address  in  which  welcome  mingled  with 
regret  that  the  visit  was  so  brief.  They  drove  about  the 
town  for  an  hour  or  two,  visited  some  of  the  public 
buildings,  called  on  the  Prime  Minister,  Sir  Gordon  Sprigg, 
and  were  taken  over  the  Houses  of  Assembly  by  Mr. 
Judhope,  the  Secretary  to  the  Colony.  Then,  laden  with 
flowers  and  fruit,  they  returned  to  the  ship  ;  but  a  few 
minutes  before  they  started,  Sir  Gordon  Sprigg  and  several 
other  members  of  the  Ministry  came  on  board  to  bid  them 
good-bye.  Eighteen  days  more  brought  them  to  the  end 
of  their  voyage,  and  on  22nd  August  they  reached  Hobart 
and  anchored  in  the  mouth  of  the  Derwent.  At  7.30  P.M. 
— in  the  inverted  order  of  the  year — it  was  already  dark. 
But  the  Arawa  had  been  reported  from  a  station  thirty 
miles  away,  and  her  engines  had  hardly  stopped  when  a 
steam-launch  dashed  alongside  full  of  eager,  hearty  people, 
who  boarded  the  ship  with  a  rush,  eager  to  carry  off 
their  guests  at  once  to  the  homes  provided  for  them. 
That  proving  impossible,  they  returned  the  next  morning, 
and  took  them  ashore  with  ringing  cheers,  echoed  from 
the  ship  as  the  launch  steamed  away. 

Nothing  would  be  easier  than  to  fill  a  chapter  with  an 
account  of  Dale's  Australian  experiences — the  places  that 
he  visited,  the  people  that  he  met,  the  questions  that  he 
discussed,  the  welcome  that  greeted  him  wherever  he  went. 
But  in  his  Impressions  of  Australia}  he  has  told  his 
own  tale.  There  he  has  set  out  with  some  fulness  his 
observations  of  the  state  of  politics,  education,  morals  and 
religion,  in  Australia  ;  his  estimate  of  the  genius  and  char- 
acter of  the  people  ;  and  his  speculations  as  to  the  possi- 
bilities of  their  future  growth  and  development.      It  is  a 

1  Reprinted,  with  additions,  from  the  Contemporary  Review,  1888. 


THE  AUSTRALIAN  VISIT  563 

breezy,  buoyant  book,  written  while  memory  was  still  fresh 
and  vivid.  And  although  in  some  parts  it  is  rather  a 
eulogy  than  an  appraisement,  it  has  won  high  commenda- 
tion for  knowledge  and  insight  from  men  familiar  with  the 
life  of  the  colonies.  It  disclaims  any  right  to  speak  with 
the  assurance  of  an  expert.  No  stranger,  Dale  was  well 
aware,  however  well  equipped  with  information,  can  be 
sure  that  he  has  mastered  all  the  factors  of  a  complex 
society,  or  that  he  has  correctly  appreciated  their  relative 
importance.  But  he  himself  was  a  man  of  affairs.  Before 
his  visit  he  had  studied  the  history,  the  position,  and  the 
problems  of  the  Australian  colonies.  A  row  of  note-books 
contains  in  summary  the  results  of  his  reading.  And  it 
is  the  man  that  knows  who  can  most  easily  learn.  "  To 
him  that  hath  shall  be  given." 

It  may  be  well,  therefore,  to  recall  the  objects  of  his 
journey  rather  than  its  incidents.  He  left  home  resolved 
that  his  work  in  Australia  should  be  a  religious  work 
only,  and  that  he  would  not  entangle  himself  with  imperial 
or  colonial  politics.  His  friend,  Mr.  Searle,  was  anxious 
that  he  should  lecture  on  one  or  two  political  questions. 
"  Gladstone  and  the  Liberal  leaders,"  he  wrote,  "  are  so 
misunderstood  in  these  colonies  that  it  would  be  a  mercy 
to  enlighten  our  darkness  "  ;  a  request  which,  coming  when 
it  did,  must  have  afforded  some  amusement.  During  his 
visit  Dale  was  beset  by  similar  appeals  to  speak  on  dis- 
establishment, secular  education,  the  Irish  question,  the 
position  of  the  Liberal  party.  In  Sydney,  some  ingenious 
journalists  suggested  that  he  might  like  to  attend  a  public 
meeting  on  a  Saturday  afternoon,  and  answer  any  questions 
that  might  be  put  to  him  on  questions  of  general  politics. 
To  many  his  persistent  refusal  to  say  anything  about  such 
matters  was  a  real  disappointment.  He  knew  it,  and  in  a 
farewell  address  at  Adelaide  he  explained  his  reasons  for 
silence.  In  the  colonies,  at  any  rate,  free  from  the  yoke 
that  he  was  compelled  to  bear  at  home,  he  had  determined 
to  speak  only  about  those  questions  for  which  he  cared 
supremely,  and  on  which  he  could  speak  with  full  assur- 
ance and  conviction — the  moral  obligations,  the  spiritual 


564  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

laws,  and  the  transcendent  hopes,  "  which,  like  the  stars, 
have  no  parallax,  and  are  the  same  for  men  of  all  lands."  1 
It  was  for  religious  purposes  that  he  had  come,  and  for 
religious  purposes  alone. 

He  had  been  invited  by  the  Congregational  churches 
as  a  leader  of  Congregationalism.  It  was  an  essential 
part  of  his  mission  to  assert  the  principles  by  which  they 
were  united  ;  not  to  attack  those  who  rejected  what  they 
affirmed,  nor  to  spread  dissatisfaction  among  members  of 
other  communions,  but  to  convert  Congregationalists  to 
Congregationalism,  to  deepen  their  conviction,  to  fire  their 
enthusiasm,  to  give  them  a  larger  and  nobler  conception 
of  truths  imperfectly  understood  or  inadequately  revered. 
Wherever  he  went  he  preached  Congregationalism — not 
the  bastard  Congregationalism  that  regards  itself  as  a 
democratic  form  of  Church  polity,  and  teaches  the  people 
that  they  have  a  right  to  govern  the  Church  as  they 
please,  but  the  Congregationalism  of  the  heroic  age  which 
makes  the  people  responsible  for  finding  the  mind  of  Christ 
as  to  the  way  in  which  His  Church  should  be  governed. 

A  polity  of  this  order  derives  its  freedom  and  its  force 
from  the  vigour  and  fulness  of  the  religious  life.  It  can 
be  kept  from  degeneracy  and  decay  only  by  growth  in 
knowledge  of  Divine  truth  and  by  the  renewal  of  devout 
affections.  To  confirm  men  in  their  loyalty  to  Congrega- 
tional principles,  Dale  always  recognised  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  strengthen  their  loyalty  to  Christ.  The  revelation 
of  Divine  Love  and  Divine  Law  made  through  Him  to 
mankind,  His  atonement  for  sin,  His  power  to  redeem 
from  evil,  the  indwelling  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
significance  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  the  need  of  prayer 
for  cultivating  close  and  intimate  relations  with  God,  were 
truths  on  which  Dale  persistently  dwelt  in  his  teaching. 
Christ,  he  felt,  might  be  preached  without  preaching 
Congregationalism  ;  but  he  could  not  preach  Congrega- 
tionalism without  first  preaching  Christ. 

The  perils  and  the  impediments  of  the  devout  life  both 
for  individuals  and   for  communities  vary  with  different 

1  Impressions  of  Australia,  p.  264. 


THE  AUSTRALIAN  VISIT  565 

conditions.  Societies  still  in  their  youth,  abounding  in 
energy  and  enterprise,  with  undefined  possibilities  of  pro- 
gress opening  before  them,  are  sorely  tempted  to  concen- 
trate thought  and  effort  on  material  prosperity.  And 
where  fortune  may  await  a  man  at  any  turn  of  the  road, 
he  is  easily  led  to  take  short  cuts  to  wealth  through  wild 
and  illegitimate  speculation.  From  what  he  already 
knew,  and  from  what  he  saw  for  himself,  Dale  felt  it 
necessary  to  utter  an  emphatic  warning  against  this  tend- 
ency. It  was  this  that  he  had  in  his  mind  when  he 
insisted  that  Christian  faith  gives  no  pledge  of  material 
rewards,  and  that  to  a  Christian  man  wealth  must  always 
be  a  matter  of  secondary  concern.1 

It  had  been  arranged  that  a  month  should  be  given  to 
each  of  the  three  colonies,  most  of  the  time  being  spent 
in  the  capitals  and  their  neighbourhood,  though  some  of 
the  smaller  towns  were  to  be  visited  as  well.  In  South 
Australia  the  original  plan  was  carried  out  to  the  letter. 
In  addition  to  his  engagements  at  Adelaide,  Dale  preached 
and  spoke  at  Angaston,  Truro,  Kapunda,  and  Gawler. 
He  was  able  to  get  through  his  work  without  difficulty, 
and  also  to  see  a  good  deal  of  the  country  and  the  people. 
In  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales  he  was  less  fortunate. 
When  he  reached  Melbourne  the  hot  weather  had  set  in  ; 
but  after  days  of  oppressive  heat  the  temperature  fell 
thirty  or  forty  degrees  in  the  course  of  a  few  hours,  and 
the  sudden  change  brought  on  inflammation  in  the  leg, 
attended  by  weakness  and  pain.  All  engagements  were 
cancelled  ;  and  when  he  began  to  recover,  his  doctor 
ordered  him  to  spend  a  week  at  Beaconsfield,  among  the 
hills,  1 200  feet  above  the  sea.  The  mountain  air,  the 
rest,  and  the  quiet  soon  brought  him  round.  After  losing 
ten  or  eleven  days,  he  was  able  to  go  on  with  his  work, 
and  he  arranged  to  return  after  his  visit  to  New  South 
Wales,  and  to  make  up  for  the  time  that  he  had  lost.  But 
at  Sydney  he  was  again  disabled  for  a  week,  though  the 
attack  was  less  severe.  There  he  was  compelled  to  leave 
some  of  his  work  undone,  for  he  was  due  in  Victoria,  at 

1  Impressions  of  Australia,  p.  258. 


566  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

Geelong,  and  at  Ballarat,  in  the  first  week  of  December, 
and  there  was  no  margin  of  time  on  which  he  could  draw. 
He  was  able,  however,  before  leaving  New  South  Wales  to 
visit  Katoomba,  in  the  Blue  Mountains,  and  Bathurst,  and 
to  make  a  second  expedition  to  Newcastle  and  Maitland. 
When  he  returned  to  Melbourne  he  was  far  from  well,  but 
he  would  not  give  in.  Addressing  a  great  meeting  of 
young  men  on  "  A  Strong  Christianity,"  he  illustrated  his 
text.  Unable  to  stand  without  support,  he  rested  one 
knee  on  a  chair,  and  spoke  for  nearly  an  hour.  Another 
incident  during  his  visit  has  not  been  forgotten.  He  was 
preaching  in  the  spacious  church  at  Collins  Street,  and 
was  afraid  that  his  voice  had  been  affected  by  his  illness. 
So  he  began  by  saying :  "  If  there  is  any  man  in  this 
building  who  cannot  hear  me  distinctly,  let  him  say  so." 
The  doors  were  open,  the  vestibules  were  full,  and  on  the 
fringe  of  the  crowd  stood  drovers  and  women  of  the  town, 
drawn  in  by  curiosity  to  see  what  was  going  on  ;  once 
inside,  they  stayed  to  the  end,  fascinated  by  his  eloquence. 

Any  attempt  to  estimate  the  results  of  the  visit  in  its 
effect  on  the  life  of  the  colonial  churches  would  be  mis- 
leading and  presumptuous.  But  it  is  clear  that  the 
impression  produced  both  at  Adelaide  and  at  Sydney  was 
deeper  than  at  Melbourne.  This  is  easily  intelligible.  At 
Adelaide  the  churches  were  already  stirred  when  he  came 
by  the  associations  and  memories  of  their  Jubilee.  His 
influence  was  continuous  ;  and  a  city  of  100,000  inhabit- 
ants is  more  easily  reached  and  moved  than  one  of  four 
times  its  size.  But  in  work  of  this  kind  the  spirit  and  the 
temper  of  the  people  count  for  much,  and  at  Sydney,  in 
spite  of  interrupted  service  and  impaired  health,  he  left  a 
blessing  behind  him. 

He  himself  observed  a  distinct  diversity  in  the  religious 
conditions  of  the  three  colonies.  In  Victoria  he  found  a 
reaction  after  a  period  of  unbelief  which  had  disturbed 
even  the  Evangelical  churches  there,  though  it  had  left 
the  adjacent  colonies  almost  untouched. 

When   I  was  in  Victoria  at   the  close  of  1887 — after  the 


THE  AUSTRALIAN  VISIT  567 

secular  system  had  been  in  existence  for  fourteen  years — 
the  dark  waters  which  for  a  time  threatened  to  submerge  the 
faith  of  its  people  had  sunk.  But  even  then  I  could  see  traces 
of  past  troubles.  I  noticed  that  whenever,  in  a  speech  or  a 
sermon,  I  approached  a  question  of  apologetics,  or  adventured 
into  the  tropical  region  of  dogmatic  controversy,  the  attention  of 
the  audience  became  keener ;  sometimes  there  were  indications 
of  suppressed  excitement. 

My  experience  in  South  Australia  and  in  New  South  Wales  was 
very  different.  The  people  were  not  uninterested  in  speculative 
controversies,  but  they  were  most  deeply  moved  by  expositions 
and  arguments  which  dealt  with  those  supreme  truths  of  the 
Christian  revelation  which  have  a  place  in  all  the  creeds,  and  by 
appeals  to  those  central  elements  of  the  ethical  and  spiritual  life 
which  are  common  to  the  devout  of  all  churches,  and  which, 
through  all  vicissitudes  of  human  speculation,  remain  unchanged. 
And  in  New  South  Wales  I  found  such  a  deep  and  vigorous 
religious  life — such  earnestness,  generosity,  and  zeal — that, 
though  a  very  large  number  of  the  people  have  been  lost  to  the 
churches,  I  cannot  but  believe  that  before  very  long  they  will  be 
recovered.1 

Had  he  come  ten  years  earlier,  his  best  work  would 
have  been  done  in  Melbourne  :  now  the  religious  atmo- 
sphere of  Sydney  and  Adelaide  was  more  congenial. 

There  is  much  in  Mr.  Searle's  letter  that  Dale  would 
have  ascribed  to  the  generous  warmth  of  friendship,  but  he 
himself  in  all  humility  rejoiced  that  a  work  undertaken 
"  with  fear  and  trembling  w  had  been  so  fully  crowned  with 
success. 


From  Mr.  Richard  Searle 

Strangways  Terrace,  N.A., 
3>r/  October  1887. 

Years  may  dim  the  first  freshness  of  the  joyous  time  we  have 
recently  had,  but  its  deep-toned  blessedness  will  live  and  last.  I 
don't  often  wish  to  speak  in  public,  but  I  did  long  to  say  a  word 
or  two  at  the  farewell  gathering  in  North  Adelaide  Church,  not 
to  praise  you  or  Mr.  Spicer,  but  to  thank  God  for  the  rich 
blessing  He  has  poured  out  through  the  solemn,  earnest  addresses 
He  enabled  you   to  give  us.     My  heart  was  full  of  that  one 

1  Impressions  of  Australia,  pp.  243,  244. 


568  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

thought — "supreme  thankfulness  to  Him."  He  sent  you,  He 
helped  you,  He  made  you  a  blessing.  My  prayer  now  is  that 
God  will  as  greatly  bless  you  in  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales. 
You  have  helped  us  to  realise  the  reality  of  "  the  Unseen  "  and 
the  nearness  of  God.  You  have  put  old  truths  in  a  new  light. 
You  have  deepened  our  faith  and  raised  our  ideal  of  the  Christian 
life.  Yesterday  morning  Mr.  Hebditch  preached  us  a  grand 
sermon  on  the  individual  responsibility  of  each  member  to 
Christ's  Church,  touching  most  tenderly  on  the  great  teachings 
which  God  privileged  you  to  utter  to  us.  Be  comforted,  dear 
friend,  that  our  prayers  follow  you. 

A  friend  wrote  me  a  day  or  two  since :  "  If  you  never  ren- 
dered Adelaide  any  other  service,  your  inducing  Dr.  Dale  to 
come  lays  us  under  a  lasting  debt  of  gratitude."  I  thank  God 
I  was  persistent  in  brushing  away  the  difficulties,  and  also  that 
you  did  not  come  alone. 


To  Mr.  George  Marris 

Melbourne,  \st  December  1887. 

We  came  through  last  night  from  Sydney.  Our  visit  to  New 
South  Wales  has  been  almost  as  remarkable  as  our  visit  to  South 
Australia.  The  assurances  which  have  reached  us  from  all 
quarters  of  the  spiritual  power  which  has  accompanied  the 
services  have  been  very  affecting.  Ministers  have  spoken  of  the 
blessing  which  has  come  to  them  in  a  way  which  has  been  hard 
to  listen  to  without  tears ;  and  the  people  have  been  equally 
earnest  in  the  expression  of  their  gratitude. 

The  kindness  which  we  have  received  has  been  overwhelming. 
The  Sargoods,  with  whom  we  stayed  here  during  the  month  of 
October,  and  with  whom  we  are  staying  again,  would  like  us  to 
stop  with  them  over  Christmas ;  and  the  Mullenses  of  Sydney 
would  have  kept  us  for  months  if  we  could  have  stayed. 

But  I  am  now  longing  to  be  at  home,  and  am  only  anxious 
that  the  fortnight  which  we  have  still  to  spend  here  may  be  as 
richly  blessed  as  the  three  months  which  we  have  spent  already. 

Dale,  too,  was  glad  that  he  "  had  not  come  alone."  Mr. 
Spicer's  companionship  was  a  delight  to  him,  and  his  help 
invaluable.  In  his  diary  he  records  again  and  again, 
"  Spicer  spoke  admirably."  But  he  regarded  Mr.  Spicer's 
example,  and  the  influence  of  his  personal  intercourse  with 
ministers   and   laymen,  as    even   more  effective   than    his 


THE  AUSTRALIAN  VISIT  569 

addresses.  To  many  it  was  a  novelty  and  a  surprise  that 
a  man  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  an  active  partner  in  a 
great  firm,  should  at  no  slight  sacrifice  leave  his  business 
and  all  other  concerns  to  spend  several  months  in  Australia, 
engaged  in  the  service  of  the  Congregational  churches  ;  and 
Dale  believed  that  he  had  given  an  impulse  to  the  religious 
life  of  the  laymen  in  the  colonies  that  would  not  be  spent 
for  many  years. 

It  would  be  ungracious  to  omit  all  reference  to  the 
welcome  that  Dale  received  from  the  Australian  bishops. 
On  his  arrival,  Dr.  Sandford,  the  Bishop  of  Tasmania, 
received  him  with  great  cordiality  ;  so  did  Dr.  Barry  of 
Sydney.  At  Ballarat,  in  Dr.  Thornton,  he  found  an  old 
friend  who  was  delighted  to  renew  the  memories  of  earlier 
years  at  Birmingham.  Dr.  Kennion,  the  Bishop  of  Ade- 
laide, he  met  on  several  occasions,  and  discussed  with  him 
many  questions  relating  to  religious  thought  and  life  in 
the  colonies  and  at  home.  Dale  came  to  regard  him  with 
strong  affection  and  high  esteem,  and  the  bishop's  letter, 
apologising  for  enforced  absence  from  the  farewell  meeting, 
shows  that  the  feeling  was  not  all  on  one  side. 


From  the  Bishop  of  Adelaide 

Bishop's  Court,  North  Adelaide, 
ibth  December  1887. 

I  am  sorry  that  my  duties  prevent  my  being  present  at  the 
meeting  to-night  at  which  Dr.  Dale  is  to  give  his  farewell  address. 
I  should  have  liked  to  have  publicly  tendered  my  thanks  to  him 
for  some  of  his  utterances,  which,  to  my  mind,  must  do  great 
good  to  the  whole  Christian  community.  I  should  like  to  have 
thanked  him — as  by  your  permission  I  beg  to  do  in  this  letter — as 
a  colonist  for  the  carefulness  with  which  he  has  avoided  saying 
anything  which  would  raise  a  feeling  of  discord  between  members 
of  my  own  church  in  this  colony  and  members  of  other  de- 
nominations on  subjects  which  might  easily  enough  have  become 
provocative  of  grave  difficulty.  I  should  like  to  thank  him  as  a 
University  man  for  the  extremely  high  place  which  he  has  given 
to  the  study  of  theology,  and  for  the  strong  claim  he  has  made 
for  its  greater  culture;  and  I  should  like  to  thank  him  as  a 
Christian  man  for  the  extremely  beautiful  and  powerful  addresses 


570  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

which  he  has  given  in  our  city  on  those  fundamental  truths  of 
Christianity  in  which  all  Christian  people  find  their  common 
hope  and  their  practical  agreement.  As  a  Churchman,  too,  I 
have  found  the  greatest  interest  in  meeting  and  conversing  with 
Dr.  Dale,  and  in  hearing  from  himself  of  his  friendship  with 
leading  members  of  the  Church  of  England  at  home,  and  of  his 
general  sympathy  with  her  work  and  teaching.  Of  course  there 
are  many  points  on  which  we  must  agree  to  differ,  but  these  do 
not  prevent  my  laying  emphasis  on  those  in  which  we  agree.  Of 
his  conscious  or  unconscious  sympathy  with  Churchmanship 
three  strong  indications  have  struck  me — (i)  In  his  visit  to 
Australia  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  his  brethren,  in  which  un- 
doubtedly I  trace  a  "reversion  to  type";  (2)  in  the  appeal 
which  he  made  for  higher  sacramental  teaching  in  a  very  beauti- 
ful address  given  in  the  Stow  Memorial  Church ;  and  (3)  in  the 
strong  protest  which  he  made  against  "individualism,"  which  is 
entirely  upon  the  lines  on  which  we  Churchmen  are  wont  to 
plead  for  a  greater  recognition  of  the  corporeity  of  the  Church. 
I  am  most  thankful  to  have  made  acquaintance  with  some  of  Dr. 
Dale's  books,  one  of  which  was  indeed  made  known  to  me  and 
strongly  pressed  upon  my  attention  by  a  well-known  Canon  ot 
St.  Paul's,  London,  before  I  left  England,  and  I  shall  take  care 
to  call  the  attention  of  others  to  the  great  help  to  be  derived 
from  them,  and  the  high  spiritual  tone  which  pervades  those 
I  have  read. 

On  17th  December  he  sailed  for  home  with  his  wife 
and  daughter  in  the  Carthage,  to  return  by  the  Suez 
Canal ;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Spicer  had  already  left  for  Samoa. 
The  last  entry  in  his  Australian  diary  ends  with  the 
words,  Deo  gratias.  He  was  glad  to  do  the  work,  but 
thankful  that  it  had  come  to  an  end.1 

On  the  way  home,  especially  after  an  excursion  from 
Colombo,  he  suffered  a  good  deal  from  the  complaint  that 
had  troubled  him  in  Australia  ;  but  once  through  the  Red 
Sea,  and  in  a  cooler  air,  he  steadily  recovered  health  and 
vigour.  But  even  at  Valetta,  where  they  touched,  the 
ship's  doctor  advised  him  not  to  go  on  shore. 

1  During  his  visit  Dale  preached  thirty-eight  times  and  gave  twenty-five 
addresses— not  reckoning  short,  informal  speeches.  In  the  capital  of  each 
colony  he  spoke  at  a  Communion  service  on  the  idea  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  also  delivered  an  address  at  a  ministers'  conference  in  reply  to  questions. 


CHAPTER    XXII 


DRIFTING    APART 


The  welcome  home — Declines  a  Theological  Chair — The  Education  Com- 
mission :  Draft  Report — Dale's  amendments — The  Minority  Report — The 
Conservative  scheme  for  Free  Education — Dale's  view  of  the  position — 
His  defence  of  Mr.  Chamberlain — Reply  to  misconception — Still  adheres 
to  the  secular  system— The  vote  of  thanks  at  the  Congregational  Union 
—Mr.  Crossley's  attack — The  Congregational  Union  and  Irish  policy — 
Dale  withdraws  from  the  Union  meetings — Life  at  Llanbedr — Reviews 
his  preaching  and  its  defects  —  The  Living  Christ  and  the  Four 
Gospels — Two  missionary  sermons — The  basis  of  faith — Faith  and  the 
Bible — A  local  illustration — The  historical  trustworthiness  of  the  New 
Testament. 

The  ship  reached  Plymouth  on  Friday  23rd  January,  1888. 
and  even  in  the  early  hours  of  a  winter  morning  Dale Aged  b&' 
found  himself  in  the  midst  of  friends  who  had  come  from 
Birmingham  and  elsewhere,  not  merely  to  greet  him  and 
his  companions,  but  to  relieve  them  of  the  trouble  that 
awaits  the  traveller  at  his  journey's  end.  He  went 
straight  to  Birmingham  ;  preached  on  the  Sunday  morn- 
ing, and  attended  the  meetings  of  the  Education  Commis- 
sion in  the  following  week.  As  soon  as  the  Town  Hall 
could  be  secured,  a  meeting  was  held  to  welcome  him 
back,  and  to  present  him  with  an  address  of  congratula- 
tion. Such  compositions  too  often  waste  the  parchment 
on  which  they  are  engrossed  ;  but  in  this  instance  both 
the  text  and  its  setting  were  genuine  works  of  art.  The 
pages  of  the  address  were  bound  in  vellum  and  clasped 
with  silver  ;  and  the  portions  of  the  text  were  surrounded 
by  designs  in  water-colours,  illustrating  the  various  stages 
of  the   Australian  journey,  or  representing   some  of  the 


572  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

scenes  with  which  Dale's  life  had  been  most  closely 
associated.  Every  sketch  was  skilfully  executed :  the 
minutest  details  were  carried  out  with  equal  care. 

One  incident  of  the  evening  may  be  recalled.  Speak- 
ing at  a  farewell  meeting  at  Adelaide,  Dale  had  contrasted 
the  free  expression  of  feeling  that  he  had  noticed  in  the 
Australian  colonies  with  the  reluctance  of  the  average 
Englishman  to  display  the  affection  that  he  really  feels. 

I  am  sometimes  in  the  habit,  when  I  am  at  home,  of  saying 
that  with  many  great  and  noble  qualities,  we  of  the  English 
race  are  conspicuous  for  one  great  defect.  We  are  afraid  to  tell 
other  people  how  much  affection,  and  how  much  esteem,  and 
how  much  respect  we  cherish  for  them.  I  sometimes  quote  a 
phrase  which  I  found  somewhere  a  great  many  years  ago — 
"  Love  me,  and  tell  me  so  " — and  I  am  inclined  to  think  that 
on  the  other  side  of  the  world  English  people  need  to  be 
reminded  of  the  duty  of  letting  those  whom  they  love  know  of 
their  affection. 

As  he  entered  the  Hall  that  night,  the  first  thing  that 
he  saw  was  the  motto — displayed  in  large  letters  right 
along  the  front  of  the  gallery  facing  the  platform — "  We 
love  you,  and  we  tell  you  so."  A  reference  to  the  words 
by  one  of  the  speakers  brought  the  audience  to  their  feet 
in  a  tumult  of  affectionate  enthusiasm.  Altogether  it  was 
a  grand  home-coming. 

Dale  had  taken  up  his  work  immediately,  but  almost 
as  soon  as  he  had  gathered  the  threads  into  his  hands,  he 
had  to  deal  with  a  proposal  which  cost  him  much  thought 
and  anxiety.  The  Council  of  New  College — the  most 
ancient  and  illustrious  of  the  Congregational  colleges — 
invited  him  to  fill  the  Theological  Chair.  The  Principal, 
Dr.  Newth,  with  characteristic  generosity,  offered  to  resign 
his  post  if  the  invitation  of  the  Council  should  be  accepted, 
so  that  the  Headship  and  the  Theological  Professorship 
might  be  held  together.  The  proposal  was  made  by  a 
deputation  consisting  of  Dr.  Kennedy,  the  Rev.  J.  C. 
Harrison,  and  the  Rev.  A.  Rowland.  Dale  met  them 
at  the  Memorial  Hall,  and  heard  what  they  had  to  say  in 
support  of  their  project.      But  after  taking  some  days  for 


DRIFTING  APART  573 

consideration,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  was  not 
competent  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  post ;  and  in  the 
following  letter  addressed  to  Dr.  Kennedy  he  declined  the 
offer  on  that  ground. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Kennedy 

24A&  March  1888. 

The  proposals  which  you  submitted  to  me  last  Monday  week 
were  too  grave  to  be  hastily  accepted  or  hastily  declined. 

It  has  long  been  my  conviction  that  ever  since  the  great 
Evangelical  Revival  of  the  last  century  to  which  our  churches 
owe  the  recovery  of  spiritual  life  and  energy  after  a  prolonged 
period  of  decay  and  desolation,  Systematic  Theology  has  had  no 
adequate  place  either  in  our  theological  colleges  or  in  the  studies 
of  our  ministry.  During  the  last  thirty  years  there  has  been  a 
general  disposition  among  both  our  ministers  and  the  members 
of  our  churches  to  depreciate  its  value,  and  even  to  regard  it  as 
unfriendly  to  a  free  and  generous  development  of  the  Christian 
life.  To  the  earlier  neglect  and  to  the  recent  disparagement  of 
Christian  Dogma  as  a  scientific  study  I  attribute  very  much  of 
the  poverty  and  confusion  of  theological  thought,  very  much  of 
the  religious  uncertainty,  and  some  of  the  more  serious  defects 
in  the  practical  religious  life  of  our  churches  which  are  causing 
anxiety  to  many — and  to  some  serious  alarm. 

To  remedy  this  unhappy  condition  of  things,  it  is  of  the  first 
importance  that  in  all  our  colleges  the  chair  of  Systematic 
Theology  should  be  filled  by  a  man  whose  knowledge  of  his  own 
subject  and  whose  general  learning  and  intellectual  force  should 
command  not  only  the  confidence  but  the  intellectual  reverence 
of  his  students.  And  if  this  is  true  in  relation  to  all  our 
colleges,  it  is  especially  true  in  relation  to  a  college  having  such 
a  history  and  such  a  position  as  your  own. 

I  had,  therefore,  to  consider  first  of  all  whether  I  had  in  any 
degree  the  qualifications  which  would  justify  me  in  accepting 
your  invitation  ;  and  whether  my  own  adverse  judgment  on  this 
question  expressed  in  our  interview  at  the  Memorial  Hall  should 
give  way  under  the  pressure  of  the  generous  confidence  of  your 
Council  in  my  fitness  for  the  position.  After  repeated  and 
anxious  consideration  I  am  still  of  opinion  that  I  am  in- 
competent to  fill  a  chair  of  Systematic  Theology  in  such  a 
college  as  yours,  and  at  such  a  time  as  this.  It  is  true  that 
throughout  my  ministry  I  have  had  a  great  interest  in  Dogmatic 
studies — an  interest  which  has  sometimes  kindled  into  a  passion  ; 


574  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

and  that  I  have  given  a  considerable  amount  of  time  and 
thought  to  some  provinces  of  Dogmatic  investigation.  But  with 
a  congregation  like  that  of  which  I  have  been  the  minister  for 
so  many  years,  and  with  the  varied  engagements  which — wisely 
or  unwisely — I  have  permitted  to  absorb  a  large  share  of  my 
strength,  it  has  been  impossible  for  me  to  become  a  theological 
scholar.  I  have  studied  Dogma  in  order  to  form  and  enrich  my 
own  thought  and  to  guide  my  ministry ;  but  my  studies  have 
not  qualified  me  for  a  theological  chair. 

The  question  then  had  to  be  considered  whether  it  might 
not  still  be  my  duty  to  accept  the  chair  and  do  my  best — even 
though  my  very  best  would  be  certain  to  fall  far  short  of  my 
conception  of  what  the  work  of  the  Professor  of  Theology  at 
New  College  ought  to  be ;  but  my  judgment  is  clear  that  if  I 
attempted  to  discharge  duties  which  I  am  sure  are  so  far  beyond 
my  knowledge  and  my  powers,  I  should  render  no  real  service 
to  the  college,  and  should  dishonour  the  great  subject  whose 
claims  I  am  anxious  to  vindicate. 

.  .  .  The  Council  have  done  me  a  great  honour  by  offering 
me  an  appointment  of  such  dignity  and  responsibility ;  my  sense 
of  the  greatness  of  the  position  compels  me  respectfully  and 
gratefully  to  decline  it. 

The  effect  of  the  letter  was  not  such  as  Dale  anticipated. 
It  did  not  shake  the  conviction  of  the  Council  that  he 
was  the  man  for  the  post ;  they  were  sure  that  he  would 
satisfy  them,  if  he  did  not  satisfy  himself.  They  repeated 
their  invitation  with  increased  urgency,  but  without  effect. 
Dale  was  not  shaken  in  his  determination.  In  his  reply 
he  had  confined  himself  to  the  one  question — whether 
he  could  undertake  the  duties  of  the  chair  with  any 
hope  of  success  ;  now,  finding  his  own  opinion  on  that 
point  set  aside,  he  turned  to  other  matters  which  he  had 
deliberately  excluded  from  the  former  inquiry.  Of  these 
secondary  considerations  one,  taken  alone,  presented  an 
insuperable  difficulty.  His  relation  to  Mansfield  College, 
and  the  responsibilities  he  had  incurred  through  its 
foundation,  were  such,  he  felt,  as  to  preclude  him  from 
accepting  a  professorship  in  any  other  college  of  the 
denomination.  He  had  advocated  the  Oxford  scheme 
with  all  the  influence  at  his  command.  He  had  induced 
others  to  associate  themselves  with  him  in  the  enterprise. 


DRIFTING  APART  575 

To  accept  such  an  invitation  as  this  would  be  to  desert 
his  friends  and  the  work  to  which  he  was  pledged.  To 
serve  both  colleges  with  a  divided  allegiance  was  im- 
possible. If  he  went  to  London,  he  must  abandon 
Oxford.  Mansfield  College  in  that  case  would  lose  the 
help  that  he  might  hope  to  render  it  at  Carr's  Lane. 
The  objection  was  crucial,  and  was  felt  to  be  so.  No 
further  effort  was  made  to  modify  his  decision,  and  so 
ended  the  last  definite  attempt  to  remove  him  from 
Birmingham.      Even  then  it  was  late  to  think  of  change. 

When  Dale  returned  to  the  Royal  Commission,  he 
found  it  at  work  upon  the  draft  report  submitted  by  the 
Chairman.  Some  subjects  had  already  been  dealt  with  ; 
but  he  was  in  time  to  take  part  in  the  discussions 
relating  to  the  most  important  questions  brought  under 
their  consideration.  He  did  not  regard  himself — he 
was  not  regarded  by  others — merely  as  a  guardian  of 
denominational  interests.  He  had  been  nominated  as  a 
representative  Nonconformist,  and  in  that  capacity  it  was 
his  duty  to  expose  the  injustice  to  which  Nonconformists 
are  subjected  under  the  established  system  of  education, 
and  to  resist  any  proposals  that  would  add  to  their 
grievances.  But  he  sat  there  also  as  a  citizen,  anxious 
to  secure  the  best  education  possible  for  every  child  in 
the  kingdom,  and  with  the  experience  gained  during  ten 
laborious  years  on  the  Birmingham  School  Board.  He 
desired  not  only  to  maintain  the  rights  of  the  Non- 
conformist, but  the  rights  of  the  parent,  the  teacher,  and 
the  child  ;  of  the  questions  in  which  he  was  most  deeply 
concerned  some  indeed  belonged  to  the  sects,  but  far 
more  belonged  to  the  school. 

To  enter  at  any  length  into  the  details  of  the  debates 
would  be  an  endless  and  a  fruitless  task.  It  will  be 
enough  to  indicate,  in  the  briefest  way,  some  of  the 
positions  which  he  maintained  in  relation  to  some  matters 
of  primary  importance. 

While  acknowledging  the  impulse  given  to  popular 
education  by  the  Act  of  1870,  he  was  not  wholly  satisfied 
with   its   policy   or   its   methods.      He   desired   a    system 


576  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

more  flexible,  more  elastic.  The  stereotyped  "  standards," 
each  with  its  rigid  limits,  and  the  principle  of  "  payment 
by  results,"  which  apportioned  a  large  part  of  the  Govern- 
ment grant  by  success  or  failure  in  a  single  examination, 
inflicted,  as  he  believed,  the  most  serious  injury  on  the 
quality  of  the  education  given  in  the  schools.  The 
system  worked  badly  at  both  ends  of  the  scale :  it  was 
unjust  to  clever  children,  and  cruel  to  the  dull.  The 
school  course  was  practically  determined  by  the  require- 
ments of  the  Code.  The  teachers,  shut  in,  as  it  were, 
between  four  walls,  could  not  safely  venture  into  open 
country  beyond  the  fixed  limits.  They  were  tempted, 
even  encouraged,  to  disregard  the  awakening  of  intellectual 
interest  in  order  to  attain  the  mechanical  accuracy  that 
secures  a  "  pass."  Children  with  brains  they  might  safely 
neglect ;  the  school  was  in  no  danger  of  being  fined  by 
their  failure.  It  was  the  slow  and  the  backward  scholars 
that  they  had  to  think  of,  and  to  drag  them  up  to  the 
line  at  any  cost.  And  so  the  children  who  were  fit  for 
more  advanced  work  were  held  back  by  the  laggards  ; 
and  through  lack  of  the  thorough  training  from  which 
they  had  most  to  gain,  their  intelligence  was  apt  to  be 
superficial  ;  while  the  dull  were  unduly  forced  in  acquiring 
a  formal  and  mechanical  knowledge.  Even  when  the 
temptation  was  resisted  by  teachers  and  managers,  the 
system  was  still  mischievous,  since  it  set  before  them  a 
false  educational  aim.  It  is  not  safe  to  steer  by  a  false 
compass,  even  when  its  defect  is  known.  The  hostility 
expressed  by  the  great  majority  of  teachers  to  the  existing 
system  he  regarded  as  an  additional  reason  for  abandoning 
it  ;  for  their  disaffection  and  discontent  could  not  fail  to 
injure  the  efficiency  of  the  schools. 

The  fate  of  the  amendments  relating  to  this  subject 
which  he  proposed  in  the  Commission  disappointed  him. 
In  discussion  several  of  his  colleagues  had  condemned 
"  payment  by  results,"  and  had  expressed  their  desire  to 
substitute  inspection,  in  part  at  least,  for  examination. 
But  when  it  came  to  the  vote,  they  shrank  from  so 
decisive  a  change,  and  he  carried  with  him  in  the  division 


DRIFTING  APART  577 

only  Lord  Norton,  Mr.  J.  G.  Talbot,  and  Mr.  Heller — the 
teachers'  representative.  His  proposal  to  replace  the 
"  standards  "  by  a  graduated  system  of  instruction,  though 
defeated,  found  more  support ;  but  even  in  that  case  he 
was  outvoted  by  nine  against  six. 

He  was  defeated  again,  though  only  by  one  vote,  in 
an  attempt  to  modify  the  pupil-teacher  system.  After 
the  main  issue  had  been  decided,  and  the  majority  had 
voted  that  children  should  still  be  employed  to  teach 
other  children,  and  that  they  might  be  engaged  at  the 
age  of  thirteen,  he  proposed  a  qualifying  clause  providing 
that  they  should  not  be  permitted  to  take  part  in  the 
actual  work  of  teaching  under  the  age  of  fifteen.  He 
succeeded  in  carrying  two  amendments,  fixing  the 
minimum  age  for  half-time  exemption  in  districts  other 
than  rural  districts  at  eleven,  and  the  minimum  for 
full-time  exemption  at  thirteen  ;  in  country  districts 
the  conditions  of  farm -life  were  held  to  require  larger 
concessions. 

Among  the  grievances  put  in  evidence  before  the 
Commission  by  Nonconformist  witnesses  was  the  training- 
college  system  as  now  established — almost  entirely  resi- 
dential, and  for  the  most  part  under  rigid  denominational 
restrictions.  It  was  shown  conclusively  that  the  hardship 
of  which  Nonconformists  complained  was  not  imaginary, 
and  that  in  many  parts  of  the  country  they  were 
practically  excluded  from  the  teaching  profession.  The 
injustice  was  one  which  Dale  felt  keenly  ;  he  was  anxious 
to  deal  with  it.  But  to  propose  a  resolution  avowedly 
hostile  to  the  denominational  system  seemed  to  him 
impolitic  ;  it  could  not  succeed,  and  was  certain  to  irritate. 
He  preferred,  therefore,  to  suggest  that  the  experiment  of 
day-training  colleges  should  be  tried  on  a  limited  scale, 
to  test  how  far  such  a  scheme  was  practicable  ;  but  even 
this  slight  concession  was  refused  by  the  dominant 
majority. 

These  were  the  most  important  points  on  which  he 
made  proposals  of  his  own.  For  the  most  part  he  acted 
with  Mr.  Lyulph  Stanley — for  whose  ability  and  grasp  of 
2  P 


578  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

educational  problems  he  came  to  have  the  highest  admira- 
tion— and  with  Mr.  Henry  Richard.  Often,  on  questions 
of  administration  and  method,  they  were  found  on  different 
sides  ;  but  whenever  the  issue  lay  between  the  denomina- 
tional and  the  national  system,  between  the  demands  of 
the  clergy  and  the  rights  of  the  citizen,  they  were  never 
disunited.  To  the  efforts  made  by  Canon  Gregory,  Lord 
Harrowby,  and  others,  to  strengthen  the  denominational 
bias  of  the  draft  report,  they  offered  a  resolute  though 
unavailing  resistance.  Again  and  again  in  controversies 
of  this  kind  they  found  themselves  alone ;  though  at 
times  the  zeal  of  the  majority  proved  too  extreme  for 
some  of  its  members,  and  on  one  occasion  Dale  and  his 
friends  were  reinforced  by  Bishop  Temple  and  Archdeacon 
Smith  in  opposition  to  a  declaration  that  religion  supplied 
the  only  sure  foundation  of  morality.  But  for  the  most 
part  in  this  stage  of  the  struggle  their  position  was  that 
of  a  small  minority,  defeated  at  every  turn  but  not 
daunted,  and  content  to  wait  with  patience  for  victory, 
though  deferred. 

The  report  as  finally  adopted  by  the  majority  of  the 
Commissioners  was  not  accepted  by  all.  The  original 
draft  contained  much  that  was  objectionable  to  the 
minority  ;  and  it  had  been  modified  in  such  a  way  as  to 
widen  party  divisions.  Eight  members,  therefore,  signed  a 
minority  report  of  no  great  length,  but  indicating  in  general 
terms  the  points  of  agreement  and  of  difference.  Five  of 
their  number  also  published  another  report,  dealing  in  far 
greater  detail  with  the  question  in  all  its  aspects.  Dale 
with  Mr.  Lyulph  Stanley  signed  the  draft  on  which  this 
report  was  based  ;  he  wrote  the  chapters  on  Religious 
Instruction,  Moral  Training,  and  Nonconformist  Grievances, 
and  also  a  Memorandum  on  the  Attendance  at  Sunday 
Schools  of  Children  attending  Public  Elementary  Schools. 
His  reply  to  Mr.  Richard,  who  thought  that  he  might 
have  dealt  more  briefly  with  the  subject  of  Religious  In- 
struction by  omitting  evidence  which  he  had  set  out  at 
length,  illustrates  his  anxiety  to  deal  fairly  with  opinions 
which  were  not  his  own. 


DRIFTING  APART  579 

To  Mr.  Henry  Richard 

May  1888. 

Of  course  I  submit  wholly  to  your  judgment,  and  am  prepared 
to  drop  the  whole  of  the  evidence.  The  considerations  on  the 
other  side  are  these  : — 

(1)  I  think  we  ought  gravely  and  fully  to  state  the  case  on  this 
subject.  Its  importance  we  recognise  as  fully  as  our  colleagues 
of  the  majority.  (2)  Our  own  people  do  not  know  how  large  a 
place  the  religious  instruction  holds  in  schools,  either  voluntary 
or  board.  (3)  The  statement  of  the  case  shows  that  in  Church 
of  England  and  Catholic  schools  we  have  a  second  and  a  third 
religious  establishment.  (4)  Though  to  this  I  do  not  attach 
much  value,  as  I  strongly  dislike  "  undenominational "  teaching, 
it  seems  fair  to  the  large  body  of  our  party  who  believe  in  teach- 
ing of  that  kind  to  let  them  have  the  support  which  comes  from 
the  evidence  on  behalf  of  Boards. 

With  the  publication  of  this  report  his  work  on  the 
Commission  came  to  an  end. 

It  may  be  convenient  at  this  point — slightly  antici- 
pating the  order  of  time — to  deal  with  the  last  contro- 
versy on  the  education  question  in  which  Dale  took  part. 
When  Lord  Salisbury's  Government  brought  forward  their 
Free  Education  Bill  in  18  91,  the  Nonconformists  as  a 
body  resisted  the  measure,  on  the  ground  that  it  did  not 
provide  for  public  control  of  the  schools  that  were  to 
profit  by  the  increased  grant  of  public  money. 

For  some  time  Dale  kept  clear  of  the  conflict,  though 
he  wrote  to  Mr.  Chamberlain,  criticising  the  methods  of 
the  Bill,  and  suggesting  ways  in  which  some  of  its  faults 
as  an  educational  measure  might  be  mended.  He  would 
have  been  glad  to  do  nothing  more  ;  but  when  asked  for 
his  opinion,  he  could  not  refuse  to  give  it.  So  he  examined 
the  plan,  in  principle  and  in  detail,  in  a  letter  first  addressed 
to  his  friend  Mr.  Colman — one  of  the  members  for  Nor- 
wich— but  afterwards  published  in  the  Independent  and 
elsewhere.1  The  details  of  his  criticism  may  be  disre- 
garded ;  it  is  necessary  to  deal  only  with  the  main  issue. 

1    The  Independent,  26th  June  1891. 


580  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE  ' 

He  was  already  familiar  with  the  problem.  The  diffi- 
culty of  combining  a  system  of  Free  Education  with  the 
continuance  of  voluntary  schools  had  been  discussed  at 
length  by  the  minority  of  the  Royal  Commission  before 
they  framed  their  report ;  it  had  proved  insoluble,  and 
they  found  themselves  unable  to  suggest  any  scheme  that 
would  not  be  open  to  grave  objections.  But  now  the 
position  of  affairs  was  changed.  A  definite  scheme  had 
been  offered  to  the  nation,  for  establishing  a  system  of 
Free  Education,  but  also  intended  to  assist  voluntary 
schools — and  to  assist  them  without  lessening  their  freedom. 
Nonconformists  must  make  their  choice  between  two  evils. 
They  might  accept  the  Bill — as  an  imperfect  and  unsatis- 
factory measure — for  the  sake  of  Free  Education  ;  or  they 
might  resist,  and  possibly  help  to  reject  it,  even  at  the 
cost  of  deferring  a  reform  to  which  they  were  friendly. 
Dale  declared  his  own  preference  without  hesitation. 

I  agree  with  the  criticisms  of  the  Bill  contained  in  a  paper 
just  issued  by  the  National  Education  Association ;  but  it  is 
necessary  to  distinguish  between  defects  which  are  inevitable  in 
any  solution  of  the  problem  and  defects  of  a  different  kind.  For 
example,  I  strongly  object  to  granting  public  money  to  any 
school  not  under  public  management ;  but  the  very  aim  of  the 
Bill  is  to  secure  Free  Education  in  denominational  as  well  as  in 
board  schools.  The  absence  of  any  provision  for  the  public 
management  of  denominational  schools  is  therefore  one  of  the 
conditions  imposed  on  the  framers  of  the  measure.  For  my 
part  I  am  well  content  that  for  the  present  no  attempt  should  be 
made  to  secure  public  control.  Those  of  us  who  believe  in  it 
are  not  strong  enough  to  insist  on  any  effective  application  of 
our  principle,  and  I  do  not  care  to  have  a  mere  illusory  arrange- 
ment. From  the  absence  of  public  control  other  evils  must 
follow ;  but  these  are  involved  in  the  very  terms  of  the  problem 
which  the  Government  have  attempted  to  solve. 

It  is  easy  to  criticise  this  measure,  but  those  who  criticise  it 
should  be  prepared  to  show  that  under  existing  circumstances  it 
is  possible  to  construct  a  scheme  for  Free  Education  that  would 
be  less  objectionable.  At  present  the  denominational  schools 
are  too  strong  for  it  to  be  possible  to  transfer  the  power  of  their 
managers  to  School  Boards.  We  may  regret  this — I  regret  it 
very  much — but  the  fact  cannot  be  denied ;  and  the  question  is 


DRIFTING  APART  581 

whether,  if  this  fact  is  recognised,  any  fairer  and  less  objection- 
able measure  for  securing  Free  Education  can  be  constructed 
than  that  which  has  been  proposed  by  the  Government.  If  not, 
the  choice  lies  between  accepting  the  main  outlines  of  their  Bill 
and  postponing  Free  Education  indefinitely.  The  second  alter- 
native I  am  not  prepared  to  approve. 

It  is  probable  that  this  advice  would  have  provoked 
less  resentment  had  it  not  been  coupled  with  a  defence  of 
Mr.  Chamberlain,  who,  as  Dale  thought,  had  been  most 
unjustly  charged  with  "  apostasy  "  on  this  question.  He 
pointed  out  that,  two  years  at  least  before  the  split  in  the 
Liberal  party,  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  been  anxious  to  secure 
Free  Education,  even  at  the  cost  of  an  increased  grant  to 
voluntary  schools  without  any  enlargement  of  outside 
control.  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  made  this  proposal  in  1884 
and  1885,  when  he  was  "one  of  the  most  powerful  and 
most  trusted  of  the  Radical  leaders."  And  though  the 
plan  had  been  rejected  by  the  Liberal  Federation  at  Brad- 
ford, there  had  been  no  talk  then  of  "  apostasy "  or  of 
anything  like  it. 

The  letter — especially  after  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  used 
it  in  his  own  defence  in  the  House  of  Commons — brought 
down  a  storm  of  denunciation — reckless  in  some  cases, 
ignorant  in  others.  But  of  such  attacks  Dale  for  some 
time  took  no  heed.  The  course  of  events  showed  that  he 
had  grasped  the  facts  of  the  situation.  He  had  asserted 
that  Nonconformists  were  not  strong  enough  to  secure  any 
system  of  genuine  control  ;  it  proved  that  they  were  not 
strong  enough  even  to  demand  it.  The  resolution  moved 
by  Mr.  Fowler,  representing  the  Liberal  leaders,  was  im- 
potent and  indefinite  :  it  asked  for  local  supervision  ;  it  did 
not  venture  to  ask  for  local  control  ;  and  supervision  with- 
out control — oversight  without  authority — must  inevitably 
degenerate  into  a  mere  mockery.  But  in  the  autumn 
of  1 89 1  finding  that  his  opinions  were  still  misrepresented 
— and  notably  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Congregational 
Union  at  Southport — he  felt  that  it  was  due  to  himself, 
and  due  to  his  friends,  to  check  the  persistent  endeavour  to 
represent  him  as  unwilling  to  place  denominational  schools 


5S2  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

under  public  control.  He  therefore  brought  the  speaker 
to  book,  taking  the  opportunity  to  restate  and  reassert  his 
own  position.1 

A  single  sentence,  torn  from  its  surroundings  and 
divorced  from  its  context,  had  been  quoted  to  prove  that 
"  Dr.  Dale  in  1891  "  was  "less  advanced  than  Dr.  Temple 
in  1856."  He  had  said  :  "  For  my  part  I  am  well  content 
that  for  the  present  no  attempt  should  be  made  to  secure 
public  control."  Why  ?  Because  he  was  opposed  to 
public  control  ?  Because  he  refused  to  admit,  what  Dr. 
Temple  acknowledged,  that  "  if  the  religious  communities 
are  to  govern  the  schools,  it  will  follow  that  they  must  pay 
for  them  "  ?  The  very  next  sentence  showed  that  it  was 
not  so— that  it  could  not  be  so.  "  For,"  he  continued, 
"  those  of  us  who  believe  in  it  are  not  strong  enough  to 
insist  on  any  effective  application  of  our  principle,  and  I 
do  not  care  to  have  a  mere  illusory  arrangement."  His 
assailant,  who  had  not  the  grace  to  apologise,  attempted 
to  justify  himself  by  saying  that  he  had  quoted  Dale's 
words  "  verbatim  " — a  defence  that  implied  exceptional 
obtuseness  or  an  abnormal  ignorance  of  the  ethics  of 
quotation.  Dale's  letter  removed  the  last  shadow  of  ex- 
cuse for  any  such  suggestion  in  future. 

What  Nonconformists  have  been  asking  for  throughout  the 
Education  struggle  has  been,  not  the  mere  "  supervision "  by  a 
local  representative  authority  of  schools  receiving  public  grants, 
but  the  transfer  of  the  management  of  the  schools  to  a  local 
representative  authority,  which  is  a  wholly  different  matter. 
This,  and  this  alone,  should  satisfy  the  Nonconformists ;  and  to 
any  illusory  scheme,  which  would  make  it  more  difficult  to  secure 
their  ultimate  object,  they  should  offer  strenuous  opposition.  .  .  . 

It  is  because  I  care  so  much  for  real  and  effective  popular 
management  that  I  was  "  content  "  that  no  attempt  was  made 
last  Session  to  give  us  a  form  of  popular  control  that  would  have 
been  certain  to  be  illusory. 

At  the  same  time  he  indicated  the  lines  on  which  the 
battle  should  be  fought  out. 

1  Independent,  23rd  October  1891. 


DRIFTING  APART  5S3 

We  are  not  strong  enough,  I  say,  to  secure  what  we  want ; 
but  I  think  that  Nonconformists  should  make  up  their  minds  to 
move  towards  it.  Their  immediate  demand,  in  my  judgment, 
should  be  for  a  school  under  the  management  of  a  local  repre- 
sentative authority  within  the  reach  of  every  child  in  England ; 
and,  further,  the  local  authority  should  be  required  to  find  school 
places  for  all  the  children  whose  parents  desire  it,  whether  there 
is  room  for  them  or  not  in  existing  denominational  schools.  To 
secure  even  this  moderate  demand  will  require  a  severe  struggle ; 
but  if  the  English  Nonconformists  really  care  to  fight  the  battle 
of  educational  freedom,  the  victory  will  come  to  them  at  last. 

Only  one  more  addition — and  that  a  brief  one — is 
necessary.  It  has  been  implied,  and  even  asserted,  that 
before  the  end  of  his  life  Dale  withdrew  from  the  position 
that  he  had  long  held  on  the  question  of  religious 
instruction.  Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  fact. 
He  stood  then  where  he  had  stood  twenty  years  before.1 
For  a  time,  it  is  true,  he  had  argued  in  favour  of  Bible 
reading  in  the  schools  ;  but  the  Bible  was  to  come  in,  not  as 
a  book  of  revelation,  but  as  a  masterpiece  of  literature. 
That  time  had  long  since  passed  ;  he  looked  back  on  it  with 
humiliation  and  regret.  And  although  in  later  years,  re- 
luctantly, and  to  avert  the  disruption  of  the  Liberal  party 
in  Birmingham,  he  had  agreed  to  offer  no  resistance  to  the 
compromise  under  which  the  Bible  was  read  in  the  schools, 
his  own  conviction  was  unchanged  ;  and  he  made  no 
secret  of  it.  He  accepted  the  compromise,  lest  the 
rejection  of  it  should  lead  to  something  worse — an  attempt 
to  give  religious  instruction  in  the  schools. 

Dale's  services  on  the  Commission  as  a  representative  : 
of  the  Nonconformist  churches  were  heartily  recognised, 
especially  by  those  who  understood  against  what  odds  he 
had  to  contend.  At  the  autumn  session  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Union,  held  at  Nottingham,  an  expression  of 
gratitude  to  him — and  to  Mr.  Richard  who  had  died  not 
long  before — was  coupled  with  a  protest  against  the 
retrograde  policy  advocated  by  the  majority  of  their 
colleagues.     Through  the  irony  of  events  this  very  incident 

1  See  his  own  declaration  :  Independent,  4th  May  1893. 


584  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

led  to  his  withdrawal  from  the  meetings  of  the  Union. 
Dr.  Guinness  Rogers,  who  proposed  the  resolution, 
scrupulously  avoided  any  phrase  or  allusion  that  might 
give  offence.  But  Mr.  Edward  Crossley,  who  followed 
him,  described  the  Liberal  Unionists  as  "  chained  to  the 
Tory  chariot,"  and  asserted  that  they  had  "  denied  their 
Liberalism."  His  words  were  followed  by  loud  protests 
and  louder  applause.  He  repeated  them  :  "  I  say  it 
again — who  have  denied  their  principles  "  ;  a  fresh  demon- 
stration of  feeling  followed.  The  Chairman,  Dr.  Bruce, 
intervened ;  but  the  mischief  was  done :  the  assembly 
had  unmistakably  declared  its  hostility  to  the  Liberal 
Unionists. 

Dale's  position  was  one  of  extreme  difficulty.  He  was 
expected  to  acknowledge  the  vote  ;  but  if  he  remained 
and  spoke,  he  must  have  replied  to  the  attack  ;  it  would 
have  been  his  duty  to  vindicate  himself  and  those  who 
shared  his  convictions  on  the  Irish  question  from  the 
charges  that  had  been  flung  at  them.  Such  controversies, 
he  felt,  were  out  of  place  at  the  meetings  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Union.  He  was  loath  to  embroil  the  assembly,  or 
to  be  drawn  into  conflict  with  some  of  his  closest  friends, 
especially  into  a  conflict  that  could  have  no  result  but  to 
embitter  feeling.  Silence,  on  the  whole,  seemed  the  wiser 
course,  and  he  left  the  hall  before  he  could  be  called  upon 
to  speak. 

Taken  alone,  Mr.  Crossley's  speech,  and  the  demonstra- 
tion it  provoked,  however  discourteous,  would  not  have 
affected  Dale's  relations  to  the  Congregational  Union. 
But  during  the  same  week  a  special  meeting  of  its  members 
was  held  to  pass  a  resolution  condemning  the  Irish  policy 
of  the  Government ;  it  was  held  with  the  concurrence  of 
the  Committee,  and  the  ordinary  session  was  adjourned  to 
enable  ministers  and  delegates  to  be  present.  Such  a 
precedent  seemed  to  him  perilous  in  the  extreme.  Once 
admitted  into  the  discussions  of  the  Congregational  Union, 
questions  of  this  order,  he  felt,  were  sure  to  recur  ;  and 
the  only  way  of  escape  from  distasteful  and  fruitless  strife 
lay  in  withdrawal  from    the   Union    meetings    until    the 


DRIFTING  APART  585 

cause  of  division  should  have  passed  away.  He  therefore 
wrote  to  the  Nonconformist,  explaining  the  position  in 
which  he  found  himself,  and  the  decision  to  which  he  had 
come.      The  letter  concluded  as  follows  : — 

I  do  not  suppose  that  anybody  would  contend  that  the  Con- 
gregational Union  should  be  regarded  as  a  court  of  review  which 
is  under  obligation  to  discuss  at  its  annual  assemblies  the 
morality  of  all  the  political  events  of  the  year ;  and,  in  my 
humble  opinion,  the  administration  of  Ireland  is  not  a  subject 
on  which  it  was  necessary  for  the  Union  to  speak. 

But  the  majority  must  judge  for  themselves.  In  their  judg- 
ment they  would  have  failed  in  their  duty  if  they  had  not 
secured  from  the  ministers  and  delegates  attending  the  Union  a 
resolution  on  this  question.  The  resolution  was  passed,  not, 
indeed,  at  an  ordinary  meeting  of  the  Union,  but  at  a  special 
meeting  of  its  members.  The  meeting  was  proposed  by  a 
committee  appointed  by  the  assembly;  and  the  proposal  was 
sanctioned  by  the  assembly. 

It  remains  for  those  of  us  who  regard  the  meeting  with  dis- 
approbation to  recognise  the  conscientiousness  of  those  from 
whom  we  differ,  while  we  regret  their  judgment.  Those  of  us 
who,  to  use  the  words  of  one  of  the  speakers  at  the  special 
meeting,  "  must  be  brushed  aside  in  the  interests  of  freedom 
and  of  progress,"  should  submit  to  the  decision  of  our  brethren 
without  resentment. 

The  Liberal  party  has  been  rent  in  two  by  this  great  and 
difficult  question.  The  protracted  discussion  of  it  has  done 
nothing  to  conciliate  differences  of  opinion,  and  has  created  a 
mutual  bitterness  of  feeling  which  makes  ultimate  agreement 
extremely  uncertain.  Now  that  the  discussion  has  practically 
found  its  way  into  the  Congregational  Union,  there  is  danger  that 
if  it  is  continued  the  Congregational  ministers  and  churches  of 
England  will  also  be  divided  into  two  hostile  camps.  But  it 
takes  two  to  make  a  quarrel.  We  who  are  in  the  minority  must 
find  some  way  of  escaping  from  responsibility  for  the  opinions  of 
our  brethren  without  coming  into  conflict  with  them,  either  at 
ordinary  or  special  meetings  of  the  ministers  and  delegates 
attending  the  Union.  In  a  few  years  we  may  hope  that  the 
question  will  cease  to  divide  us,  and  I  am  anxious  that  when 
that  time  comes  neither  party  may  have  to  regret  words  of 
bitterness  spoken  of  the  other.  I  am  content,  meanwhile,  so  far 
as  the  Congregational  Union  is  concerned,  to  be  "brushed 
aside  in  the  interest  of  freedom  and  of  progress."  1 

1  Nonconformist  and  Independent,  1 8th  October  1888. 


586  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

The  letters  that  follow  were  written  to  Dr.  Guinness 
Rogers— the  first  two  at  the  time  of  his  withdrawal ;  the 
third  more  than  two  years  later,  when,  after  Dr.  Hannay's 
death,  with  great  reluctance  and  in  response  to  urgent 
appeal,  he  appeared  on  the  Union  platform  for  the  last 
time  to  propose  a  resolution  expressing  the  sorrow  of  its 
members  at  their  loss. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

Nottingham,    October  nth   1888. 

Your  letter  did  not  reach  me  till  after  you  had  left  last  night. 
I  was  much  moved  by  it.  I  wish  that  it  were  possible  for  me  to 
tell  you  that  it  had  affected  my  judgment  as  much  as  it  has 
touched  my  heart. 

With  regard  to  the  speech  of  Mr.  Edward  Crossley  I  need 
hardly  say  much.  There  was  something  humorous  in  his 
attack  on  the  Unionists  while  he  was  seconding  a  resolution 
which  recognised  the  value  of  the  services  of  the  minority  of  the 
Education  Commission.  Mr.  Lyulph  Stanley,  to  whom  we  owe 
very  much  more  than  to  any  one  else,  is  an  energetic  Unionist ; 
and  if  I  cared  to  appreciate  the  relative  services  of  the  members 
of  the  minority  I  should  be  able  to  show  that  those  who  do  not 
follow  Mr.  Gladstone  were,  to  say  the  least,  not  less  laborious  or 
less  staunch  than  their  colleagues.  But  Mr.  Crossley's  speech 
and  even  its  reception  by  the  meeting  were  made  of  very  little 
importance  by  what  followed.  I  could  not,  of  course,  have 
acknowledged  the  resolution  without  discussing  Mr.  Crossley's 
position  ;  and  as  in  my  judgment  it  is  no  part  of  the  duty  of  the 
Congregational  Union  to  consider  whether  Liberal  Unionists — 
in  or  out  of  Parliament — have  "  sacrificed  their  Liberalism  and 
denied  their  principles,"  I  was  compelled  to  be  silent.  I  am 
sorry  not  to  have  been  able  to  speak.  I  wanted  to  say  some- 
thing of  the  services  of  my  colleagues  on  the  Commission  ;  to 
point  out  what  seems  to  me  to  be  our  true  policy,  and  to  express 
my  gratitude  for  the  extreme  generosity  with  which  you  and 
Bruce  and  the  assembly,  by  adopting  the  resolution,  had  recog- 
nised my  own  endeavours  to  serve  the  interests  of  education  and 
of  religious  freedom.  But  to  lose  the  opportunity  of  making  a 
speech  even  on  subjects  about  which  one  cares  a  great  deal  is 
not  a  serious  matter. 

But  the  action  of  the  assembly  with  regard  to  the  meeting  of 
this  afternoon  was  really  serious.     A  committee  of  the  assembly 


DRIFTING  APART  5S7 

proposed  that  a  meeting  should  be  held  of  ministers  and 
delegates  for  discussing  the  Irish  question,  and  requested  the 
Chairman  of  the  Union  to  preside  at  it ;  the  assembly  approved 
the  proposal  and  determined  to  adjourn  at  an  unusual  hour,  so 
that  the  ordinary  meeting  should  not  interfere  with  the  special 
meeting.  To  all  intents  and  purposes  the  meeting  this  afternoon 
is  a  meeting  of  the  Congregational  Union,  and  will  be  so 
regarded  by  the  public. 

Whatever  may  be  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the  meeting,  I 
regard  this  as  a  course  full  of  peril.  The  resolutions  which  are 
likely  to  be  passed,  and  the  speeches  likely  to  be  made,  will 
commit  the  Union  to  a  political  position  which,  on  moral 
grounds,  I  regard  with  strong  disapproval.  That  you  and  others 
whom  I  esteem  should  regard  the  course  of  the  official  Liberal 
party  during  the  last  two  years  with  satisfaction  is  sufficient 
proof  that  the  subject  is  one  on  which  honourable  men  may 
differ. 

20th  October  1888. 

I  am  glad  that  you  have  so  little  to  regret  in  the  letter  to  the 
Nonconformist.  You  will  not  wonder  that  I  was  just  a  little 
amused  at  your  saying  that  we  must  take  care  not  to  sever 
religion  from  politics.  I  can  sever  religion  from  no  political 
question ;  it  does  not  follow  that  every  political  question  is  the 
proper  concern  of  the  Union.  There  are  many  grave  things 
into  which  religion  enters  with  which  the  Union  has  nothing  to  do. 

I  fear,  however,  that  you  may  have  drawn  an  incorrect  infer- 
ence from  the  letter  to  the  JVonconfonnist.  Of  course  I  do  not 
write  to  the  paper  as  I  write  to  you.  I  have  done  very  little  for 
the  Union  for  a  great  many  years,  and  never  did  much,  but  I 
trust  it  will  become  more  and  more  a  real  spiritual  force.  And 
if  I  drop  out  for  a  time  I  want  to  drop  out  quietly.  I  cannot  at 
present  see  any  other  course.  To  discuss  the  Irish  question 
either  in  general  or  special  meetings  seems  to  me  a  course  full  of 
danger ;  and  my  judgment  to-day,  therefore,  is  my  judgment  of 
last  week — to  be  no  party  to  the  discussion  of  it.  But  how  I 
can  be  present  and  yet  silent  I  do  not  see.  Put  the  case  the 
other  way.  Suppose  that  the  Union  passed  a  resolution  con- 
gratulating the  Government  on  the  remarkable  diminution  of 
boycotting  and  on  the  letting  of  derelict  farms,  and  transmitted 
it  to  Mr.  Balfour,  could  you,  with  your  views,  be  present  at  the 
discussion  leading  up  to  that  resolution  and  be  silent  ?  If  you 
felt  it  a  duty  to  be  silent,  could  you  with  a  quiet  conscience  be 
present  at  the  Union  meetings  ? 

I  have  been  very  unhappy  about  the  whole  business.      It  was 


588  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

a  painful  thing  to  separate  myself  from  the  Liberal  Association  ; 
it  is  infinitely  more  distressing  to  have  the  conviction  forced  on 
me  that  I  must  for  a  time  isolate  myself  from  the  Union  and 
from  other  Nonconformist  assemblies  of  a  kindred  sort.  I  went 
to  Nottingham  last  week  with  a  very  joyful  heart,  believing  that, 
with  the  cessation  of  the  heavy  claims  of  the  Commission  and 
with  returning  strength  I  might  very  soon  be  able  to  do  very 
much  more  for  the  Union  than  I  have  done  for  a  long  time.  I 
came  home  very  sad. 

But,  as  I  said  in  my  letter  last  week,  this  is  for  you  only. 
You  must  know  my  heart.  I  have  not  said  these  things  to  other 
people. 

25//;  February  189 1. 

The  request  of  the  Union  Committee  seems  to  leave  me  no 
choice.  I  do  not  see  how  it  is  possible  for  me  to  decline.  And 
yet  I  accept  with  misgiving.  For  I  suppose  that  it  is  as  likely  as 
not  that  the  Union  will  be  asked  to  pass  a  resolution  declaring 
that  Mr.  Gladstone's  letter  has  secured  a  great  triumph  for 
Christian  morality  by  removing  Mr.  Parnell  from  the  leadership 
of  the  Irish  party  and  putting  in  his  place  the  men  who  after  the 
divorce  mocked  at  the  scruples  of  Nonconformist  fanatics  and 
professed  their  unabated  confidence  in  him ;  and  as  I  see  no 
reason  for  breaking  through  my  determination  not  to  discuss 
Irish  matters  in  the  Union,  I  should  have  to  be  silent  about  my 
inability  to  concur  in  this  opinion.  However,  as  I  have  said,  I 
love  and  honour  the  memory  of  Hannay  so  much  that  I  do  not 
see  how  I  can  decline. 

Withdrawal  from  the  Congregational  Union  brought 
no  sudden  and  glaring  change  ;  its  effect  was  gradual, 
almost  imperceptible.  He  was  already  bound  for  solitary 
seas  ;  this  was  another  anchor  lifted,  or  rather  it  was  a 
fresh  wind  to  carry  him  on  his  way.  With  retirement 
from  political  life  his  interest  in  politics  began  to  fail,  and 
now  he  ceased  to  concern  himself  with  denominational 
affairs,  save  where  they  touched  religious  life  and  thought. 
During  the  next  two  years  he  lived  much  alone  ;  his  isola- 
tion, and  the  consciousness  of  it,  grew  more  and  more 
complete. 

It  was  at  this  time,  too,  that  he  made  a  second  home 
for  himself  at  Llanbedr,  a  little  Welsh  village  about  eight 
miles  from   Barmouth.      The  place  is  neither  inaccessible 


DRIFTING  APART  589 

nor  unknown  to  visitors,  but  it  lies  away  from  the  beaten 
track,  and  is  almost  untouched  by  English  influence.  He 
spent  a  holiday  there,  and  was  eager  to  return.  The  next 
year  a  comfortable  cottage  was  rented  and  furnished,  and 
he  would  go  there,  not  only  in  the  summer,  but  whenever 
he  needed  a  few  days'  rest  and  change.  But  for  the 
distance  from  Birmingham — and  Welsh  railways  take 
their  time — the  place  was  all  that  he  could  desire.  The 
hills  were  close  at  hand,  with  gentle  slopes  of  easy  ascent, 
and  commanding  a  wide  expanse  of  mountain  and  moor 
and  sea.  The  winds  were  soft  and  the  sunshine  was 
generous.  He  took  kindly  to  the  people  as  well  as  to  the 
place  ;  and  the  life  of  a  village,  which  he  saw  for  the  first 
time  from  the  inside,  afforded  him  endless  amusement  and 
delight.  On  the  Sunday  he  would  listen  to  the  vicar  at 
the  English  church,  whose  stock  of  sermons  soon  became 
familiar.  If  he  went  to  the  Welsh  chapel,  the  text  was 
given  out  in  English  for  his  benefit,  so  that,  as  he  said,  he 
had  something  good  to  think  about  though  he  could  not 
follow  the  preacher.  If  he  was  unwell,  he  called  in  the  local 
doctor — a  man  of  skill  and  resource — who  discussed  his 
symptoms  in  English,  but  relapsed  into  Welsh  when  he 
wrote  out  the  directions  on  the  medicine-bottle.  Out  of 
doors  there  was  the  garden,  with  its  wealth  of  flowers — 
and  weeds ;  and  in  the  river  were  salmon  that  sulked 
in  state  beneath  the  bridge  close  by,  trout  that  would  not 
take  the  fly,  eels  that  would  take  anything.  He  soon 
became  deeply  interested  in  the  faith  of  the  people,  as 
shaped  by  the  influences  of  Calvinistic  Methodism.  He 
attended  their  meetings,  listened  to  their  ministers,  and 
wrote  more  than  one  careful  study  of  what  he  had  seen 
and  heard.  He  kept  open  house — open  to  all ;  and  his 
friendliness  went  far  to  break  down  the  barrier  of  suspicion 
and  reserve  that  keeps  the  two  races  strangers  and  apart. 
In  a  very  real  sense,  he  had  the  freedom  of  the  place. 

Llanbedr  also  led  to  a  new  friendship  of  ever-increasing 
intimacy  and  affection.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Richard  Davies 
were  already  known  to  him  through  their  connection  with 
his    friends    the    Colmans ;    they  had    met   as   guests   at 


590  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

Carrovv  or  at  Corton.  Their  home  at  Treborth,  in  Angle- 
sea,  on  the  Menai  Straits,  was  not  very  far  from  Llanbedr  ; 
it  made  a  pleasant  break  in  the  journey  to  Birmingham. 
One  visit  led  to  another,  and  he  often  spent  a  few  days 
under  their  roof.  He  was  always  sure  of  a  welcome  :  he 
felt  that  he  could  go  there  even  in  times  of  weakness  and 
suffering.  It  was  a  large  household,  full  of  bright  and 
buoyant  life  that  gave  him  incessant  delight.  The  sons 
and  the  daughters  of  the  house,  no  less  than  their  parents, 
made  him  their  friend.  Treborth  and  its  associations  are 
points  of  light  in  the  shadow  of  his  later  years. 

Llanbedr  was  friendly  to  meditation,  and  Dale,  ever 
ready  to  commune  with  the  inner  spirit,  spent  many  hours 
in  thought.  He  would  take  his  Bible  and  read  book  after 
book  with  minute  care,  noting  the  truths  on  which,  as  it 
seemed  to  him,  he  had  dwelt  too  lightly,  and  the  duties 
that  had  received  inadequate  recognition  in  his  ministry. 
Nor  did  he  stop  there.  He  also  reviewed  the  spirit  and 
the  method  of  his  preaching.  Preaching,  he  felt,  in  the 
future  would  be  his  chief,  perhaps  his  only  work.  His 
failure  to  reach  men  and  to  move  them  as  he  desired 
weighed  upon  him  ;  and  with  unflinching  self-scrutiny  he 
set  himself  to  discover  how  a  fuller  success  might  yet  be 
won.  He  kept  no  diary  until  a  later  period,  but  he  began 
about  this  time  to  set  down  in  writing  his  thoughts  on 
these  subjects.  The  notes  that  follow  cover  a  period  of 
several  months,  but  it  would  be  inconvenient  to  disregard 
their  intimate  connection. 

I  have  been  thinking  much  and  with  much  concern  about 
my  preaching.  It  has  a  fatal  defect.  It  is  wanting  in  an 
element  which  is  indispensable  to  real  success.  I  do  not  think 
that  I  should  state  the  exact  truth  if  I  said  that  I  was  not 
anxious  for  the  conversion  and  perfection  of  individual  men,  and 
cared  only  for  setting  forth  the  truth.  But  I  fear  that  the  truth 
occupies  too  large  a  place  in  my  thought,  and  that  I  have  been 
too  much  occupied  with  the  instrument — the  Divine  instrument 
— for  effecting  the  ends  of  the  ministry,  too  little  with  the  actual 
persons  to  be  restored  to  God.  This  comes  from  a  moral  and 
spiritual  condition  which  involves  serious  guilt.  God  forgive 
me  !     It  is  even  now  possible  through  the  Divine  grace  for  this 


DRIFTING  APART  591 

sin  to  disappear.  It  lies  deep.  The  particular  result  of  it 
which  I  have  marked  is  but  one  of  its  evil  effects.  I  have  again 
and  again  attempted  to  discover  how  to  do  my  work  more 
effectively — have  honestly  tried  to  make  everything  contribute 
to  the  usefulness  of  my  preaching ;  but  the  central  evil  has  re- 
mained :  it  is  a  want  of  conformity  to  the  mind  of  Christ,  a 
hardness  of  heart  which  must  be  subdued  and  melted  by  the 
grace  and  truth  of  God,  if  the  few  remaining  years  of  my 
ministry — few  at  the  most — are  to  have  a  different  character 
from  those  which  have  gone  before. 

To  what  extent  have  I  failed  for  another  reason — not  recog- 
nising in  thought  the  discontent,  the  yearning  for  an  unknown 
God,  the  reaching  towards  Christ,  of  many  who  are  not  decidedly 
Christians  ? 

I  felt  rather  strongly  towards  the  close  of  last  year  that  in 
one  respect  among  others  my  ministry — especially  of  late  years 
— had  been  gravely  defective.  I  have  striven  to  press  home 
upon  men  and  to  illustrate  the  very  central  contents  of  the 
Christian  gospel ;  but  I  have  not  recognised  practically  the 
obligation  to  use  in  preaching  all  those  secondary  powers  which 
contribute  to  create  and  sustain  intellectual  and  emotional 
interest  in  preaching.  The  more  strenuous  intellectual  effort, 
in  order  to  make  truth  clear  and  to  put  it  strongly,  has  not  been 
neglected ;  but  there  has  not  been  the  legitimate  use,  either  in 
the  choice  of  subjects  or  their  treatment,  of  those  elements 
which  are  of  a  rhetorical  character,  and  which  raise  the  audience 
into  a  condition  which  is  perhaps  friendly  to  the  reception  of 
Christian  truth.  I  have  a  dread  of  aiming  at  the  "  popular " 
method  of  treatment,  arising  from  a  dread  of  aiming  at  "  popu- 
larity " ;  but  the  two  aims  are  wholly  distinct,  and  it  has  been 
a  fault  not  to  aim  at  the  first.  I  have  set  myself  to  remedy 
this  during  the  present  year,  and  hope  with  God's  help  to  succeed. 

I  fear  that  I  have  not  secured  sufficient  variety  of  subject  for 
the  various  intellectual,  ethical,  and  religious  conditions  of  the 
congregation ;  and  during  my  recent  absence  from  home  I  drew 
up  a  tentative  scheme  of  topics  which  I  will  try  to  work.  It 
covers  a  month. 

(1)  Morning:  Spiritual,  Experimental,  Higher  Truth. 
Evening :  Ethical. 

(2)  Morning:  Ethical,  Elementary  Evangelistic. 
Evening  :  Elementary  Experimental. 

(3)  Morning :  Expository,  Historical,  Ecclesiastical. 
Evening :  Doctrinal,  Evangelistic. 

(4)  Morning :  Doctrinal. 
Evening  :  Evangelistic. 


592  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

These  conclusions  are  in  part  the  result  of  meditation  sug- 
gested by  a  conversation  at  the  Church  Fellowship  conference 
just  before  I  left  home.  Mr.  Mander  read  a  paper  on  what 
could  be  done  to  contribute  to  the  strength  and  efficiency  of 
our  church  life.  He  began  with  the  pulpit,1  and  the  conversa- 
tion was  very  much  arrested  at  the  first  part  of  his  paper.  It 
was  urged  by  several  that  my  preaching  moved  at  a  height — in- 
tellectual and  spiritual — far  above  that  of  the  congregation 
generally.  The  prayers,  too,  were  also  too  far  removed  from 
the  actual  experience  of  the  people.  Hardly  any  of  those 
present  are  able  to  be  present  at  the  evening  service,  and  the 
criticism — which  was  as  kindly  as  it  was  frank — was  truer  of  the 
morning  than  of  the  evening  services.  There  was  specially 
a  request  for  more  ethical  preaching,  and  a  curious,  half- 
suppressed  antagonism  to  Paul.  It  was  a  very  interesting  talk. 
Notwithstanding  the  kindness  of  the  dominant  element  of  the 
criticism — that  the  sermons  have  an  intellectual,  literary,  and 
spiritual  quality  which  commands  the  sympathy  and  gratitude  of 
the  best  and  most  cultivated,  an  opinion  which  it  would  not  be 
easy  to  justify  to  the  extent  to  which  it  was  urged — it  pained 
me  a  great  deal  at  the  time,  and  kept  me  awake  for  many  hours. 
But  I  ought  not  to  have  felt  the  pain,  and  I  hope  to  profit  by 
the  criticism.  The  conclusion  I  reached  while  away  from  home 
was  that  it  was  more  accurate  in  its  appreciation  of  defects 
than  it  seemed  to  me  at  the  time,  though  the  positive  sugges- 
tions for  improvement  seemed  and  still  seem  to  me  wanting 
in  discernment. 


Is  it  too  early  to  record  the  hope  that  God  has  given  to  me 
a  new  element  of  power  in  my  preaching  ?  The  word  which  has 
been  often  used  to  denote  what  critics  regarded  as  the  excellence 
of  my  preaching  and  speaking  really  suggested  the  qualities  in 
which  both  had  been  defective,  and  the  preaching  more  than 
the  speaking — "stateliness."  That  is  not  the  characteristic  of 
effective  preaching ;  and  it  suggests  a  whole  set  of  intellectual, 
ethical,  and  spiritual  elements  which  account  for  failure.  I 
think  that  in  the  sermons  of  the  last  two  Sundays  the  "  stateli- 
ness "  has  disappeared,  and  that  there  has  been  more  of  brotherly 

1  A  few  sentences  taken  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  Mander's  may  serve  to 
indicate  what  were  felt  to  be  defects  in  Dale's  preaching  :  "In  my  own 
estimation  he  always  ranked  higher  as  a  teacher  than  as  a  preacher  of  the 
truth.  If  I  read  a  sermon  which  I  had  previously  heard  him  preach,  it 
always  proved  superior  to  what  was  expected.  The  delivery  had  too  little 
variety  of  tone,  and  was  too  impassioned,  as  a  rule,  and  until  his  later  years 
was  destitute  of  pathos." 


DRIFTING  APART  593 

access — intellectual  and,  if  I  may  so  put  it,  rhetorical  access — 
to  the  people.  The  intellectual  quality  has  not,  I  think,  been 
inferior  to  what  I  have  usually  reached,  but  on  the  whole 
higher;  but  the  "  stateliness "  has  gone.  In  preparation  I 
aimed  at  more  freedom,  and  in  preaching,  God  gave  it  me. 
But  I  trust  that  there  was  something  far  more  central  than  a 
mere  rhetorical  change.  Yesterday  was  the  first  Sunday  after 
the  issue  of  the  scheme  for  prayer  in  the  letter  prefixed  to  the 
Church  Manual.  I  believe  that  throughout  the  services  there 
was  a  new  presence  of  the  power  of  God.     May  it  continue  ! 

At  the  same  time  Dale  was  engaged  in  preparing  the 
series  of  lectures  contained  in  The  Living  Christ  and  the 
Four  Gospels.  The  volume  was  not  published  until  the 
autumn  of  1890;  but  for  eighteen  months  before,  the 
principle  asserted  and  illustrated  in  the  first  part  of  the 
book — the  experimental  basis  of  our  faith  in  Christ — had 
filled  his  thought,  dominating  public  utterance  and  private 
meditation.  Stated  briefly,  his  contention  was  that  faith 
in  Christ  is  trust  in  a  Person,  not  belief  in  a  Book  ;  that 
we  believe  in  Christ,  not  because  we  believe  the  Bible  to  be 
supernaturally  inspired,  but  that  we  believe  in  the  inspira- 
tion of  Scripture  because  we  believe  in  Him  ;  that  the 
ultimate  foundation  of  faith  is  personal  knowledge  of 
Christ,  and  its  originating  cause  the  personal  testimony  of 
those  who  in  our  own  time  and  before  it  have  trusted  in 
Christ  and  have  found  their  faith  verified  in  spiritual 
experience.1 

This  truth  was  no  new  discovery.  Nearly  twenty 
years  earlier  in  an  Exeter  Hall  lecture  he  had  dealt  with 
the  same  subject  in  the  same  way,  and  had  combated  the 
tendency  to  set  the  Bible  in  the  place  of  the  Living  Christ.2 
The  lecture  excited  such  enthusiasm  that  it  was  repeated 
after  a  short  interval.      But  it  is  doubtful  whether  those 

1  Dr.  Jowett  puts  the  opposite  position  so  clearly  and  concisely  that  it 
may  serve  as  a  useful  contrast. — "  Is  it  possible  to  feel  a  personal  attachment 
to  Christ  such  as  is  prescribed  by  Thomas  a  Kempis  ?  I  think  that  it  is  im- 
possible, and  contrary  to  human  nature  that  we  should  be  able  to  concentrate 
our  thoughts  on  a  person  scarcely  known  to  us,  who  lived  1800  years  ago." — 
Jowetfs  Life,  vol.  ii.  p.  15  r. 

2  The  Ulti?nate  Principle  of  Protestantism,  pp.  47-74,  and  particularly 
pp.  64-67  and  p.  73. 

2  Q 


Aged  59. 


594  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

who  heard  him  really  grasped  his  thought.  Indeed,  one 
of  Dale's  friends  told  him  at  the  time  that  if  the  audience 
had  understood  his  argument,  they  would  have  howled 
him  off  the  platform.  The  outlook  had  changed  since 
then.  The  peril  which  he  had  foreseen  and  had  tried  to 
forestall  now  encompassed  belief  on  every  hand.  Criticism 
with  its  theories  had  escaped  from  the  study  and  the 
lecture-room.  The  magazine  and  the  newspaper  had  been 
pressed  into  the  warfare  on  either  side.  The  authority 
and  authenticity  of  the  New  Testament  narrative  were 
exposed  to  a  fierce  onslaught ;  and  such  an  attack,  though 
it  might  be  repelled,  was  not  to  be  ignored.  Even  the 
inland  valleys  of  faith  were  loud  with  the  voice  of  the 
storm.  Now,  no  one  could  miss  the  drift  of  his  argu- 
ment :  it  might  be  condemned  as  conceding  too  much  to 
unbelief;  it  could  hardly  be  misunderstood. 

Those  who  heard  the  two  missionary  sermons  that  he 
preached  in  London  in  the  spring  of  1889 — one  for  the 
Wesleyan,  the  other  for  the  Baptist  Society  —  will 
remember  how  the  congregations  were  stirred  and  swayed 
as  he  developed  the  argument  for  faith  in  Christ  drawn 
from  the  collective  experience  of  the  Christian  Church. 
But  the  two  assemblies  were  not  affected  in  exactly  the 
same  way.  At  Bloomsbury  he  was  conscious  as  he  went 
along  of  excitement  growing  through  repression  ;  of 
double  currents,  of  sympathy  and  of  antagonism,  running 
in  opposite  directions.  At  Queen  Street  —  among  the 
Methodists — the  whole  tide  was  with  him.  Midway  in 
his: course,  as  he  drew  towards  the  close  of  a  passage  of 
sustained  grandeur,  recalling  the  succession  of  saints  and 
sinners  who  in  their  own  conscious  experience  have  pro- 
longed the  gospel  narrative,  adding  to  its  records  new 
miracles  of  mercy  and  of  power,  wave  upon  wave  of 
emotion  broke  over  the  assembly.1  The  argument  and 
the  appeal  exactly  suited  the  genius  of  Methodism. 
Those  who  listened  could  bear  their  own  testimony :  they 
too  had  felt,  had  seen,  had  known.  With  them,  mind 
and  heart  and  spirit  made  one  music. 

1  Fellowship  with  Christ:   "The  Risen  Christ,"  pp.  42,  43. 


DRIFTING  APART  595 

In  the  discourses  on  "  The  Living  Christ  and  the  Four 
Gospels "  delivered  to  his  own  congregation  Dale  had 
larger  scope,  and  was  able  to  deal  in  fuller  detail  with 
difficulties  and  objections  upon  which  he  could  not  touch 
in  a  single  sermon.  The  book  falls  into  two  parts.  In 
the  former,  he  discusses  the  basis  on  which  Christian  faith 
really  rests  ;  in  the  latter,  he  illustrates  the  evidence  for 
the  integrity  and  authority  of  the  Four  Gospels.  With- 
out attempting  any  minute  analysis,  it  may  be  possible  to 
draw  attention  to  those  portions  of  the  book  which  are 
most  characteristic. 

Dale  asserts  here,  as  he  had  asserted  elsewhere,  that 
controversies  as  to  the  date  and  the  authorship  of  the 
Gospels  do  not  make  faith  impossible  ;  they  do  not  even 
shake  it.  But  how  is  it  that  men  who  are  uncertain 
about  the  historical  trustworthiness  of  the  New  Testament 
books  are  not  uncertain  about  Christ  ?  This  is  a  summary 
of  his  reply. 

My  first  answer  to  the  question  was  this :  That  whatever 
may  have  been  the  original  grounds  of  their  faith,  their  faith 
has  been  verified  in  their  own  personal  experience.  They 
trusted  in  Christ  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  they  have  been 
liberated  from  the  sense  of  guilt ;  for  deliverance  from  sin,  and 
the  chains  of  evil  habits  have  been  broken  or  loosened,  and  the 
fires  of  evil  passion  have  been  quenched  or  subdued.  They 
trusted  in  Christ  for  a  firmer  strength  to  resist  temptation  and 
to  live  righteously,  and  the  strength  has  come.  They  have 
received  from  Him — they  are  sure  of  it — a  new  life,  a  life  akin 
to  the  life  of  God.  They  have  been  drawn  into  a  wonderful 
personal  union  with  Christ  Himself;  "in  Christ"  they  have 
found  God,  and  have  passed  into  that  invisible  and  eternal 
order  which  is  described  as  "the  kingdom  of  God."  Whatever 
uncertainties  there  may  be  about  the  historical  worth  of  the 
four  narratives  which  profess  to  tell  the  story  of  Christ's  earthly 
ministry,  their  faith  in  Him  is  firm,  because  they  know  by  their 
own  experience  that  the  Living  Christ  is  the  Lord  and  Saviour 
of  men. 

My  second  answer  to  the  question  was  this :  That  there  are 
Christian  men  who  would  say  that  the  representation  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  the  Four  Gospels  appeals,  and  appeals 
immediately,  to  all  those  elements  and  powers  of  life  that  give 


596  LIFE  OF  DR.    DALE 

answer  to  manifestations  of  the  presence  of  God.  They  believe 
in  Christ  because  they  see  God  in  Him.  They  do  not  ask  for 
proofs  that  He  wrought  miracles;  He  Himself  is  the  great 
Miracle ;  He  transcends  all  the  miracles  attributed  to  Him  by 
the  evangelists.  Discussions  about  the  age  in  which  the 
Gospels  were  written  and  about  their  authorship  are  of  second- 
ary interest ;  if  they  were  written  by  unknown  men  who  belonged 
to  the  second,  the  third,  or  even  the  fourth  generation  of 
Christians,  they  preserve  the  substance  and  give  a  true  account 
of  His  earthly  history.  The  story  they  tell  is  no  involuntary 
creation  of  passionate  love ;  much  less  is  it  a  deliberate 
invention.     The  life  of  the  Eternal  God  is  in  it.1 

The  argument  from  experience  was  one  that  all  could 
apprehend.  But  some,  when  told  that  their  faith  rested  not 
upon  the  Bible,  but  upon  something  else,  were  perplexed 
if  not  alarmed.  That  was  not  their  own  opinion.  Had 
they  been  asked  to  account  for  their  faith,  they  would 
have  pointed  with  assurance  to  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament  as  an  authority  that  could  not  err.  They 
would  have  declared  that  the  sacred  story  had  made 
Christ  known  to  them,  and  that  so  brought  into  His 
presence  they  had  learned  to  trust  in  Him  for  light  and 
for  strength  :  they  believed  because  they  had  read  ;  such, 
at  least,  was  their  conviction.  And  yet,  under  cross- 
examination,  they  would  have  been  forced  to  confess  that 
they  had  never  studied  the  evidence  by  which  the 
historical  trustworthiness  of  the  evangelists  is  sustained. 
And  as  for  inspiration,  they  would  be  hard  put  to  it  to 
explain  even  to  themselves  the  meaning  they  attached  to 
the  term,  or  to  state  the  grounds  on  which  they  held  the 
Scriptures  to  be  "  inspired."  But  failing  this,  if  their  faith 
rested  on  the  Bible  —  and  on  nothing  more  —  it  must 
follow  that  they  were  resting  on  the  authority  of  scholars, 
or  on  mere  tradition. 

Dale  met  the  difficulty  in  a  characteristic  manner.  In 
practical  life,  he  pointed  out,  we  find  many  men  who  with 
alternatives  for  choice  choose  rightly,  or  when  confronted 
with  difficulties  meet  them  wisely,  and  yet  when  asked  to 
explain  the  reasons  for  their  conduct  or  their  choice  show 

1   The  Living  Christ  and  the  Four  Gospels,  pp.  270,  271. 


DRIFTING  APART  597 

an  absolute  inability  to  give  a  rational  and  a  consistent 
answer.  The  parallel  holds  good  in  the  religious  life. 
Men  whose  faith  is  sound  and  strong  are  unable  to  trace 
the  process  of  its  growth,  and  they  mistake  the  foundation 
on  which  it  stands. 

The  real  grounds  of  a  man's  belief,  like  the  real  motives  of 
a  man's  conduct,  are  not  always  known  to  himself.  Let  me 
illustrate  what  I  mean.  I  know  a  Nonconformist  chapel,  in 
which  what  may  be  described  as  a  shallow,  semi-elliptical  apse 
behind  the  platform  on  which  the  preacher  stands  is  screened 
off  from  the  rest  of  the  building  by  a  row  of  Ionic  columns, 
supporting,  or  apparently  supporting,  a  massive  architrave.  A 
few  years  ago  it  became  necessary  to  break  through  the  screen 
in  order  to  place  part  of  the  organ  in  the  apse.  This  innova 
tion  threatened  the  destruction  of  some  of  those  stately  columns, 
which  were  the  pride  and  admiration  of  the  men  by  whom  the 
chapel  was  built ;  but  the  catastrophe  was  averted.  All  the 
space  that  was  necessary  for  the  organ  was  obtained  by  cutting 
away  the  lower  half  of  the  two  central  columns — they  looked  as 
if  they  were  stone,  they  were  really  of  wood — and  leaving  their 
two  capitals  with  eight  or  ten  feet  of  each  of  the  shafts  suspended 
to  the  architrave  which  they  appeared  to  support.  The  columns 
had  never  supported  what  they  seemed  to  support ;  the  archi- 
trave had  always  been  kept  in  its  place  by  other  means.  That 
the  lower  half  of  the  shaft  of  two  of  them  has  been  removed  is 
now  concealed  by  the  organ  and  its  case.  The  columns  are  as 
important  and  as  stately  as  ever;  they  still  seem  to  bear  up  a 
great  weight,  but  two  of  them  are  hanging  on  to  the  architrave 
instead  of  supporting  it.  This  is  bad  architecture ;  but  some- 
thing very  like  it  may  be  seen  in  the  architecture  of  human 
opinions  and  beliefs.  The  pillars — apparently  of  solid  marble, 
really  of  worm-eaten  wood — on  which  we  imagine  that  some  of 
our  most  important  convictions  rest,  might  be  removed,  and  the 
convictions  would  remain  firm  and  unmoved ;  they  really  rest 
on  quite  other  supports — supports  which  are  not  apparent  to 
the  eye,  and  which  we  have  never  had  the  penetration  to 
discover.  The  elaborate  reasons,  the  formal  demonstrations, 
which  the  intellect  regards  with  pride  as  a  row  of  stately  columns 
upholding  its  faith,  are  suspended  from  the  faith  which  is  supposed 
to  rest  upon  them.  Cut  through  the  columns  half-way  between 
base  and  capital,  and  the  faith  is  undisturbed;  but  let  the 
strength  of  the  faith  itself  be  impaired,  and  then  the  reasons 
and  the  demonstrations  fall  into  ruins.1 

1    The  Living  Christ  and  the  Four  Gospels,  pp.  72-74. 


598  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

The  felicity  of  the  illustration  is  undeniable.  The 
pillars  stood  behind  him  as  he  spoke  ;  their  secret  was 
known  to  most  if  not  to  all  of  his  hearers.  The  fact  and 
the  principle  could  never  be  dissociated  in  their  minds. 
The  analogy  carries  conviction  where  a  rigid  logic  fails. 

"  Uncertainty  with  regard  to  the  authorship  of  the 
Four  Gospels,  uncertainty  with  regard  to  the  dates  at 
which  they  were  written,  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  the 
sign  of  faltering  faith  in  Christ."  Questions  of  literature 
should  be  distinguished  from  questions  of  faith.  But 
"  though  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  may  remain  firm, 
while  the  only  story  that  has  come  down  to  us  of  His 
earthly  ministry  is  regarded  as  uncertain,  Christian  life 
and  thought  suffer  a  loss  which  cannot  be  measured." 
In  the  remaining  lectures,  therefore — delivered  not  on 
Sundays  but  on  week  days — Dale  set  forth  the  evidence 
which  sustains  the  historical  trustworthiness  of  the 
Gospels.  The  primary  question,  in  his  view,  was  not 
literary — not  one  of  authorship — but  historical  ;  to  deter- 
mine whether  or  no  "  the  story  of  our  Lord  in  the  Four 
Gospels  is  the  story  which  was  told  by  the  Apostles 
themselves."  Here  he  was  on  well-trodden  ground  :  he 
made  use  of  the  writings  of  Salmon,  Westcott,  Wace,  and 
others  ;  originality  of  treatment  he  would  have  disclaimed. 
His  function  was  that  of  the  interpreter — to  bring  the 
scholar  and  the  people  into  contact.  But  he  never  sinks 
to  the  level  of  the  compiler.  He  looks  at  the  case  with 
his  own  eyes.  As  he  passes  from  witness  to  witness, 
from  church  to  church,  from  century  to  century,  that 
remote  and  shadowy  world  takes  form  and  colour  from 
his  imaginative  force.  The  issue  becomes  immediate  and 
real. 

The  book  was  most  favourably  received.  The  Guardian 
— always  generous  in  its  treatment  of  him — gave  it  a 
long  and  careful  review,  with  much  warm  commendation 
qualified  by  a  regret  that  the  historic  Church  had  not 
received  due  recognition  as  the  permanent  witness  to  the 
truth  which  it  had  received  and  handed  down.  With  this 
one  reservation,  the  reviewer  had  nothing  but  praise  for 


DRIFTING  APART  599 

the  lectures  :  his  criticism,  appreciative  even  when  adverse, 
was  far  more  welcome  than  any  amount  of  undiscriminat- 
ing  eulogy. 

Among  the  many  letters  which  came  to  him  after  the 
publication  of  the  lectures  was  a  very  cordial  one  from 
Dean  Church. 

From  the  Very  Rev.  Dean  Church1 

21  Marine  Parade,  Dover, 

"jth  November  1890. 

.  .  .  You  have  brought  out,  I  think,  with  great  force  that 
what  we  have  in  the  Gospel  is  not  a  philosophy  nor  the  result 
of  criticism,  but  an  absolute  reality,  of  the  same  order  and  as 
unique  as  the  Being  of  God — the  Presence  of  our  Lord  with 
our  spirit — Person  to  person,  Life  to  life — which,  as  long  as  we 
obey  conscience  and  do  not  trifle  with  our  light,  is  as  real  as 
ourselves. 

And  the  second  part  of  the  volume  seems  to  me  equally 
excellent.  I  do  not  remember  seeing  anywhere  the  whole 
literary  argument  for  the  Four  Gospels  better  put  than  in  your 
chapters.  You  have  used  materials  with  great  mastery  of  the 
whole  subject. 

In  these  days,  in  which  a  very  grave  conflict  seems  impending 
as  to  our  sacred  documents,  and  perhaps  opening  into  un- 
suspected issues,  I  hope  your  volume  will  be  of  much  service 
to  comfort  and  encourage  souls  who  find  the  mysteries  of  this 
world  and  its  mixed  light  and  darkness,  a  heavy  burden. 

1  Dean  oi"  St.  Paul's. 


CHAPTER    XXIII 

THE    INTERNATIONAL    COUNCIL 

Perils  of  the  Congregational  system — The  International  Council — Dale  elected 
President — An  attack  of  illness — His  address  from  the  Chair:  "The 
Divine  Life  in  Man  " — The  relation  of  Christ  to  the  race — Incarnation 
and  Propitiation — The  realisation  of  Divine  Sonship  the  root  of  Con- 
gregationalism— The  Congregational  ideal — The  Church  the  leaven  in 
the  world's  life — How  far  is  the  ideal  realised  ? — Central  unity — In  peril 
of  life — Gradual  recovery — His  Introduction  to  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Council — The  mission  of  Congregationalism  —  Hostile  criticism — A 
relapse — At  Llanbedr — Experiences  in  suffering — Speaks  again  in  public 
for  the  first  time. 

In  the  summer  of  1891  an  International  Council  of 
Congregational  churches  met  in  London.  It  was  the  first 
gathering  of  its  kind.  The  idea  had  been  often  mooted, 
but  the  project  took  shape  at  Melbourne  about  three  years 
before.  The  peril  to  which  the  Congregational  system 
has  always  been  exposed  is  that  of  isolation.  Its  churches 
are  independent,  not  only  in  government  but  in  life.  In 
their  experience  they  too  often  have  illustrated  the  de- 
scription contained  in  the  declaration  of  the  Savoy 
Conference,  of  churches  "  sailing  each  on  its  own  way  in 
the  vast  ocean  of  these  tumultuating  times,  and  holding 
out  not  so  much  as  a  light  to  each  other."  And  although 
the  federations  that  have  sprung  up  both  in  Great  Britain 
and  in  our  colonies  during  the  last  half  century  have 
helped  to  promote  union,  the  outlook  has  still  been  too 
confined  :  Congregationalism,  among  ourselves  at  any 
rate,  if  not  in  the  United  States,  has  been  apt  to  forget 
that  its  principles  are  not  for  a  nation  merely  but  for  the 
world.      The  presence  of  delegates  from  all   parts  of  the 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  COUNCIL  601 

globe,  representing  churches  of  many  lands  and  of  varied 
history,  showed  that  Congregationalism  was  a  greater  force 
in  the  world  than  some  of  its  sons  had  conceived. 

After  conference  between  the  chief  representatives,  it 
was  decided  to  nominate  Dale  for  the  Presidency.  It 
was  an  honour  which  he  had  not  looked  for,  and  he  felt 
the  claims  of  others  to  be  greater  than  his  own.  Indeed, 
there  were  preachers  of  more  brilliant  genius  ;  men  who 
held  a  higher  place  in  scholarship  and  in  literature,  or 
who  had  done  more  for  the  organisation  of  the  churches 
of  their  own  order.  But  taking  all  gifts  and  all  forms  of 
service  into  consideration,  there  was  no  other  man  whose 
activity  had  moved  through  so  wide  a  range  and  at  such 
a  uniform  height  of  distinction  ;  none  so  widely  known 
within  the  churches  and  to  the  world  outside ;  and 
certainly  none  who  had  asserted  the  principles  of  Con- 
gregationalism with  greater  courage  and  conviction. 
Withdrawal  from  the  Congregational  Union  had  not 
withdrawn  him  from  the  service  of  his  brethren.  It  is 
impossible  to  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  the  extent  to 
which  his  advice  was  sought  by  ministers  and  churches  on 
points  of  order  and  administration,  as  well  as  in  matters  of 
faith,  to  avert  conflict,  to  dispel  suspicion,  to  restore  peace. 
In  many  cases  even  more  serious  difficulties,  involving 
larger  interests,  were  submitted  to  him  for  decision. 

In  the  preliminary  arrangements  for  the  business  of 
the  assembly  he  took  an  active  part  with  Dr.  Mackennal, 
the  British  Secretary  of  the  Council,  and  others  ;  they 
met  both  in  London  and  at  Birmingham  to  draw  up  the 
programme,  to  choose  speakers,  and  to  assign  subjects. 
From  the  first  he  set  himself  to  secure  that  all  sections 
among  the  delegates  should  have  due  consideration  ;  that 
different  nationalities  should  be  fairly  represented  ;  that 
no  school  of  theological  thought  should  be  slighted  or 
overlooked.  His  own  duties  as  President  were  not  for- 
gotten ;  and  though  it  was  not  his  habit,  he  jotted  down 
in  a  note-book  suggestions  as  they  occurred,  not  trusting 
wholly  to  the  impulse  of  the  moment  for  doing  the  right 
thine. 


602  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

As  yet  he  himself  was  full  of  vigour.  During  March 
and  April  he  undertook  several  important  engagements. 
He  lectured  at  Gordon  Hall  to  women  students  on 
"  Judgment  to  Come."  In  the  same  week  he  preached 
on  Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement  in  the  course 
of  the  centenary  celebrations.  A  month  later,  before  the 
Baptist  Home  Missionary  Society,  he  delivered  the  well- 
known  sermon  on  "  Christ  and  the  State,"  in  which  he 
discussed  the  relation  of  the  Christian  Church  to  political 
objects.1  This  sermon  he  himself  regarded  as  the  best 
that  he  ever  preached  ;  and  by  "  best "  he  meant  that  he 
had  succeeded  in  saying  what  he  wished  to  say  on  a 
subject  of  paramount  and  permanent  interest,  and  that 
he  had  said  it  in  a  way  likely  to  carry  conviction  or  at 
least  to  compel  attention.  Those  who  heard  him  then, 
especially  in  the  unpremeditated  appeal  with  which  he 
closed,  could  have  had  no  anticipation  of  coming  trouble. 

But  the  influenza  was  sweeping  through  the  country 
at  that  time,  and  towards  the  end  of  May,  Dale  was 
among  the  victims.  The  attack  itself  was  not  severe,  but 
it  found  an  ally  within  the  walls  in  the  shape  of  disease  ; 
they  made  common  cause  in  ravage  and  ruin.  For  many 
weeks  the  invalid  suffered  from  great  prostration.  Any 
exertion  found  him  feeble  and  left  him  breathless.  He 
was  not  allowed  to  return  to  work,  and  as  the  day  fixed 
for  the  Council  meetings  drew  near,  he  had  little  confidence 
that  he  would  be  able  to  preside.  In  case  of  emergency 
his  address,  written  long  before,  was  set  in  type,  that  Dr. 
Mackennal  might  read  it  if  he  himself  failed  at  the  last 
moment.  However,  when  the  Council  met  on  the  after- 
noon of  1 3th  July,  he  was  able  to  take  his  place  and  to 
welcome  the  delegates.  Those  who  remembered  him  as 
he  was  in  earlier  years  were  shocked  by  his  appearance  : 
the  broad  lines  of  frame  and  face  remained,  but  strength 
and  energy  had  gone,  leaving  a  gray  shadow  wasted  by 
disease.  It  cost  him  an  effort  to  speak  even  for  a  few 
minutes. 

1  Fellowship  with  Christ  and  other  Discourses,  "Christ  and  the  State:" 
pp.  192-215. 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  COUNCIL  603 

The  next  morning,  when  he  was  to  deliver  his  address, 
he  was  more  himself.  The  day  began  with  a  celebration 
of  Holy  Communion,  at  which  he  presided  ;  in  the  service 
itself  he  took  little  part,  but  the  hour  brought  quietness 
and  strength.  When  he  rose  in  the  assembly,  though 
still  suffering  from  breathlessness,  especially  for  the  first 
five  or  ten  minutes,  when  those  who  knew  his  condition 
feared  at  every  moment  that  he  would  collapse,  he 
gradually  gained  strength ;  the  panting  grew  less  painful, 
and  he  was  able  to  speak  for  three-quarters  of  an  hour. 
He  was  master  of  himself  and  of  his  thought.  It  was 
the  old  voice — less  resonant,  but  more  impressive  ;  and 
there  was  something  of  the  old  vigour. 

The  subject  of  his  address,  "  The  Divine  Life  in  Man," 
though  not  of  his  own  choosing,  fell  in  with  the  trend  of 
his  thought.  It  enabled  him  to  vindicate  the  principle  of 
Congregationalism,  and  to  strike  down  deeper  still  to  its 
broad  foundation  in  the  faith  held  by  all  Christians  in 
common.  To  establish  such  a  relation  he  regarded  as 
essential.  Had  the  distinctive  principle  of  Congrega- 
tionalism been  a  truth  peculiar  to  itself,  the  system 
in  his  eyes  would  have  been  self-condemned.  The  justi- 
fication of  its  existence  was  a  desire  to  assert  effectively 
a  truth  that  formed  part  of  the  general  inheritance. 

He  started,  therefore,  from  a  fact  on  which  all  sections 
of  the  Christian  Church  are  agreed — that  man  is  capable 
of  receiving  a  Divine  life,  and  that  the  purpose  of  Christ 
in  coming  into  the  world  was  to  enable  men  to  realise 
its  glory  and  its  blessedness.  For  this  Divine  life  differs 
immeasurably  from  that  vague  presence  immanent  in  all 
things,  whether  animate  or  inanimate,  which  is  affirmed 
by  Pantheism  :  it  is  the  life  that  dwells  eternally  in  God's 
eternal  Son.  The  relations  of  the  Son  to  the  Father 
determine  our  relations  to  Him  also :  the  life  that  He 
has  made  ours  has  its  eternal  basis  in  the  Godhead  itself. 
That  life  was  manifested  through  the  Incarnation,  and 
in  no  arbitrary  way.  As  the  eternal  power  and  perfection 
of  the  Father  are  revealed  in  authority,  so  in  obedience 
and  submission — and  these  also  are  divine — are  revealed 


6o4  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  grace  and  the  perfection  of  the  Son.  To  regard  the 
Incarnation,  therefore,  as  an  afterthought — as  a  remedy 
for  sin,  and  nothing  more — is  to  misconceive  its  nature  ; 
nor  is  the  gift  of  eternal  life  in  Christ  a  mere  expedient 
for  restoring  man  to  holiness.  The  Divine  idea  of  man 
presupposes  that  man  should  live  his  life  in  the  power 
of  the  life  of  the  Eternal  Son  ;  to  that  perfection  according 
to  the  original  constitution  of  our  nature  we  are  destined. 
It  is  in  Christ  that  we  were  created  :  that  remains  true 
whether  we  are  conscious  of  it  or  not ;  it  remains  true 
in  spite  of  sin  and  shortcoming.  "  Through  Him  "  and 
"  unto  Him  "  "  all  things  have  been  created  "  ;  "  in  Him 
all  things  consist "  ; — not  the  material  and  visible  universe 
alone,  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  but  men  as  well  :  they 
have  no  independent  life  ;  their  existence  rests  on  no 
other  foundation.  "  In  Christ  is  the  common  root  of  the 
life  of  the  race." 

This  truth,  when  apprehended,  throws  new  light  on  the 
Divine  Incarnation  ;  it  serves  to  lessen  the  mystery  of  the 
Divine  Atonement. 

Man  was  to  find  his  perfection  in  sharing  the  life  of  the 
Eternal  Son  ;  the  Eternal  Son  was  to  reveal  His  own  perfection 
and  achieve  ours  by  sharing  the  life  of  man.  I  suppose  that  the 
consummate  union  between  man  and  the  Son  of  God  would  not 
have  been  possible  apart  from  the  consummate  union  effected 
in  the  Incarnation  between  the  Son  of  God  and  man.  Even  if 
we  had  not  sinned,  I  suppose  that  He  would  have  come  to  us 
in  order  that  we  might  come  to  Him.  The  fellowship,  the 
partnership  between  Him  and  us  was  to  be  a  fellowship,  a  part- 
nership on  both  sides.  If  the  branches  share  the  life  of  the 
vine,  the  vine  also  shares  the  life  of  the  branches.  He  would 
not  let  us  go  when  we  broke  away  from  Him  in  revolt  against 
the  Divine  authority  and  grace ;  He  clung  to  us  still ;  and  so 
He  came  into  the  inheritance  of  all  the  woes  that  had  followed 
from  our  sin.  The  fellowship,  the  partnership,  I  repeat,  between 
Him  and  us  was  to  be  a  fellowship  and  partnership  on  both 
sides.  He  had  to  share  our  sorrows  as  we  were  to  share  His 
joy.  He  had  to  be  assailed  by  the  power  of  our  sin,  tempted, 
hard  pressed  to  maintain  His  fidelity,  as  we  were  to  become 
perfect  in  the  power  of  His  perfection.  He  had  to  pass  into 
the  awful  shadow  of   the  world's  sin,   to  endure  the  agony  of 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  COUNCIL  605 

Gethsemane  and  the  desolation  and  death  of  the  Cross,  as  we 
were  to  inherit  through  the  golden  ages  of  our  immortality  the 
blessed  relations  to  the  Father  which  illustrate  the  glory  of  His 
righteousness.  When  I  have  discovered  that  by  the  very  consti- 
tution of  my  nature  I  am  to  achieve  perfection  in  the  power  of 
the  life  of  Another — who  is  yet  not  another,  but  the  very  ground 
of  my  own  being — it  ceases  to  be  incredible  to  me  that  Another — 
who  is  yet  not  another — should  be  the  Atonement  for  my  sin,  and 
that  His  relations  to  God  should  determine  mine.1 

God  gives  us  eternal  life :  He  gives  it  us  in  His  Son. 
But  it  lies  with  us  to  make  that  life  ours,  to  realise  it  by 
our  own  will  ;  "  it  cannot  be  passed  into  the  soul  like  a 
stream  of  electric  force."  We  can  receive  it ;  we  can  repel 
and  reject  it.  The  potency  of  life — its  germ — may  be 
conferred  on  us  by  a  Divine  act ;  but  if  the  life  is  to  be 
more  than  a  potency,  more  than  a  germ,  we  must  live  it. 
And  although  it  may  be  realised  in  a  greater  or  less  degree 
of  perfection,  it  is  manifested  in  all  those  who  have  received 
it.  Its  presence  or  its  absence  in  the  soul  determines  the 
sharp  contrast  drawn  by  Christ  and  His  Apostles  between 
those  who  are  God's  children  and  those  who  are  not, 
between  the  forgiven  and  the  unforgiven,  the  redeemed 
and  the  lost.  For  while  in  a  true  and  real  sense  God  is 
the  Father  of  all  men — not  only  of  those  who  love  Him 
and  obey  Him — it  is  only  those  who  realise  the  Divine  life 
who  realise  their  sonship. 

Yes  !  on  the  Divine  side  the  relationship  of  Fatherhood 
stands  firm ;  but  on  the  human  side  the  relationship  of  sonship 
and  the  participation  of  that  Divine  life  which  is  inseparable 
from  sonship  has  to  be  freely  realised  by  every  man.  Deny  that 
God  is  the  Father  of  all  men — limit  His  Fatherhood  to  those 
who  are  already  trusting  in  His  infinite  mercy,  and  are  alre~dy 
endeavouring  to  do  His  will — and  you  disturb,  if  you  do  not 
destroy,  the  very. grounds  of  that  faith  in  Him,  in  the  power  of 
which  men  receive  the  forgiveness  of  sin  and  enter  into  the 
actual  possession  of  the  blessedness  for  which  they  were  created 
in  Christ.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  tell  men — all  men — the 
covetous,  the  untruthful,  the  sensual,  the  profane,  the  proud,  the 

1  The  International  Congregational  Council,  London,  1S91.  Authorised 
Record  of  Proceedings,  p.  36. 


606  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

envious,  the  uncompassionate,  the  revengeful — that  they  are 
already  the  sons  of  God,  and  you  reduce  Divine  sonship  to  a 
merely  natural  relationship ;  you  obscure  its  real  ethical  and 
spiritual  character ;  you  contribute  to  the  most  fatal  illusions  ; 
you  encourage  indifference  to  the  august  claims  of  righteousness  ; 
you  suppress  the  most  awful  warnings  of  prophets  and  apostles 
and  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  Himself;  and  you  paralyse  the 
urgency  of  those  mighty  motives  which  should  induce  men  to 
make  it  the  supreme  end  of  life,  that  the  great  place  and  the 
great  inheritance  to  which  God  has  destined  them  in  Christ  may 
be  actually  theirs.1 

The  Divine  life  must  be  actually  lived  ;  it  must  be  a 
power  in  conduct  and  character,  or  it  is  not  realised.  There 
are  some  men  who  live  it ;  there  are  others  who  do  not. 
It  is  on  this  distinction,  ultimate  and  supreme,  acknow- 
ledged by  all  Christians,  that  the  Congregational  polity  is 
based.  The  great  question  for  each  one  of  us  is,  Have  we 
received  the  Divine  life  ?  Are  we  living  in  the  power  of 
that  life  ? 

It  is  this  which  divides  those  in  whom  the  gracious  thoughts 
of  God  concerning  mankind  are  being  fulfilled,  from  those  in 
whom  they  are  being  defeated ;  those  who  have  received  the 
forgiveness  of  sin,  from  those  who  are  still  unforgiven  ;  those  who 
have  received  the  right  to  become  children  of  God,  from  those 
who  have  not ;  those  who  have  been  translated  into  the  Divine 
light  and  the  Divine  kingdom,  from  those  who  are  in  darkness 
and  in  peril  of  eternal  destruction.  And  if  we  rightly  understand 
the  mind  of  Christ,  it  is  this  which  should  divide  those  who  are 
within  the  Church  from  those  who  are  without.  We  may  not 
be  able  in  the  confusions  and  perplexities  of  human  life  to  secure 
the  perfect  realisation  of  this  ideal  of  the  Divine  society ;  but 
for  us  on  whom  the  splendours  of  that  ideal  have  shone,  to 
surrender  it  would  be  ignoble  and  base.  We  cannot  be  unfaithful 
to  the  heavenly  vision.2 

To  plead  that  such  a  polity  is  of  the  clouds  and  not 
of  the  earth,  that  it  aims  at  ideals  not  at  possibilities,  is 
worse  than  futile. 

1  The  International  Congregational  Council,  London,  1891.  Authorised 
Record  of  Proceedings,  p.  37.  2  Ibid.  p.  37. 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  COUNCIL  607 

We  have  been  often  told  that  according  to  Christ's  teaching 
the  wheat  and  the  tares  are  to  grow  together  till  the  harvest ; 
but  He  interpreted  His  own  parable — the  field  in  which  the 
wheat  and  the  tares  are  to  grow  together  is  the  world ;  it  was 
not  Christ's  habit  to  speak  of  the  world  when  He  means  the 
Church.  We  have  been  often  told  that  it  is  impossible  to  draw 
into  the  membership  of  the  Church  all  those  in  whom  the  life  of 
God  is  present,  and  impossible  to  exclude  those  from  whom  it  is 
absent.  We  admit  the  impossibility.  There  was  a  Judas  among 
the  Twelve,  and  yet  according  to  the  ideal  of  the  apostleship,  the 
apostleship  was  for  the  friends  of  Christ,  not  for  traitors.  Divine 
ideals  have  never  yet  been  realised  either  in  the  life  of  in- 
dividual saints  or  of  societies.  For  us,  and  in  this  world,  the 
Divine  is  always  the  impossible.  Give  me  a  law  for  individual 
conduct  which  requires  a  perfection  within  my  reach,  and  I  am 
sure  that  the  law  does  not  represent  the  Divine  thought.  "  Not 
that  I  have  already  obtained,  or  am  already  made  perfect,  but  I 
press  on,  if  so  be  that  I  may  apprehend  that  for  which  also  I 
was  apprehended  of  Christ  Jesus  " — this  from  the  beginning  has 
been  the  confession  of  saints.  Give  me  a  Church  polity  which 
is  what  men  call  practical — a  polity  which  in  its  completeness 
can  be  realised — and  I  am  sure  that  it  is  something  different 
from  the  ideal  polity  of  that  Divine  society  whose  Builder  and 
Maker  is  God. 

The  Church — this  is  the  Congregational  ideal — is  a  society, 
larger  or  smaller,  consisting  of  those  who  have  received  the 
Divine  life,  and  who,  with  whatever  inconstancy  and  whatever 
failures,  are  endeavouring  to  live  in  the  power  of  it. 

All  that  is  characteristic  of  Congregationalism  lies  in  that 
ideal.  The  responsibilities  and  the  corresponding  powers  attri- 
buted to  the  commonalty  of  Christian  people  are  directly  related 
to  the  assumption  that  they  have  received  the  life  that  dwells  in 
Christ,  and  that  they  are  one  with  Him.  When  they  are  gathered 
together  in  His  name,  whether  they  are  but  two  or  three  or 
whether  they  are  a  thousand,  Christ  Himself  is  in  the  midst  of 
them — one  of  the  company ;  inspiring  their  prayers ;  guiding 
their  decisions ;  so  that  their  prayers  are  His  and  their  decisions 
His  rather  than  theirs.  If  the  ideal  were  realised,  what  things 
soever  they  bind  on  earth  would  be  bound  in  heaven,  and  what 
things  soever  they  loose  on  earth  would  be  loosed  in  heaven  ; 
and  whatever  they  agree  to  ask  would  be  done  for  them  of  the 
Father.  All  this  would  be  true  if  the  ideal  were  realised.  It  is 
actually  true  in  the  measure  in  which  the  ideal  is  realised.1 

1  The  International  Congregational  Council,  London,  1891.  Authorised 
Record  of  Proceedings,  p.  38. 


60S  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

This  life,  spiritual  in  its  essence,  must  find  practical 
manifestation  ;  it  must  not  be  confined  to  aspiration  and 
vision  ;  it  must  find  other  outlets,  other  modes  of  expres- 
sion, than  worship  and  prayer.  It  is  to  be  a  leaven  in  the 
world.  The  Christian,  therefore,  save  in  rare  instances, 
must  not  separate  himself  from  his  fellows.  He  must  not 
stand  apart  from  the  duties  and  the  activities  of  men. 
He  must  not  stunt  his  intellect  or  starve  his  perception  of 
beauty.  He  is  called  to  take  his  part  in  the  affairs  of  society, 
in  the  business  of  the  State.  How  can  he  slight  the  call  ? 
In  the  whole  order  of  human  life  there  is  a  Divine  thought 
to  be  fulfilled  ;  that  Divine  thought  can  be  fulfilled  only 
by  those  who  share  the  Divine  life.  All  Christians  are 
called  to  be  saints  ;  but  saintliness  has  many  forms,  and 
there  is  a  saintliness  of  the  street  as  there  is  a  saintliness 
of  the  sanctuary.  None  of  its  forms  may  be  neglected. 
Wherever  the  flag  is  not  planted,  there  is  the  soil  of  the 
foe. 

We  shall  not  discharge  our  full  duty  as  ministers  or  churches 
unless  we  make  it  apparent  that,  as  the  great  forces  of  Nature, 
which  are  but  forms  of  the  eternal  power  of  God,  are  present 
and  active  in  every  region  of  the  material  universe ;  in  pheno- 
mena the  most  splendid  and  inspiring;  in  phenomena  the  most 
insignificant  and  obscure — so  the  Divine  life  which  dwells  in 
man  is  to  be  present  and  active  in  all  the  infinite  varieties  of 
human  effort  and  experience. 

Churches  exist,  not  merely  for  the  consolation  and  ultimate 
salvation  of  their  individual  members,  but  that  the  Divine  life 
which  is  in  them — developed,  invigorated,  and  disciplined  by 
common  worship,  by  ethical  as  well  as  spiritual  instruction,  by 
the  atmosphere  and  traditions  and  public  opinion  of  a  society 
which  is  the  home  of  Christ  and  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ — may 
change  and  transfigure  the  whole  order  of  the  world.1 

Such  is  the  ideal,  such  the  principle,  of  Congrega- 
tionalism. How  far,  he  asked,  does  the  ideal  rule  us  ? 
How  far  are  we  loyal  to  the  law  ?  Have  we  a  deep  and 
vivid  consciousness  that  the  Church  is  the  Temple  of  the 

1  The  International  Congregational  Council,  London,  1891.  Authorised 
Record  of  Proceedings,  p.  39. 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  COUNCIL  609 

Holy  Ghost  ?  To  what  extent  is  "  the  Communion  of 
Saints  "  being  realised  in  the  experience  of  the  churches  ? 
How  far  does  the  Congregational  idea  of  the  Church  as  a 
society  of  men,  living  in  Christ,  with  direct  access  in  the 
Son  through  the  power  of  the  Spirit  to  the  Father,  know- 
ing for  themselves,  at  first-hand  and  not  by  report,  the 
reality  and  the  glory  of  the  Christian  redemption, — how 
far  does  this  idea  ensure  quietness  and  confidence  in  the 
face  of  the  assault  on  the  historic  records  of  the  Christian 
revelation  ?  These  are  questions,  he  urged,  that  require 
an  answer. 

He  closed,  as  he  began,  with  a  declaration  of  unity 
both  between  those  so  gathered  and  for  such  ends,  and  also 
between  themselves  and  other  churches  not  in  communion 
with  them. 

The  Divine  life  in  man — this  is  a  truth  to  which,  in  common 
with  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  throughout  the  world,  we  bear 
our  testimony  ;  and,  as  we  think,  our  testimony  receives  emphasis 
and  strength  from  the  polity  of  our  churches.  In  that  life  we 
who  are  assembled  at  this  Council  are  all  one.  We  serve  God 
and  His  people  under  different  skies ;  we  have  been  separated 
from  each  other,  and  shall  be  separated  again  by  the  breadths 
of  vast  continents  and  of  immense  oceans ;  but  in  our  common 
union  with  Christ  we  are  one.  In  our  intellectual  account  of 
the  contents  of  the  Christian  Gospel  there  may  be  wide  differ- 
ences ;  and  yet  we  are  one.  For  us  Christ  is  the  Eternal  Founda- 
tion, and  the  only  Foundation,  of  the  Church,  as  well  as  of  the 
individual  life.  I  trust  that,  through  God's  grace,  the  meetings 
of  this  Council  may  assist  us  to  build  on  that  foundation,  not 
wood,  hay,  stubble,  but  gold,  silver,  costly  stones.  "  For  each 
man's  work  shall  be  made  manifest :  for  the  day  shall  declare 
it  .  .  .  and  the  fire  shall  prove  each  man's  work  of  what  sort  it 
is.  If  any  man's  work  shall  abide  which  he  built  thereon  he 
shall  receive  a  reward.  If  any  man's  work  shall  be  burned  he 
shall  suffer  loss  :  but  he  himself  shall  be  saved ;  yet  so  as  through 
fire."  May  God  grant  that  both  we  and  our  work  may  endure 
the  trial  of  that  great  day.1 

With  that  note  of  warning — characteristic  in  its  solemn 
austerity — he  closed. 

1  The  International  Congregational  Council,  London,  1891.  Authorised 
Record  of  Proceedings,  p.  40. 

2   R 


610  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Though  still  suffering  from  exhaustion,  Dale  attended 
several  of  the  morning  and  afternoon  sessions  during  the 
week,  but  in  courtesy  to  the  Vice-Presidents  he  asked 
them  to  occupy  the  chair.  On  Thursday  evening  a 
meeting  was  held  in  the  Memorial  Hall  to  consider  various 
social  and  economic  questions.  Mr.  Tillett — then  fresh 
from  the  fight  at  the  docks — was  among  the  speakers. 
There  was  every  chance  of  a  storm,  and  Dale  felt  that  he 
must  be  there.  The  Hall  is  approached  by  a  long  staircase, 
and  it  was  with  difficulty  and  not  without  help  that  Dale 
reached  the  platform,  breathless  and  panting.  His  friends 
watched  him  with  alarm  throughout  the  evening.  He 
had  prepared  himself  to  speak  ;  but  the  papers  were  long, 
and  precluded  discussion.  On  the  Saturday,  through  an 
imprudent  change  in  dress,  he  took  a  chill,  and  on  Monday 
he  was  too  unwell  to  attend  the  Council — too  weak  even 
to  listen  to  conversation  for  more  than  a  few  minutes. 

On  Wednesday  he  was  better  ;  and  after  some  hesitation 
he  decided  to  carry  out  his  plan  of  going  to  Basingstoke, 
to  stay  with  his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Alfred  Dowling.  It 
was  a  short  journey,  and  he  travelled  without  inconveni- 
ence. The  next  day  he  was  well  enough  to  go  for  a 
drive  ;  and  on  Friday,  sitting  in  the  garden,  he  began  to 
write  his  Introduction  to  the  Proceedings  of  the  Council. 
He  had  written  only  a  few  sentences  when  there  were 
signs  of  serious  trouble  ;  in  the  evening  he  had  a  second 
and  more  alarming  attack  of  faintness,  which  lasted  for 
some  time.  Dr.  Stokes  of  Basingstoke  was  called  in,  and 
sat  up  with  him  during  the  night.  Sir  Andrew  Clark 
came  down  from  London  on  Saturday  afternoon,  and  found 
him  in  a  wretchedly  weak  state,  hardly  able  to  speak,  and 
with  the  heart  violently  agitated  ;  he  did  not  conceal  his 
anxiety,  feeling  that  recovery,  if  not  hopeless,  was  improb- 
able. Dale  himself  was  aware  of  his  danger  ;  his  experi- 
ences are  recorded  in  a  diary  filled  up  soon  afterwards. 

Of  course  when  Sir  Andrew  Clark  was  sent  for,  and and 

came,  I  understood  that  my  position  was  regarded  as  critical. 

1  was  too  weak,  however,  to  be  much  moved  by  it — too  weak  to 
find  much  direct  consolation  in  the  eternal  springs  of  strength 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  COUNCIL  611 

and  joy.  God  was  a  kind  of  background  to  everything — hardly 
discerned,  but  there ;  this  was  all. 

On  Sunday  afternoon  asked to  read  Ephesians  i.  begin- 
ning at  the  third  verse.  Three  verses  proved  too  much  for  me, 
and  I  had  to  stop  him. 

When  I  became  a  little  stronger,  I  endeavoured  to  find  rest 
in  remembering  that  Christ  is  my  brother ;  but  this  did  not  come 
home  to  me.  I  thought  of  Him  as  my  Lord,  and  then  I  had 
peace.1 

The  sense  of  Justification  has  also  given  me  at  times  great 
peace.  The  great  words,  "  As  far  as  the  east  is  from  the  west, 
so  far  hath  He  removed  our  transgressions  from  us,"  have  given 
more  than  peace :  at  times  they  have  filled  me  with  light. 

I  have  also  found  great  comfort  in  the  account  of  chastise- 
ment in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  the  Hebrews,  especially  in  the 
declared  end  of  chastisement — "  that  we  may  be  partakers  of  His 
holiness." 

Had  great  peace  last  night  in  a  vivid  sense  that  redemption 
began  on  Christ's  side — not  mine ;  that  my  safety  was  the  fulfil- 
ment of  His  thought. 

These  extracts — they  might  easily  be  multiplied — 
show  how  the  spirit,  vibrating  to  the  shock,  shifted  and 
swung  till  it  settled  down  again  to  its  old  bearings ; 
of  the  physical  recovery  and  its  process  less  need  be  said. 
Dale  was  singularly  fortunate  in  all  the  conditions  of  his 
illness.      Dr.  Stokes  showed  exceptional  skill  and  resource  ; 

1  In  the  following  passage  the  thought  is  developed: — "In  a  time  of 
^reat  prostration  and  suffering — the  very  extremity  of  mortal  weakness — when 
I  sorely  needed  consolation  and  support,  I  recalled  the  great  words  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  'He  is  not  ashamed  to  call  them  brethren  ' ;  and  1 
endeavoured  to  draw  strength  from  the  great  and  wonderful  truth  that  Christ, 
the  Eternal  Son  of  God,  is  our  brother,  and  clings  to  us  with  the  tenderness 
and  strength  of  a  brother's  affection  ;  but  that  truth  gave  me  no  comfort ;  it 
seemed  remote  and  unreal.  Then  I  remembered  that  Christ  is  my  Lord,  and 
it  steadied  me  at  once — gave  me  rest  of  heart  and  courage  and  strength. 
Under  other  conditions  the  truth  that  He  calls  us  His  brethren  might  bring 
solace  and  joy  ;  but  if  I  understand  accurately  how  it  was  with  me  at  that 
time,  the  severity  and  stress  of  the  suffering  and  peril  demanded  something 
more  bracing,  something — shall  I  say — more  austere,  than  the  assurance  of 
the  brotherly  kinship  and  sympathy  of  our  Lord.  It  was  not  sympathy  I 
needed  so  much  as  the  consciousness  of  being  in  the  strong  hands  of  One  who 
was  my  Lord  and  the  Lord  of  all "  (The  Epistle  of  James,  pp.  276,  277). 

The  parallel  has  an  interest  of  its  own ;  but  it  also  illustrates  the  way  in 
which  the  experiences  recorded  in  the  diary  were  turned  to  practical  account. 
This  fact  lessens,  if  it  does  not  altogether  remove,  a  natural  hesitation  to 
make  known  these  memorials  of  the  inner  life. 


6i2  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Mrs.  Dowling  was  indefatigable  in  her  care.  The  house 
stood  high,  on  a  great  chalk  slope,  sunny  and  still. 
If  one  had  to  be  ill,  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a  kindlier 
place.  And  so — against  all  hope — Dale  began  to  mend. 
To  Sir  Andrew  Clark's  surprise,  within  a  few  days  after 
his  visit,  Dr.  Stokes  was  able  to  report  that  the  immediate 
danger  had  passed.  But  recovery  was  slow.  It  was  with 
halting  step  and  labouring  breath  that  the  invalid  crawled 
back  to  life.  It  was  a  fortnight  before  he  came  downstairs, 
two  days  more  before  he  was  allowed  his  first  pipe — this 
was  the  deprivation  that  had  cost  him  most.  Food  and 
drink  he  could  forego  without  a  pang ;  cut  off  from 
tobacco,  he  was  little  better  than  a  lost  soul.  No  wonder 
that  the  day  of  restoration  was  duly  recorded  in  his  Journal. 

On  1 8th  August  he  left  Basingstoke  for  Southsea, 
where  he  continued  to  mend.  He  escaped  from  the  bath- 
chair  and  got  on  his  feet  again  ;  sleep  came  back  with 
strength.  In  fact  he  was  making  way  steadily  when  an 
unfortunate  mischance  occurred. 

Before  leaving  Basingstoke,  he  finished  his  Intro- 
duction to  the  Proceedings  of  the  Council,  taking  the 
opportunity  of  saying  several  things  that  he  would  have 
preferred  to  say  at  the  closing  session  if  he  had  been 
present.  He  referred  to  some  incidents  of  the  meetings 
that  seemed  to  him  noteworthy,  and  among  them  to  a 
speech  of  President  Northrop  of  Minneapolis,  who  had 
declared  the  intellect  to  be  the  special  province  of  American 
Congregationalism,  and  had  reproached  his  English 
brethren  for  a  disposition  to  neglect  the  claims  of  the 
mind  in  matters  of  religion.      These  were  his  words  : — 

There  are  organisations  that  go  down  and  reach  the  lower 
classes  and  lift  them  up.  God  bless  them  !  But  that  has  never 
been  the  special  province  of  the  Congregational  church,  and  it 
is  not  likely  to  be  in  the  future.  Our  province  is  to  take  men 
and  women  that  are  capable  of  thought,  capable  of  intellectual 
as  well  as  moral  and  spiritual  development,  and  lift  them  up  to 
a  higher  plane  as  human  beings ;  make  them  more  sensible  of 
God  and  the  things  that  God  has  put  into  this  world,  so  beauti- 
ful and  so  full  of  His  love  ;  lift  them  up  to  make  them  worthy 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  COUNCIL  613 

of  His  work,  and  able  to  do  His  work,  instead  of  treating  them 
as  babes  sucking  milk,  just  keeping  enough  life  in  them  to  get 
them  into  heaven  before  they  die  of  inanition,  of  marasmus — 
that  is  Congregationalism,  and  that  is  its  mission. 

The  statement  was  challenged  in  the  Council  itself,  but 
Dale  gave  it  prominence  and  endorsed  it,  in  substance, 
though  he  recognised  in  the  passage  a  "  touch  of  rhetorical 
exaggeration."     He  referred  to  it  in  the  following  terms  : — 

I  venture  to  think  that  no  weightier  words  than  these  were 
spoken  at  the  Council — none  that  deserve  the  more  serious  con- 
sideration of  English  Congregationalists.  There  is  no  question 
about  the  imperative  duty  resting  upon  Congregationalists,  as 
upon  all  other  Christian  people,  to  reach  the  lowest,  the  feeblest, 
the  most  ignorant,  and  the  most  vicious  of  mankind,  and  en- 
deavour to  draw  them  to  Christ ;  but  while  we  share  this  duty 
with  all  Christian  men,  this  is  not  our  special  mission.  The 
vigorous  and  the  cultivated  need  salvation  as  well  as  the  ignorant 
and  the  wretched.  The  intellect  as  well  as  the  heart  has  to  be 
claimed  for  Christ,  and  it  is  the  special  duty  of  Congregation- 
alists so  to  present  the  Christian  Gospel  as  to  draw  to  Christ 
those  who  are  never  likely  to  be  reached  by  the  Salvation  Army, 
and  to  discipline  them  to  the  highest  intellectual  and  ethical 
perfection.  The  truth  is  that  the  Americans  have  retained  the 
old  Congregational  tradition.  The  Congregationalists  of  the 
Commonwealth  times  had  many  of  the  qualities  of  an  intellectual 
aristocracy;  and  for  many  generations  Congregationalists  were 
accustomed  to  assert  the  claims  of  the  intellect  in  religion  far 
more  earnestly  than  other  Evangelical  churches.  I  can  remem- 
ber very  well  when  I  was  a  boy  that  I  somehow  caught  the  habit 
of  thinking  of  the  members  of  other  Christian  communities,  and 
especially  of  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  with  a  cer- 
tain measure  of  intellectual  scorn.  As  I  look  back  upon  that 
boyish  conceit  I  see  how  ludicrous  it  was,  and  I  cannot  quite 
understand  how  I  came  to  entertain  it ;  but  I  suppose  that  it 
was  in  the  air;  the  intellectual  traditions  of  Congregationalism 
had  at  that  time  not  quite  died  out.1 

Other  portions  of  the  Introduction,  especially  those 
dealing  with  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  social  questions, 
called  forth  a  protest ;  but  it  was  this  passage  that  pro- 
voked the  keenest  resentment. 

1  International    Congregational     Council,     London,    189 1.       Authorised 
Report  of  Proceedings ;  Introduction,  pp.  xxix.  xxx. 


6i4  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

The  British  Weekly  in  a  leading  article  denounced  it 
with  unmeasured  vehemence.  With  a  keen  eye  for  a 
point,  the  writer  caught  at  the  phrase  "  an  intellectual 
aristocracy  "  ;  a  phrase  applied,  not  without  qualification, 
and  applied  to  the  Congregationalists  of  a  bygone  age : — 
"  they  had  many  of  the  qualities  of  an  intellectual  aristo- 
cracy." He  rang  the  changes  on  it.  He  implied,  if  he 
did  not  assert,  that  to  minister  to  "  an  intellectual  aristo- 
cracy "  necessarily  involved  "  the  neglect  of  the  ignorant 
and  the  poor." 

Had  he  been  in  fighting  trim,  Dale  would  have  found 
it  easy  to  repel  the  attack  ;  to  show  that  the  declaration 
so  impugned  was  none  of  his,  that  his  qualifications  had 
been  ignored  and  his  words  distorted.  He  had  asserted 
the  duty  —  the  "  imperative  duty  "  —  of  all  Christian 
churches,  Congregationalists  included,  "  to  reach  the 
lowest,  the  feeblest,  the  most  ignorant,  and  the  most 
vicious  of  mankind  "  ;  to  suggest  that  he  advised  Con- 
gregationalists to  turn  to  the  "  aristocracy  "  and  to  "  leave 
to  others  the  poor  of  Christ "  was  to  misinterpret  his 
meaning.  He  would  have  had  something  to  say  also 
about  the  tendency  of  our  times  to  disregard  the  needs  of 
those  who  are  not  outcasts,  and  to  forget  that  spiritual 
destitution  prevails  in  the  suburb  as  well  as  in  the  slum. 
He  might  have  abandoned  parry  for  thrust.  Some 
churches  that  reach  the  ignorant  and  the  poor,  by  no 
fault  of  their  own  fail  to  touch  the  intelligent  and  the 
prosperous  ;  for  are  there  not  diversities  of  ministry  as 
there  are  diversities  of  gifts  ?  Deny  diversity  of  service, 
and  any  church  that  does  not  take  all  society — rich  as 
well  as  poor — for  its  province  falls  under  the  same  censure  ; 
acknowledge  it,  and  how  can  we  doubt  that  the  "  special  " 
mission  of  a  church  may  be  to  those  who  worship  not 
only  with  the  heart  but  also  with  the  mind  ? 

But  Dale  was  wholly  unfit  for  conflict.  When  the 
British  Weekly  containing  the  protest  reached  him  on 
the  Thursday,  as  soon  as  he  began  to  read,  a  violent 
attack  of  palpitation  came  on.  He  had  to  send  for  a  doctor 
immediately.     Prompt  action  staved  off  a  fresh  attack  ;  but 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  COUNCIL  615 

the  evil  effects  continued  for  many  days  ;  and  so  serious  a 
result  from  so  slight  a  cause  warned  him  that  he  must  avoid 
all  agitation  for  some  time  to  come.  Meanwhile,  awaiting 
the  return  of  his  strength,  the  editors  of  the  British 
Weekly  and  the  Independent  with  most  generous  consider- 
ation shut  down  the  hatches  on  the  controversy. 

It  had  been  arranged  that  Dale  should  see  Sir  Andrew 
Clark  again  about  the  middle  of  September,  to  be  ex- 
amined by  him  and  receive  directions  as  to  his  mode  of 
life.  He  went  up  to  London  on  nth  September,  the 
interview  being  fixed  for  the  next  day,  very  nervous  and 
dreading  the  possibility  of  an  unfavourable  report.  He 
records  in  his  diary  how  his  fears  were  quieted. 

12th  Sept. — Before  going  to  see  Sir  Andrew  Clark,  looked  at 
a  text-book  I  found  in  this  house  (Mr.  Edward  Spicer's),  and 
under  date  12th  Sept.  found  the  following  texts:  "  I  have  seen 
his  ways  and  will  heal  him  "  ;  "I  am  the  Lord  that  healeth  thee." 

Sir  Andrew's  report  extremely  satisfactory.  .  .  .  Heart  not 
strong,  but  perfectly  regular,  and  the  murmur  gone.  Would  like 
me  to  begin  work  under  restrictions  at  the  beginning  of  Novem- 
ber ;  but  I  am  to  see  him  first. 

So  encouraged,  he  went  to  Llanbedr,  where  he  spent 
several  weeks,  taking  Birmingham  and  Treborth  on  his 
way.  At  Treborth  he  was  able  to  attend  divine  service 
again — for  the  first  time  since  "  Council  Sunday  "  ;  but 
two  months  more  passed  before  he  ventured  to  speak  or 
to  pray  in  public. 

24th  Nov. — This  evening  went  to  "Society,"1  and  for  the 
first  time  since  July  took  part  in  a  public  service :  prayed  at  the 
close  of  the  meeting.  I  felt  some  agitation  before  rising,  but  it 
passed  off  as  soon  as  I  began. 

"  Society "  meeting  interesting. — Wilson  Roberts  gave  out 
hymn — read  1  Cor.  xiii. — prayed.  He  gave  out  another  hymn 
which  was  sung  to  a  wild,  minor  melody.  Hugh  Evans  called  up 
the  children,  and  they  said  texts  before  the  meeting,  on  which 
he  made  some  remarks.  Then  Evans  (a  preacher)  addressed 
the  meeting ;  then  old  John  Evans.  Then  Wilson  Roberts  went 
to  a  poor  old  woman  sitting  immediately  before  him,  and  asked 

1  A  religious  meeting  at  the  Welsh  chapel. 


616  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

her  about  last  Sunday  morning's  sermon,  of  which  she  gave  an 
account.  Then  he  passed  down  the  chapel,  stopping  at  the  end 
of  each  pew  to  ask  each  member  for  an  account  of  "experience"  or 
a  text ;  how  many  gave  the  one,  how  many  gave  the  other,  I  could 
not  tell.  With  some  he  held  a  conversation,  and  this  was  loud 
enough  to  be  heard  generally.  (I  think  that  when  the  voice  of 
the  member  was  very  low,  he  practically  repeated  what  was  said.) 
Then  came  the  admission  of  a  new  member  by  vote ;  then 
announcement  of  a  funeral  to  be  held  on  Saturday;  then  my 
prayer. 

26th  Nov. — Had  rather  a  bad  time  this  morning  before  I  was 
up,  thinking  of  my  first  Sunday  at  Carr's  Lane.  Prayed  God 
to  dissipate  my  fear  and  give  me  courage.  In  the  evening  the 
answer  came,  and  the  physical  agitation  disappeared  with  the 
mental  dread. 

30th  Nov. — Read,  prayed,  and  spoke  for  rather  more  than 
thirty  minutes,  at  the  Calvinistic  Methodist  chapel  last  night. 
About  one  hundred  and  sixty  to  one  hundred  and  eighty  people 
present.  In  reading  considerably  agitated ;  agitated  during  first 
sentence  or  two  of  prayer  j  in  speaking  was  quite  free ;  a  slight 
effort  had  to  be  made  at  starting — then  I  was  quite  free.  This 
is  my  first  attempt  at  speaking  since  the  Council. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

PREVAILING    IN    WEAKNESS 

The  first  Sunday  at  Carr's  Lane — Letters  to  friends— At  work  again — A 
letter  of  consolation  —  Congregational  History — Mr.  Barber  appointed  as 
assistant — Dr.  Allon's  death — Renewed  illness — The  physician's  sentence 
— At  Moor  Hall — Letters  to  the  church — Political  interests — Former 
days  in  Birmingham — Books  of  devotion — Letters  from  Wales — Mr. 
Barber's  reminiscences. 

On  1st  December — his  birthday — Dale  left  Llanbedr  to  1891. 
return  home  ;  and  after  a  reassuring  interview  with  Sir '  ge 
Andrew  Clark,  he  prepared  to  preach  at  Carr's  Lane  on 
6th  December.  During  an  enforced  silence  of  more  than 
six  months,  he  had  looked  forward  to  the  day  with  eager- 
ness and  with  apprehension  ;  it  had  filled  his  waking 
thoughts  and  had  entered  into  his  dreams.  On  31st 
October  he  wrote  in  his  diary : — 

Dreamt  last  night  that  I  was  in  Carr's  Lane  again  for  the 
first  time.  It  was  the  first  Sunday  in  the  month.  Some  one 
else  was  preaching ;  I  was  to  preside  at  the  Lord's  Supper.  I 
spoke  after  the  anthem,  reminding  the  people  that  it  was  a 
solemn  thing  to  come  back  to  them  from  the  gates  of  death  ; 
expressing  my  joy  at  the  signs  of  the  approach  of  a  great 
religious  revival  given  at  the  Southport  meetings ;  said  how 
impossible  it  was  to  thank  them  for  all  their  kindness ;  but  that 
in  that  place,  where  even  our  thanks  for  God's  goodness  were  so 
inadequate,  this  confession  of  incapacity  was  less  humiliating. 

The  dream  closely  foreshadowed  the  reality.  The 
Rev.  R.  J.  Ward  of  St.  Helen's  had  been  announced  to 
preach  ;  but  Dale  arranged  with  him  to  take  his  place  at 
the    morning    service,   if  not   overcome  by  agitation    and 


61S  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

weakness.  As  he  entered  the  church,  the  congregation 
rose  and  sang  the  Te  Deum.  After  the  anthem,  he  came 
forward  to  give  expression  to  his  gratitude  and  joy.  He 
spoke  of  himself  and  his  work  with  unwonted  unreserve 
and  with  a  solemn  humility. 

I  return  to  you  from  the  gates  of  death.  During  these 
months  of  silence  I  have  seen  with  humiliation  and  pain  how 
great  have  been  the  defects  of  my  past  ministry ;  and  while  I 
thank  God  for  the  long-suffering  and  for  the  great  mercy  that  He 
has  shown  to  me  in  permitting  me  to  stand  once  more  in  this 
place,  with  the  hope  that  my  opportunities  for  serving  Him  in 
the  ministry  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  are  to  be  renewed  and  pro- 
longed, I  tremble  lest  I  should  again  be  unfaithful.  But  the 
riches  of  His  grace  are  unsearchable.  He  was  near  me  in  the 
very  extremity  of  weakness,  when  I  had  no  strength  to  appeal  to 
His  pity  and  crave  His  support ;  and  if  it  be  His  will  that  the 
joy  and  glory  of  the  ministry  should  be  mine  again,  He  will  not 
forsake  me  ;  He  will  not  restore  to  me  the  possibilities  of  service 
only  to  increase  my  condemnation  at  the  last.  .  .  .  We  come  here 
to  thank  God  for  His  compassion  and  pity  and  grace,  and  we 
cannot  thank  Him  as  we  would ;  and  this  morning  I  cannot 
thank  you  as  I  would.  But  I  ask  you,  as  my  life  has  been 
prolonged  in  answer  to  your  prayers,  to  entreat  God  to  defend 
me  from  sin  and  from  making  shipwreck  of  faith,  so  that  neither 
you  nor  I  may  have  reason  to  regret  that  when  I  had  come  so 
near  to  the  happy  shores,  and  was  just  coming  into  the  harbour, 
I  was  brought  back  to  the  stormy  and  perilous  seas  of  this 
present  life ;  entreat  Him  so  to  enrich  me  with  His  grace  that 
in  my  personal  life  I  may  be  more  humble,  more  tender,  more 
gentle,  more  upright,  more  unselfish,  more  devout,  and  that  my 
ministry  amongst  you,  if  God  should  permit  it  to  continue,  may 
be  charged  with  more  of  the  power  of  His  spirit  and  of  His 
truth,  and  may  contribute  to  a  far  larger  extent  than  in  past 
years  to  the  perfection  of  those  who  already  know  Christ  for 
themselves,  to  the  rescue  from  sin  and  from  eternal  death  of 
those  who  as  yet  know  Him  not. 

It  was  a  severe  strain.  At  first  his  voice  broke  and 
faltered,  but  it  soon  gathered  clearness  and  strength  ;  and 
having  gone  so  far  without  breaking  down,  he  found  him- 
self able  to  preach  a  short  sermon,  and  also  to  preside 
at  the  Communion   service  afterwards.      The  letters  that 


PREVAILING  IN  WEAKNESS  619 

follow  describe  his  own  experience  before  and  during  the 
service,  and  show  in  what  spirit  he  resumed  his  work. 


To  Mrs.  Richard  Davies 

•ji/i  December  189 1. 

Hearty  thanks  for  your  very  kind  letter.  Mrs.  Dale  has 
already  told  you  how  I  got  through  yesterday.  God  was  very 
good  to  me.  The  dread  with  which  I  looked  forward  to  meeting 
my  people  for  the  first  time  had  been  largely  subdued  before  I 
left  Llanbedr  by  some  lines  in  a  hymn  of  Montgomery's  which 
used  to  be  a  great  favourite  of  mine. 

His  might  thy  heart  shall  strengthen 

(which  was  just  what  I  wanted)  ; 
His  love  thy  joy  increase  ; 
Mercy  thy  days  shall  lengthen  ; 
The  Lord  will  give  thee  peace. 

It  was  curious  what  a  tonic  I  found  in  the  first  of  those  four 
lines. — I  was  not  announced  to  preach,  but  made  a  private 
arrangement  with  the  minister  who  was  advertised,  that  if  I  got 
through  a  few  sentences  of  a  personal  kind  without  distress  he 
should  allow  me  to  go  on,  announce  a  text,  and  preach  a  short 
sermon.  He  was  very  kind  and  sat  by  me  prepared,  if  I  was 
too  agitated  to  rise,  to  give  out  a  hymn  and  take  the  rest  of  the 
service.  However,  it  was  not  necessary,  and  I  preached  on  "  I 
shall  not  die,  but  live,  and  declare  the  works  of  the  Lord," — an 
exclamation  which  I  suppose  was  originally  intended  as  a  cry 
from  the  heart  of  the  Jewish  nation  when  it  had  returned  from 
exile  and  caught  sight  of  its  true  vocation ;  but  which,  as  I  said, 
expressed  very  naturally  the  emotion  with  which  a  Christian 
minister  returned  to  his  work  after  an  experience  like  mine. 
The  Sunday  was  set  apart  for  missionary  appeal,  and  the  text  was 
an  excellent  one  for  that  purpose  :  if  a  church  ceases  to  declare 
the  works  of  the  Lord,  it  has  no  right  to  live ;  it  should  care  for 
life  in  order  to  do  it. 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Newman  Hall 

1 6th  December  189 1. 

Accept  my  hearty  thanks  for  your  kind  congratulations.  I 
rejoice  and  yet  tremble,  now  that  I  am  back  again  at  my  work. 
The  hopes  and  desires  of  the  past  months  of  silence — will  they 


620  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

be  fulfilled?  The  miserable  defects  which  I  have  seen  in  my 
ministry — will  they  disappear? 

You  are  good  enough  to  say  some  kind  things  about  my 
lectures  on  the  Atonement ;  but  it  seems  to  me  as  if  that  book 
and  other  books  which  by  God's  blessing  have  been  of  service, 
never  came  from  me  ;  I  seem  to  have  had  no  part  in  them  except 
to  diminish  their  power;  and  there  is  something  distressing  at 
times  in  what  my  people  are  saying  about  what  they  owe  to  me. 
I  know  that  it  is  not  to  me  they  owe  anything ;  God  has  blessed 
them  in  spite  of  me.  And  so  I  am  troubled  at  beginning  work 
again.  I  am  afraid  that  it  will  be  as  it  has  been — no  better ; 
and  I  need  the  prayers  of  my  friends  more  now  that  I  am  better 
than  when  I  was  at  the  worst. 

The  exertion  did  him  no  harm — in  fact  it  seemed  to 
renew  his  vigour.  During  the  following  week  he  attended 
a  Council  meeting  in  London  of  Mansfield  College,  and  on 
the  next  day  presided  over  a  missionary  conference  at 
Carr's  Lane.  On  I  3th  December  he  preached  again,  and 
on  the  evening  of  the  14th  he  took  the  chair  at  a  dinner 
to  celebrate  the  return  of  the  "  Liberal  Eight "  at  the 
recent  School  Board  election.  He  spoke  for  half  an  hour, 
without  effort  or  fatigue,  delighted  to  find  himself  once 
more  "  among  old  friends  belonging  to  both  sections  of 
the  party."  The  morning  after,  he  was  fresh  enough  for 
a  long  talk  with  Mr.  Chamberlain  about  the  political 
situation  and  the  difficulties  of  the  Liberal  Unionist 
position. 
1892.  For   ten    Sundays    he   was  able   to   preach  without  a 

break  ;  then,  after  a  few  days'  rest,  he  continued  at  his 
post  for  two  months  more.  At  times  the  heart  affection 
troubled  him,  especially  when  agitated  or  excited  ;  but 
his  power  in  the  pulpit  was  not  sensibly  impaired,  and 
some  of  his  sermons — those  for  instance  on  the  Duke  of 
Clarence,  Cardinal  Manning,  and  Mr.  Spurgeon,  and  the 
discourses  on  Calvinism  and  on  the  Book  of  Jonah — were 
such  as  to  involve  considerable  effort. 

The  first  of  the  following  letters  was  written  to  Dr. 
Paget  soon  after  his  appointment  as  Dean  of  Christ 
Church,  Oxford  ;  the  second  to  a  friend  who  had  lost  a 
child.      The  letter  to  Mr.  Charles  Miall  refers  to  an  offer 


PREVAILING  IN  WEAKNESS  621 

to  complete  a  history  of  Congregationalism  on  which  Dale 
had  been  engaged  for  some  time. 

To  the  Very  Rev.  the  Dean  of  Christ  Church 

\(jth  January  1892. 

It  was  very  good  of  you,  with  new  duties  pressing  upon  your 
heart  and  thought,  to  make  time  to  write  to  me.  Accept  my 
hearty  thanks  for  your  letter  and  also  for  the  copy  of  Dean 
Church's  Village  Sermons.  They  are  deeply  interesting.  I  hardly 
know  enough  of  village  life  to  be  able  to  judge  at  what  points  he 
would  be  likely  to  escape  from  the  sight  of  the  average  English 
labourer,  but  their  simplicity  is  singularly  beautiful  and 
impressive. 

Your  distinguished  position  brings  with  it,  I  suppose,  fresh 
responsibilities.  On  these  I  venture  to  congratulate  you ;  fresh 
responsibilities  mean  fresh  power  for  serving  God  and  man. 
They  also  mean,  in  many  cases,  an  almost  intolerable  sense  of 
weakness ;  but  you  have  long  been  taught  that  this,  too,  is  a 
gift  of  grace,  and  that  when  it  is  most  painful  it  is  often  the 
promise  of  the  near  access  of  Divine  strength — strength  which, 
however,  shows  no  sign  of  its  presence  except  in  the  success  of 
our  work. 

To  the  Rev.  J.  Oates 

i,th  February  1892. 

God  help  you  !  There  is  little  else  to  be  said ;  but  in  saying 
that  everything  is  said.  Your  letter  recalls  the  anguish  of  past 
years.  To  be  in  the  presence  of  death  oneself  is  quite  another 
matter.  Last  July  I  was  too  weak  to  be  capable  of  much 
mental  suffering,  and  during  the  time  that  I  knew  how  near  the 
supreme  hour  had  come  I  was  very  quiet.  They  did  not  tell 
me ;  but  when  my  son  came  from  Cambridge  and  my  daughter 
from  Birmingham,  and  when  I  learnt  that  Sir  Andrew  Clark 
had  been  telegraphed  for,  of  course  I  knew  what  it  all  meant. 
It  did  not  seem  at  all  terrible.  I  knew  God  was  with  me,  as 
a  blind  child  might  know  that  its  mother  was  in  the  room ;  and 
this  gave  perfect  peace ;  but  I  was  not  strong  enough  to  bear 
any  vivid  sense  of  His  presence.  When  at  my  request  my  son 
read  me  a  verse  or  two  of  the  first  chapter  of  Ephesians,  the 
wonder  of  it  was  too  much  for  me  ;  I  was  obliged  to  ask  him 
to  stop. 

But  years  ago  when  death  came  to  me  first,  and  took  a  child, 


622  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  anguish  was  great  :  watching  her  while  she  lay  dying,  I 
learnt  for  the  first  time  what  is  meant  by  the  words,  "  Like  as  a 
father pitieth  his  children.'"  Only  so  could  I  be  taught  the  pity  of 
God.  And  I  learnt,  too,  at  the  same  time  what  God  must  feel 
at  the  loss  of  His  children.  What  are  all  these  passionate 
affections  but  parables  of  Divine  things  ?  Shall  God  suffer  and 
not  we? 

Some  years  later  there  came  anguish  of  another  kind.  My 
brother's  death  in  1883  was  the  beginning  of  all  the  physical 
suffering  of  later  years.  Although  we  had  not  lived  together 
since  we  were  boys,  my  house  had  been  his  home  from  the  time 
that  our  own  home  was  broken  up — his  home,  I  mean,  when  he 
was  away  from  Cambridge.  He  had  been  a  kind  of  son  as  well 
as  a  brother  to  me.  His  brilliant  success  at  Cambridge  and  the 
power  he  was  gaining  there  had  given  me  more  pleasure  than 
any  small  achievements  of  my  own.  He  was  my  only  brother 
that  had  lived  beyond  infancy  or  early  childhood,  and  I  never 
had  a  sister.  Half  my  life  seemed  rent  away.  I  was  conscious 
of  the  most  violent  disturbance  of  the  heart.  For  the  first 
time  I  learnt  what  is  involved  in  Christ's  having  become  our 
Brother.  I  shrink  indeed  from  what  seems  to  me — it  is  not  so 
to  many  others — an  irreverent  familiarity  in  addressing  Him  as 
Brother :  He  may  call  me  by  that  name  in  His  great  con- 
descension, but  I  shrink  from  calling  Him  so ;  and  yet  the 
revelation  in  my  sorrow  of  what  brotherhood  means  remains  a 
wonder  and  a  glory. 

God  would  have  done  less  for  you  than  He  has  done,  if  you 
had  not  been  agonised  for  the  loss  of  your  child ;  He  would 
have  given  you  less  of  the  image  of  His  fatherhood.  For  the 
dear  child  early  death  is  an  unspeakable  kindness ;  she  might 
have  achieved  more  had  she  lived  longer ;  but  as  I  grow  older 
I  think — perhaps  it  is  cowardly — more  and  more  of  the  perils  of 
living.  And  what  is  blessedness  to  her  may  be  new  power  to 
you.  Not  at  once.  It  is  only  slowly  that  great  things  come  to 
us.  I  remember  very  well  that  when  my  child  died  of  whom 
I  have  spoken,  it  was  many  days  before  I  could  find  any  reality 
in  the  life  to  which  she  had  passed.  The  discovery  came 
curiously.  I  thought  of  a  friend  who  had  loved  her  and  whom 
she  had  loved,  who  had  died  a  few  weeks  before,  and  I  said, 
"She  is  with  Mary  Martin."  The  child  was  only  six,  and  I 
could  not  think  of  her  alone  even  with  God ;  but  when  1 
thought  of  the  saintly  woman  to  whom  she  had  been  very  dear, 
her  life  became  very  real  to  me. 

"  Punishment  "  ?  No.  You  and  I  may  be  chastened  for  our 
faults — but  not  punished;  and  it  may  not  be  even  chastisement, 


PREVAILING  IN  WEAKNESS  623 

but  discipline.  Think  of  the  child  with  God.  It  is  a  great 
matter  to  have  been  the  father — the  human  author  of  life — to 
one  who  has  passed  into  an  eternity  of  perfection  and  blessed- 
ness. And  if  in  your  sorrow  there  come  to  you  discoveries  of 
definite  imperfections  and  failures,  thank  God  that  the  child's 
entry  into  joy  should  be  made  the  means  of  showing  you  these 
things,  and  rely  on  God's  grace  to  enable  you  to  remember  and 
to  amend  them. 

I  have  been  talking  to  myself  rather  than  to  you.  To  you 
I  can  only  say  God  help  you — and  He  will. 

TO  MR.  C.  S.   Miall 

$t/i  March  1892. 

You  are  very  kind,  and  your  proposal  might  have  been  very 
acceptable  to  me.  What  you  have  done  for  Skeats  must  have 
given  you  an  unusual  knowledge  of  recent  Nonconformist  history. 
But  when  I  put  my  own  manuscript  aside  five  or  six  years  ago, 
I  had  the  impression  that  a  single  chapter  covering  facts  and 
aspects  of  Congregational  history  lying  within  my  own  memory — 
a  chapter  which  I  could  have  written  in  ten  or  twelve  hours — 
was  all  that  was  necessary  to  bring  the  book  to  an  end.  The 
trouble  is  that  I  began  it  with  the  intention  of  making  it  a 
Manual — a  text-book — for  fairly  educated  young  men  and 
women,  and  the  story  was  told  with  that  view.  I  found,  how- 
ever, that  I  had  far  exceeded  the  limits  within  which  such  a 
manual  should  be  confined ;  and  I  therefore  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  would  have  to  be  rewritten.  It  would  have 
required  a  great  deal  of  revision  in  any  case ;  but  to  make  it 
the  kind  of  book  which  I  now  see  is  the  only  one  that  I  can 
write,  it  must  be  reconstructed  from  the  beginning. 

My  manuscript  is  therefore  lying  locked  up  for  some  con- 
venient season  !  At  present,  with  the  very  limited  hours  in  the 
day  during  which  my  health  allows  me  to  work,  other  claims 
take  precedence  of  the  history.  It  is  possible  that  I  may  never 
do  anything  with  it.  I  am  obliged  to  take  "  short  views "  of 
life,  and  to  attempt  only  such  things  as  I  can  dismiss  within  a 
few  days  or  weeks.  My  strength  is,  I  think,  coming  back 
gradually,  but  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  if  I  am  obliged 
to  give  up  preaching,  while  I  am  still  fairly  vigorous  except  for 
the  purposes  of  public  work,  the  history  would  be  a  refuge  and 
a  solace. 

Your  doleful  account  of  yourself  creates  mingled  amusement 
and  sympathy.  Things  are  not  desperate  when  a  man  can 
describe  his  miseries  so  pleasantly. 


624  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Those  new  theories  which,  as  you  say,  have  the  transient 
splendour  of  meteors,  have  ceased  to  dazzle  me ;  and,  what  is 
still  better,  have  ceased  to  trouble  me.  I  find  in  this  some 
compensation  for  the  fact  that  they  have  also  ceased  to  create 
the  genial  excitement  of  hope.  I  can  see  no  signs  that  we  are 
on  the  eve  of  discovering  any  great  provinces  of  religious  truth 
that  have  hitherto  been  unknown  to  us,  or  of  correcting  and 
enlarging  in  any  considerable  measure  our  knowledge  of  provinces 
which  are  already  the  settled  home  of  Christian  life  and  thought. 
Just  now  the  real  work  seems  to  be  done  in  the  direction  of 
criticism,  and  especially  criticism  of  the  Old  Testament.  What- 
ever comes  of  it,  the  old  stars  will  shine  in  the  heavens,  and  I 
find  no  promise  that  by  this  process  new  ones  will  be  dis- 
covered. 

But  to  write  so  long  a  letter  is  a  very  unkindly  return  for 
your  very  kindly  offer.     I  thank  you  for  it  very  heartily. 

Several  months  before  his  illness  began,  he  had  ex- 
pressed a  wish  to  obtain  help  in  the  work  of  the  pastorate, 
and  the  officers  of  the  church  were  willing  to  carry  the 
plan  into  effect.  But  at  that  time  the  pressure  was  not 
immediate,  and  action  was  deferred.  Now,  the  matter 
became  urgent.  In  the  most  favourable  circumstances — 
even  with  the  prospect  of  complete  recovery — it  was  not 
only  desirable  but  necessary  that  there  should  always  be 
some  one  in  reserve  in  case  of  sudden  emergency,  who 
might  take  one  of  the  services  regularly  so  long  as  the 
pastor's  health  required,  and  who  could  carry  on  work 
that  ran  some  risk  of  being  neglected.  After  much  con- 
sideration during  the  early  months  of  the  year,  the  choice 
fell  upon  Mr.  George  Barber,  then  a  student  at  the 
Lancashire  College ;  he  accepted  the  invitation,  and  it 
was  arranged  that  he  should  enter  upon  his  ministry  on 
Sunday  ist  May.  The  following  letters  relate  to  his 
appointment. 

To  Mr.  George  Barber 

31st  March  1892. 

You  are  already  aware  that  I  have  been  authorised  by 
the  church  at  Carr's  Lane  to  select  and  appoint  an  assistant 
minister  on  terms  which  were  to  be  agreed  upon  by  the  deacons 


PREVAILING  IN  WEAKNESS  625 

and  myself.  The  terms  were  settled  at  a  deacons'  meeting 
held  yesterday  evening,  and  are  contained  in  the  enclosed 
memorandum.  I  have  now  the  very  great  pleasure  of  asking 
you  to  accept  the  appointment. 

It  is  unnecessary  after  our  conversation  last  Sunday  evening 
to  give  more  than  a  general  outline  of  the  duties  of  the  position. 
But  I  may  remind  you  that  I  shall  look  to  the  assistant  minister 
to  lighten  the  pressure  upon  me  of  the  Sunday  services.  I  do 
not  anticipate  that  he  will  have  to  preach  every  Sunday ;  for  I 
hope  that  in  a  very  short  time  the  necessity  of  limiting  myself 
to  one  service  a  day  will  have  passed  by,  and  that,  especially 
with  some  assistance  in  the  devotional  part  of  the  service,  I  may 
often  be  able  to  preach  both  morning  and  evening.  But  the 
assistant  will  be  expected  to  preach  regularly  twice  or  three 
times  in  the  month,  and  at  times  when  I  may  be  unable  to 
preach  myself.  The  week-evening  service  I  hope,  as  a  rule,  to 
take  myself. 

I  should  look  to  the  assistant  to  interest  himself  in  the  schools 
and  classes  and  missions,  and  to  endeavour  to  increase  their  effi- 
ciency. His  work  will  be  largely  among  the  younger  members 
of  the  church  and  congregation ; — indeed  when  I  originally 
conceived  the  idea  of  securing  an  assistant,  I  thought  of  naming 
him  "  the  minister  to  the  young  " ;  and  though  I  do  not  propose 
to  give  him  that  title,  it  fairly  indicates  what  will  constitute  a 
large  part  of  his  work. 

Visitation  is  a  matter  of  extreme  difficulty  in  a  congregation 
like  that  of  Carr's  Lane  which  is  scattered  over  all  parts  of  a 
great  city  and  its  neighbourhood ;  but  the  assistant  will  be  able 
to  do  something  to  supplement  my  own  deficiencies  in  this 
department  of  pastoral  duty. 

In  offering  you  the  appointment,  I  have  very  distinctly  present 
to  my  mind  that  you  are  just  leaving  college,  and  that  you  will 
naturally  desire  to  have  a  fair  amount  of  time  to  carry  on  your 
private  studies.  Indeed  as  I  am  aware  that  you  have  received 
invitations  to  the  pastorate  of  more  than  one  church,  I  should 
have  little  hope  of  your  acceptance  of  this  proposal  if  I  did  not 
think  it  possible  that  you  will  regard  the  position  of  assistant 
minister,  even  in  a  large  church,  as  more  likely  to  give  you  the 
opportunity  for  private  work  than  the  sole  pastorate  of  a  much 
smaller  church.  I  shall  not  complain,  however,  if,  after  you 
have  tried  the  position  for  a  time,  you  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  you  have  completed  your  preparatory  experience  and  prefer 
to  stand  alone. 

You  will,  I  think,  understand  how  deeply  concerned  I  am  for 
the  continued  peace  and  increasing  prosperity  of  the  church  of 

2  S 


626  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

which  I  have  been  for  so  long  a  time  the  pastor,  and  which  has 
shown  me,  under  a  great  variety  of  conditions,  unmeasured  kind- 
ness. That  I  ask  you  to  share  my  responsibilities  is  an  assur- 
ance, stronger  than  any  words  can  give,  that  what  I  have  seen 
and  heard  of  you  has  inspired  me  with  confidence  in  your  de- 
votion and  fidelity  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  your  zeal  in 
His  service.  It  is  also  a  proof  of  my  conviction  that  you  would 
work  as  heartily  and  loyally  with  me  as  I  believe  I  should  work 
with  you. 

I  do  not  wish  to  hurry  your  decision,  but  shall  be  glad  to 
hear  from  you  without  any  long  delay. 

To  Mr.  George  Barber 

S//i  April  1892. 

Your  letter  conveying  your  acceptance  of  the  invitation  to 
join  me  at  Carr's  Lane  gave  me  too  much  pleasure  to  allow  me 
to  let  a  single  post  go  out  without  acknowledging  it.  But,  as  I 
said,  I  was  too  much  pressed  on  Tuesday  to  write  at  any  length. 
I  had  proofs  in  hand,  and  a  visit  to  pay  to  one  of  our  people 
living  five  miles  out  of  town. 

I  was  delighted  by  the  buoyancy  and  hopefulness  which  your 
letter  expressed.  Give  God  thanks  for  your  temperament ;  it  is 
akin  to  that  courage  and  confidence  which  spring  from  a  generous 
faith  in  God  and  in  the  power  of  the  truth  of  God ;  and  it  allows 
that  faith,  which  is  the  root  of  all  ministerial  effectiveness,  to 
work  unhindered.  I  trust  and  pray  that  growing  years  will  not 
deprive  you  of  it ;  or  rather,  that  if  the  animation  of  youth  and 
its  sanguine  disposition  are  diminished,  as  they  are  likely  to  be 
diminished,  by  the  sinking  of  natural  fires,  the  loss  will  be  more 
than  compensated  by  the  increasing  robustness  of  the  nobler 
spiritual  powers. 

We  shall  have  many  opportunities  of  talking  together  about 
our  common  work,  and  I  will  not  in  this  letter  anticipate  any  of 
the  discussions  which,  I  trust,"  may  be  helpful  to  both  of  us.  I 
have  for  the  present  only  one  thing  to  say — everything,  under 
God,  will  depend  upon  the  completeness  of  our  confidence  in 
each  other.  Our  intercourse  must  be  of  a  confidential  character, 
or  there  is  likely  to  be  trouble.  On  all  matters  that  may  arise 
— and  as  soon  as  they  arise — which  seem  to  you  to  require  ex- 
planation, I  shall  rely  upon  you  to  be  frank  with  me.  Difficulties 
which  are  not  dealt  with  when  they  occur  are  apt  to  grow  in 
magnitude  very  rapidly.  Looking  back  upon  my  own  relations 
with  Mr.  James  nearly  forty  years  ago,  I  can  see  how  largely 
the  cordiality  and  happiness  of  our  relationship  with  each  other 


PREVAILING  IN  WEAKNESS  627 

depended  on  this  mutual  trustfulness.  He  knew  that  he  could 
rely  on  me — I  had  the  merit  of  perfect  loyalty  to  him,  if  no  other ; 
and  I  knew  that  I  could  rely  on  him ;  and  so  there  was  nothing 
to  check  the  ease  and  openness  of  our  intercourse. 

The  relations  between  the  two  were  from  first  to  last 
of  the  closest  and  happiest  kind.1  Those  who  saw  them 
together  could  hardly  fail  to  be  struck  by  the  absence  of 
restraint — by  the  generous  confidence  on  the  one  side  and 
the  loyal  affection  on  the  other.  In  the  course  of  a  few 
months  Dale's  hopes  were  more  than  fulfilled,  and  in 
several  letters  he  expresses  his  delight  at  Mr.  Barber's 
srowincr  success.      One  extract  will  be  enough. 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

3  rd  Decern  ber  1 S  9  2 . 

You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  my  curate  continues  to  be  a 
great  comfort  to  me.  He  is  very  affectionate  and  frank  and 
modest.  Sometimes — often,  I  hope — he  preaches  very  well; 
but  even  a  poor  sermon  of  his  seems  to  interest  and  charm 
large  numbers  of  people.  I  am  trying  to  keep  him  at  regular 
and  serious  reading,  and  to  assist  him  to  think  with  more  definite- 
ness  and  accuracy ;  and  he  bears  it  all  very  admirably.  One 
great  thing  is  that  his  visits  to  the  people  are  greatly  valued ; 
he  is  so  pleasant :  another  is  that  he  is  creating  a  very  consider- 
able stir  among  the  young  people. 

It  was  a  happy  choice  ;  but  the  arrangement,  as  origin- 
ally conceived,  at  the  very  outset  had  to  yield  to  the  stress 
of  circumstances.  The  intention  had  been  that  Mr.  Bar- 
ber should  bear  only  a  part — and  the  lighter  part — of  the 
burden  of  the  ministry.  But  when  May  came,  after  the 
first  Sunday  he  found  himself  alone.  For  Dale  was 
prostrate  with  an  attack  of  his  old  complaint,  and  though 
the  danger  was  less  than  in  the  previous  year,  recovery 
was  slow  and  precarious.  On  11th  April,  feeling  himself 
over-tired,  he  had  left  Birmingham  for  a  short  rest  at 
Llanbedr  ;  five  days  later  came  a  telegram  with  the  news 

1  Mr.  Barber's  account  of  his  experiences  as  assistant  minister  is  given  at 
the  end  of  this  Chapter,  pp.  638-645. 


628  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

of  Dr.  Allon's  death.  The  shock  was  severe.  Their 
friendship  reached  back  through  many  years  to  early 
manhood  ;  it  had  always  been  singularly  close  and  tender. 
Dale  was  entirely  unprepared  for  such  a  blow,  and  at  the 
moment  it  shattered  him.  For  days  he  could  think  of 
nothing  else.  To  take  any  part  in  the  funeral  service  he 
soon  found  was  beyond  his  strength,  but  he  returned  home 
to  prepare  a  memorial  sermon,  already  sketched — though 
in  roughest  outline — before  leaving  Llanbedr.  Thursday, 
Friday,  and  Saturday  morning  were  spent  on  the  task.  "  I 
felt  on  Saturday,"  he  said,  "  that  I  had  reached  the  limit 
of  what  I  could  do,  but  the  sermon  was  done."  In  the 
afternoon  he  travelled  to  London,  to  preach  at  Union 
Chapel  the  next  day.  The  sermon  was  long,  and  must 
have  taxed  his  physical  endurance.  All  the  associations 
of  the  place  were  such  as  to  stir  the  deepest  emotion.  But 
at  the  time  he  was  unconscious  of  any  harm,  and  on  the 
Monday,  when  he  returned  to  Birmingham,  he  said  that 
he  felt  none  the  worse.  Rest  and  quiet  might  have 
averted  any  evil  consequences,  but  unfortunately  the  next 
few  days  were  full  of  engagements  and  excitement.  At 
the  end  of  the  week  Mr.  Barber  arrived,  and  on  the 
Sunday  he  preached  for  the  first  time  since  his  appoint- 
ment. Dale's  anxiety  for  his  success  was  probably  greater 
than  his  own,  and  the  entry  in  his  note-book  shows  his 
relief  when  the  ordeal  was  successfully  over.  He  was 
exhausted  by  evening  meetings  on  the  Thursday  and  the 
Friday  ;  symptoms  of  coming  trouble  appeared,  and  on 
the  Saturday  he  was  seriously  unwell.  Fever  set  in,  with 
great  prostration,  and  during  the  week  that  followed  he 
suffered  severely  both  in  mind  and  body. 

Slowly  strength  returned,  and  at  the  end  of  a  month 
he  was  moved  to  Moor  Hall — the  home  of  his  friend  Mr. 
A.  R.  Dean,  about  twelve  miles  from  Birmingham — where  he 
remained  for  three  weeks.  Towards  the  end  of  this  visit 
he  learnt  for  the  first  time  that  he  was  suffering  from 
dilatation  of  the  heart  ;  that  the  affection  was  permanent, 
and  had  probably  existed  for  some  years.  He  was  also 
warned  that  even  if  he  returned  to  work,  evening  engage- 


PREVAILING  IN  WEAKNESS  629 

ments  must  be  abandoned,  and  that  the  rule  must  be  only 
occasionally,  if  ever,  relaxed.  This  disclosure — though  he 
was  not  told  all  the  facts  as  to  the  nature  of  the  disease — 
seems  to  have  taken  him  by  surprise.  Till  then  he  had 
confidently  anticipated  a  time  when  he  would  be  able  once 
more  to  resume  his  work  with  a  large  measure  of  his  old 
vigour  ;  now  the  outlook  was  suddenly  changed.  "  Can 
Carr's  Lane,"  he  asked  himself,  with  his  whole  nature  in 
recoil — "  can  it  be  carried  on  upon  these  terms  ?  "  Then 
the  spirit  turned  back  once  more  to  its  true  pole,  and  he 
continues  :  "  I  am  in  God's  hands,  Who  will  not  require 
from  me  work  for  which  I  have  no  strength  ;  but  till  I 
return  from  Llanbedr  I  shall  not  yield  to  this  anticipation 
of  the  future.  Meanwhile,  '  Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul, 
and  forget  not  all  His  benefits  ! ' " 

When  he  found  that  his  wife  and  his  eldest  daughter 
already  knew  the  worst  and  had  faced  the  possibilities  of 
the  future,  he  too  became  calmer,  and  the  improvement 
in  his  condition  soon  reported  by  his  physician  gave  him 
fresh  hope.  Before  leaving  home  for  Llanbedr,  he  wrote 
to  Mr.  Marris,  the  Treasurer  of  Carr's  Lane,  expressing  his 
own  conviction  that  the  prospect  was  not  so  hopeless  as 
he  had  been  led  to  believe. 


To  Mr.  George  Marris 

2.\thjune  1892. 

I  find  that  you  have  seen  Dr.  Saundby,  and  he  told  me  the 
substance  of  his  conversation  with  you.  I  may  be  too  sanguine, 
but  my  present  impression  is  that  his  judgment  about  the  future, 
which  was  really  formed  when  I  was  almost  at  the  worst,  is  rather 
pessimistic,  and  at  any  rate  I  am  not  disposed  to  regard  it  as 
final.  I  am  very  much  stronger  now  than  he  expected  I  should 
be,  and  it  is  possible  that  after  I  have  been  at  Llanbedr  I  may 
be  stronger  than  he  now  supposes  I  shall  be.  He  concurs  in 
my  suggestion  that  I  should  see  Sir  Andrew  Clark  in  the  autumn. 
Whatever  may  be  my  condition  when  I  return  from  Llanbedr,  I 
am  anxious  that  my  friends  at  Carr's  Lane  should  give  the  first 
place  to  the  interests  of  the  church ;  what  is  best  for  the  church 
will  be  best  for  me. 


630  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Once  at  Llanbedr,  the  repose  of  the  place  and  the 
quiet,  enlivened  by  the  occasional  visits  of  friends,  helped 
to  restore  his  strength.  At  times  he  still  suffered,  especi- 
ally after  any  special  effort.  But  at  the  beginning  of 
September  he  was  able  to  spend  ten  days  at  Treborth 
before  going  to  London  to  see  Sir  Andrew  Clark,  who  gave 
a  more  encouraging  report  than  at  his  previous  visit,  nine 
months  before,  though  the  condition  of  the  heart  was  still 
far  from  satisfactory.  The  letters  written  during  the  later 
part  of  the  summer  bear  out  this  impression.  Whether 
addressed  to  his  church  or  to  his  personal  friends,  they  do 
not  read  as  though  he  felt  that  his  active  work  was  prac- 
tically closed. 

To  the  Church  at  Carr's  Lane 

Moor  Hall,  Sutton  Coldfield, 
■26th  June  1892. 

It  is  a  great  trouble  to  me  that  I  should  have  been  once  more, 
and  so  soon  after  the  illness  of  last  summer  and  autumn,  with- 
drawn from  my  work ;  and  I  cannot  free  myself  from  anxiety 
about  the  effect  of  it  on  the  interests  of  Carr's  Lane.  Happily, 
Mr.  Barber's  settlement,  and  the  great  cordiality  with  which  you 
have  received  him,  and  the  satisfaction  with  which  I  know  his 
work  is  regarded,  have  to  some  extent  relieved  my  mind ;  but 
I  long  to  find  myself  in  Carr's  Lane  pulpit  again. 

I  am  now  entering  the  fortieth  year — not  of  my  pastorate — but 
of  my  ministry  among  you.  It  was  at  a  church  meeting  held 
towards  the  end  of  June,  or  at  the  beginning  of  July,  1853,  that 
I  was  invited  to  become  the  assistant  of  Mr.  James ;  and  the 
fortieth  year  will  therefore  be  completed  next  summer.  It  is  a  long 
time  to  have  been  the  minister  of  the  same  congregation.  I  am 
humbled  as  I  look  back  upon  my  work.  I  sometimes  wish  that 
I  could  have  begun  it  with  the  same  thoughts  about  its  greatness 
and  solemnity  with  which  I  now  regard  it.  God  has  been  very 
merciful  to  me,  bearing  with  what  I  now  see  to  have  been  the 
grave  defects  of  my  ministry.  You  and  your  fathers  have  also 
borne  with  me ;  their  kindness  and  yours  have  been  wonderful. 
It  seems  to  me  sometimes  that  I  am  only  just  beginning  to  catch 
a  faint  glimpse  of  the  glory  and  power  of  the  redemption  which 
God  has  wrought  for  us  through  the  Incarnation,  Death,  Resur- 
rection, and  Ascension  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.     If,  through 


PREVAILING  IN  WEAKNESS  631 

God's  grace,  I  am  allowed  to  preach  to  you  for  a  few  years 
longer,  I  pray  that  I  may  be  able  to  serve  you — if  not  with 
greater  energy,  for  this  I  cannot  hope  for,  yet  with  a  clearer 
knowledge  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  and  a  deeper  concern  for  your 
salvation  than  in  the  years  which  have  gone  by. 

Llanbedr,  ^oth  July  1892. 

There  are  times  when  I  become  rather  impatient  under  this 
long  continuance  of  enforced  inactivity.  I  have  been  greatly 
cheered  by  assurances  which  have  recently  reached  me  again  and 
again  of  the  blessing  which  God  has  caused  to  rest  on  my 
ministry  in  past  years,  and  of  the  light  and  strength  which, 
through  God's  grace,  some  are  finding  in  my  books ;  but  I  seem 
to  have  a  great  deal  to  say  that  I  have  never  said  yet,  and  I 
want  to  say  it.  How  wonderful  the  gospel  of  Christ  is  !  I  have 
been  thinking  about  it  and  preaching  about  it  for  more  than  forty 
years,  and  yet  there  seem  to  be  vast  provinces  of  truth  in  it 
which  I  am  only  just  beginning  to  explore. 

I  have  often  told  you  that  we  owe  a  great  deal  to  the  quiet 
months  that  Paul  spent  in  prison ;  it  was  during  this  enforced 
interruption  of  his  activity  that  he  came  to  know,  through  the 
illumination  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  all  the  wonders  contained  in  his 
later  epistles.  Physical  weakness  compelling  abstinence  from 
work  and  separating  us  from  the  common  excitements  of  life, 
may  render  us  all  a  similar  service.  And  perhaps,  as  my  life  has 
been  for  the  most  part  so  free  from  serious  illness,  and  has  been 
so  full  of  varied  interests,  I  have  learnt  far  less  than  most 
Christian  men  about  those  aspects  of  divine  truth  and  grace 
which  have  been  in  all  ages  the  consolation  and  support  of  the 
weak  and  suffering.  If  I  am  learning  them  late,  I  trust  that  it 
will  not  be  too  late  for  me  to  speak  of  them  effectively  for  the 
consolation  and  support  of  others.  I  trust  that  you  are  holding 
together  and  holding  fast  to  Christ,  and  that  when  I  return  we 
may  have  a  time  of  great  spiritual  revival.  Pray  for  this  and 
expect  it. 

To  Mrs.  Richard  Davies 

Llanbedr,  2nd  July  1S92. 

We  are  very  concerned  to  hear  of  your  illness.  To  have 
spent  three  weeks  in  bed  after  your  pleasant  excursions  in  Devon- 
shire is  a  disappointing  way  of  completing  your  holiday.  However, 
that  you  have  begun  to  sit  up  even  for  an  hour  in  the  day  is  the 
assurance  that  you  are  recovering  strength.     It  is  not  quite  easy 


632  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

for  me  to  think  of  you  except  as  in  vigorous  health,  buoyant,  and 
active  ;  the  slowly  moving  hours  of  convalescence  do  not  seem  to 
fit  at  all  naturally  into  your  life.  I  wonder  how  you  endure 
being  cared  for  instead  of  caring  for  others.  And  yet  this  change 
of  experience  is  good  for  us :  I,  at  least,  think  that  I  have  found 
that  the  sense  of  being  dependent  on  others — wholly  dependent 
— obviously  dependent — is  favourable  to  the  breaking  down  of 
that  self-assertion  which  is  the  destruction  of  faith. 

My  late  illness  was  not,  as  far  as  I  know,  as  serious  as  the 
illness  of  last  year ;  and  yet  the  Birmingham  physician  who 
was  called  in  seems  to  have  come  to  very  gloomy  conclusions 
about  me.  He  professed  himself,  however,  to  be  very  much 
astonished  by  the  extent  to  which  I  had  recovered  before  I  left 
home.  .  .  .  [We]  spent  rather  more  than  a  fortnight  with  one  of  my 
people  who  has  just  taken  a  house  near  Sutton  Coldfield,  eight 
miles  from  Birmingham.  The  house  is  a  curious  one  :  part  of 
it  dates  back  to  Queen  Mary's  time  ;  the  modern  part,  containing 
the  principal  rooms,  was  built,  I  suppose,  about  fifty  or  sixty  years 
ago.  Bishop  Vesey  is  said  to  have  built  the  original  Hall ;  and 
a  room  wainscotted  with  oak  from  floor  to  ceiling  bears  his  name. 
In  this  room  is  the  favourite  haunt  of  the  ghost  attached  to  the 
house ;  whether  it  is  the  ghost  of  the  old  Papist  bishop  I  do  not 
know ;  if  it  is,  his  sorrows  must  have  been  embittered  by  seeing 
a  heretic  like  me  enjoying  his  house.  The  place  came  into  the 
hands  of  Hackett,  who  was  made  Bishop  of  Lichfield  at  the 
Restoration,  and  whose  painted  effigy  appears  above  his  tomb  in 
the  cathedral.  It  still  belongs  to  Hackett's  descendants,  and  a 
library  of  books — some  curious,  several  very  handsome — is  let 
with  the  house.  The  books,  however,  as  far  as  I  discovered,  did 
not  any  of  them  belong  to  the  Bishop ;  they  were  accumulated 
for  the  most  part  during  the  years  between  1720  and  1830. 

What  a  long  story  about  what  is,  after  all,  not  a  very  notice- 
able house.  We  found  the  neighbourhood  very  interesting. 
Drayton  Manor — Sir  Robert  Peel's — is  within  an  easy  drive, 
and  there  are  other  interesting  places,  some  of  which,  although 
they  are  so  near  to  Birmingham,  I  had  never  seen  or  even  heard 
of;  which  ignorance  is  a  condemnation  of  my  manner  of  life 
during  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years.  Here  are  lovely  places 
within  reach  which  God  and  man  have  made  beautiful,  and  I 
have  been  grinding  so  hard  that  I  have  never  looked  at  them : 
peccavi. 

We  who  are  here  are  greatly  enjoying  Llanbedr.  Mrs.  Dale 
is  much  absorbed  in  our  "garden  and  grounds."  The  garden 
reminds  me  of  Noah's  Ark.  Mrs.  Dale  was  resolved  that  it 
should  be  full  of  flowers  this  summer,  and  I  suppose  that  there 


PREVAILING  IN  WEAKNESS  633 

are  ten  thousand  varieties  blending  in  a  certain  confused  splen- 
dour :  as  many  sorts  of  flowers  as  Noah  had  of  clean  beasts,  and 
as  many  sorts  of  weeds  as  he  had  of  the  unclean.  Mrs.  Dale 
professed  to  spend  a  great  part  of  yesterday  weeding,  but  I  think 
that  her  heaviest  work  was  in  pulling  up  the  superfluous  flowers. 
Poor  creatures !  they  looked  so  wan  and  pale  and  weary ;  they 
had  been  living  in  a  crowd  so  long,  and  had  had  so  little  to  live 
upon,  that  they  were  as  worn  out  as  the  zealous  politicians  will 
be  after  the  election.  It  seems  odd,  by  the  way,  for  me  to  be 
living  this  quiet  life  while  a  general  election  is  going  on. 

Though  out  of  the  fight  he  had  not  lost  his  interest  in 
politics,  and  he  watched  with  an  eager  eye  the  fortunes  of 
his  personal  friends  in  the  constituencies.  The  following 
letter  was  addressed  to  a  member  newly  elected  for  the 
first  time. 


To 


Llanbedr,  Sth  July  1! 


My  politics  are  mastered  by  my  affection,  and  I  rejoice 
heartily  in  your  return.  It  was  kind  of  you  to  send  the  tele- 
gram ;  if  it  had  not  come  I  should  have  been  on  the  worry  till 
the  Liverpool  papers  came  in  in  the  afternoon. 

But  what  an  experience  you  are  likely  to  have  in  your  first 
Parliament !  Whichever  party  is  in  power  there  will  surely  be 
confusion  and  trouble.  Perhaps  that  may  be  better  for  a  man 
beginning  Parliamentary  life  than  a  time  of  clear  and  unbroken 
victory  for  his  own  side,  with  a  great  succession  of  measures 
which  he  has  long  cared  for  placed  on  the  Statute  Book ;  and 
better,  too,  than  a  time  of  utter  prostration.  Even  if  the 
counties  rally  to  Mr.  Gladstone  and  give  him  an  effective 
majority,  he  will  have  to  fight  hard ;  and,  quite  apart  from  the 
Irish  difficulty,  I  am  doubtful  whether  there  are  large  measures 
of  reform  on  which  there  is  a  clear  and  reasoned  conviction  on 
the  part  of  any  great  and  decisive  number  of  politicians.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  the  present  people  remain  in  office  it  will  be 
with  a  diminished  majority,  and  they  will  have  to  meet  a  party 
rendered  less  amiable  than  usual  by  defeat.  I  congratulate  but 
do  not  envy  you. 

You  will  not  think  that  it  indicates  any  distrust  of  you  if  I 
say  that  you  will  not  do  amiss  if  you  think  over  the  men  whose 
moral  fibre  deteriorated  as  the  result  of  entering  the  House,  and 
if  you  ask  how  the  deterioration  came  about.     Your  own  habits 


634  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

of  life  are,  I  think,  of  a  kind  to  relieve  those  who  love  you  from 
all  anxiety  on  this  point ;  and  yet,  strong  men  have  sometimes 
proved  weak.  Be  sure  of  it,  the  conditions  of  life  which  you 
will  now  have  to  meet  will  make  it  immeasurably  harder  than 
ever  before  to  live  the  life  that  your  own  heart  desires  to  live. 


To  the  Very  Rev.  Dr.  Boyle1 

Llanbedr,  \2.th  July  1892. 

It  was  very  pleasant  to  receive  your  kind  letter.  Like  many 
other  men  who  are  over  sixty  I  am  disposed  to  think  that  the 
former  days  were  better  than  these.  Birmingham  is  still  a  re- 
markable place,  and  I  share  your  delight  at  the  victory  of  last 
week2;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  the  interesting  people  have  gone. 
It  may  be  that  among  the  younger  men  whom  I  am  not  in  the 
way  of  seeing  there  are  some  who  are  as  able  and  attractive  as 
were  some  of  those  who  founded  the  Graduates'  Club  so  many 
years  ago ;  but  I  have  my  doubts.  And  outside  the  club,  or 
rarely  attending,  there  was  Dawson ;  and  among  those  who  were 
certainly  outside,  Vince  and  John  Henry  Chamberlain  and 
Harris,  and  Joseph  Chamberlain  in  his  fresh  and  brilliant  pro- 
mise. Dawson,  Vince,  and  John  Henry  Chamberlain  are  dead. 
Harris  remains  and  is  as  kindly  and  epigrammatic  as  ever ;  but  in 
the  break-up  of  the  Liberal  party  he  remained  with  Mr.  Gladstone, 
and  I  seldom  see  him.  Joseph  Chamberlain  is,  of  course,  still 
immensely  interesting ;  but  I  am  not  sure  that  he  is  quite  as 
interesting  as  he  was  twenty  years  ago,  and  he  is  necessarily  very 
much  away  from  Birmingham.  The  time  was  when  I  used  to 
have  a  smoke  with  him  and  John  Henry  Chamberlain  and 
Timmins  and  the  rest,  as  often  as  twice  or  three  times  a  week. 
Timmins,  by  the  way,  still  remains ;  and — how  it  would  have 
confounded  the  old  Governors  ! — was  Bailiff  of  King  Edward's 
School  last  year.  Of  all  the  men  of  that  time  Bunce  has  been 
for  many  years  more  than  any  of  the  rest  to  me.  Among  my 
own  ministerial  brethren  I  have  no  intimate  friend ;  and  I  see 
nothing  of  your  men.  Wilkinson,  of  course,  is  kindly — very 
kindly  indeed  ;  but  that  is  all.  The  split  of  the  Liberal  party  has 
made  an  immense  difference  to  my  private  life.  There  are  two 
clubs,  and  I  belong  to  neither.  I  have  friends  on  both  sides, 
but  the  discussions  that  we  had  at  the  old  Arts  Club  before  the 
quarrel  I  look  back  upon  with  lasting  regret.  In  those  days  the 
Liberal  party  in  Birmingham  was  in  many  respects  like  a  secular 

1  Dean  of  Salisbury,  see  p.  206. 
2  The  Unionist  victory  at  the  General  Election. 


PREVAILING  IN  WEAKNESS  635 

Church.     What    a    garrulous    person    I    am    becoming !     Your 
letter  set  me  off. 

Thanks  for  Church's  sermon.  It  has  many  great  qualities 
and  ought  to  be  useful.  I  have  a  growing  admiration  for  him. 
Do  you  not  think  that  his  ethical  treatment  of  Bacon  is  wonder- 
ful ?  I  read  it  here  during  a  holiday  a  year  or  two  ago,  and  it 
seemed  to  me  one  of  the  most  searching  things  I  had  seen  for  a 
long  time. 

To  the  Rev.  George  Barber 

Llanbedr,  \qthjuly  1892. 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  be  able  to  infer  from  your 
letter  that  you  are  mending ;  but  I  am  rather  anxious  about 
your  holiday.  Although  the  long  railway  journey — if  you  take 
it  without  a  break — seems  to  me  rather  undesirable,  the  almost 
irresistible  temptations  in  Switzerland  to  take  long  and  exhaust- 
ing walks  are  still  more  dangerous.  If  you  are  proposing  to 
settle  down  at  some  place  2000  or  3000  feet  above  the  sea  and 
loaf  about,  you  will  do  well ;  especially  if  you  are  at  an  hotel  or 
pension  with  a  fair  number  of  visitors.  But  I  should  be  greatly 
concerned  if  you  attempted  to  walk  much.  I  speak  feelingly. 
My  constant  temptation  here  is  to  tramp  farther  than  I  ought, 
and  though  I  suffer  from  it  I  sin  again.  With  my  remembrance 
of  the  glory  within  reach  from  most  of  the  places  where  you 
would  be  likely  to  stay  in  Switzerland,  I  have  the  impression 
that  you  would  be  always  sinning.  Ah  !  what  times — never  to 
return — the  very  thought  of  Switzerland  recalls. 

I  have  ordered  a  book  from  Cornish's  for  you.  It  is  a 
Manual  of  Intercessory  Prayer  compiled  by  Father  Benson  ot 
the  Cowley  Fathers.  A  copy  was  sent  to  me  many  years  ago  by 
a  High  Church  lady  with  whom  I  had  some  very  pleasant  times 
on  the  Nile.  It  is  a  small  book,  and  you  can  take  it  with  you 
to  Scotland  or  Switzerland  or  anywhere  else  for  use  during  your 
holiday.  What  kind  of  use  you  make  of  it  you  will  determine 
for  yourself.  I  have  found  it  helpful  for  devotional  purposes  in 
solitary  prayer — very  helpful.  But  it  may  also  be  of  use  in  sug- 
gesting topics  for  prayer  in  public,  a  matter  in  which  I  think — 
nay,  I  am  sure — that  I  was  wretchedly  at  fault  when  I  was 
young,  and  am  not  much  better  now  that  I  am  getting  old. 
These  High  Churchmen,  with  the  use  they  make  of  the  liturgical 
and  devotional  literature  of  many  centuries,  have  much  to  teach 
us.  Of  course  you  will  find  some  things  in  the  book  which  you 
will  not  approve ;  but  I  shall  be  surprised  if  you  do  not  find  it 
very  helpful. 


636  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

To  the  Rev.  George  Barber 

Llanbedr,  14th  August  1892. 

It  was  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  receive  your  letter  and  to 
know  that  you  are  gaining  strength.  Your  delight  in  the  beauty 
and  glory  of  mountains  and  forests  and  rivers  recalled  the 
happiness  of  distant  years  when  I,  too,  was  young,  and  saw  the 
great  wonders  for  the  first  time.  I  was  never  in  the  Austrian 
Tyrol ;  but  unless  I  am  at  fault  in  my  geography,  you  are  not 
very  far  from  the  head  of  the  Lago  di  Guarda,  where  I  spent 
two  or  three  delightful  days  and  nights  about  ten  years  ago. 
The  atmospheric  conditions  must,  I  think,  have  been  exception- 
ally favourable ;  for  I  never  saw  greater  beauty  in  the  Italian 
lakes. 

Ask  Dr.  Scott  whether  he  has  seen  Bertrand's  exposition  and 
criticism  of  Ritschl.  I  have  been  reading  it  with  great  interest. 
It  has  the  lucidity  characteristic  of  most  French  books,  and  con- 
tains a  large  mass  of  excellent  thought.  Forsyth  of  Leicester, 
who  is  here,  lent  it  to  me.  It  has  strengthened  my  desire  to 
have  five  or  ten  years  more  to  preach  on  the  great  common- 
places of  the  Christian  gospel.  Forsyth  said  a  good  thing  the 
other  day — he  thought  that  "  the  time  had  come  to  get  back 
the  word  Grace  into  our  preaching  "  ;  word  and  thing  have  too 
much  disappeared. 

To  the  Rev.  George  Barber 

Llanbedr,  31st  August  1892. 

We  had  Mr.  Forsyth  here  for  three  weeks.  He  is  a  very 
cultivated  man,  and  has  a  much  keener  interest  in  theology 
than  is  common  in  these  days, — I  mean  in  Systematic  Theology. 
While  here,  he  was  writing  an  essay  on  Revelation  for  a  volume 
which  has  been  projected  by  some  of  the  younger  men — Adeney, 
Horton,  Bennett,  and  one  or  two  more.  Another  visitor  we  had 
— but  only  for  a  day — was  Arnold  Thomas  of  Bristol,  who 
impressed  me  as  he  always  does  with  the  wonderful  beauty 
of  his  spirit.  His  gentleness,  modesty,  and  devoutness  are 
wonderful ;  he  owes  much,  no  doubt,  to  nature  and  to  the 
charm  of  his  early  home  life,  but  more  to  grace.  Such  men 
make  one  sigh.  If  through  the  power  of  the  truth  and  Spirit 
of  God  they  have  achieved  such  sanctity,  why  might  we  not  all 
achieve  it  ? 


PREVAILING  IN  WEAKNESS  637 

To  the  Rev.  G.  G.  Findlay 

Llanbedr,  St/i  August  1892. 

Thank  you  very  much  for  the  copy  of  your  Ephesians  which 
has  just  reached  me.  I  shall  read  it  with  great  interest.  I 
hope  that  you  had  as  much  delight  in  working  at  the  Epistle  as 
I  had.  Some  parts  of  it  intoxicated  me ;  whether  I  was  in  the 
body  or  out  of  the  body,  I  could  hardly  tell ;  but  when  it  came 
to  writing  what  one  had  seen,  the  colours  had  faded  and  the 
glory  was  extinguished. 

I  trust  that  you  are  keeping  well  and  strong.  What  a  mystery 
it  is  that  one's  work  should  be  arrested  by  some  petty  failure  in 
the  strength  of  a  muscle.  That  there  should  be  a  complete 
break-up  and  the  earthly  life  finally  closed — this  seems  all 
right ;  but  to  live  and  yet  be  maimed  for  some  at  least  of  the 
highest  purposes  of  life  by  a  mere  physical  defect — this  seems 
amazing. 

To  Mrs.  Richard  Davies 

i\th  September  1892. 

You  will  be  interested  to  hear  that  I  had  a  very  pleasant 
time  with  Sir  Andrew  Clark,  partly  medical,  partly  theological. 
He  gave  me  an  excellent  account  of  myself:  the  only  drawback 
was  that  the  contractile  power  of  the  heart  did  not  prove  to  be 
as  great  when  he  examined  it  by  auscultation  as  the  general 
symptoms  indicated ;  but  he  assured  me  that  I  was  definitely 
better  than  when  he  examined  me  immediately  before  I  came 
back  to  work  at  the  end  of  last  year.  With  the  severe  strain  on 
the  system  which  came  from  my  illness  in  May  this  seems  to  me 
very  satisfactory.  I  certainly  grew  stronger  week  by  week 
during  the  early  months  of  this  year,  and  I  trust  that  a  similar 
advance  will  take  place  during  the  remaining  months  of  this 
year  j  and  then  I  shall  begin  to  consider  whether  I  may  not  take 
a  field  service  at  a  Sassiwn x  next  autumn. 

How  kind  you  were   to  us  !     It  was  like  being  in  a  moral 

1  Sassiwn  =  "association,"  but  especially  the  Quarterly  Meetings  of  the 
ministers  and  deacons  of  the  Calvinistic  Methodist  Churches  in  Wales.  The 
meetings  as  a  rule  last  for  three  days,  two  being  given  to  business,  and  the 
third  to  preaching.  On  the  third  day,  which  is  a  great  religious  festival, 
three  assemblies  are  held — in  the  open  air  when  the  season  permits — and  two 
sermons  are  preached  at  each. 


638  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Riviera — all  warmth  and  sunshine.  God  bless  you  and  Mr. 
Davies  and  your  young  people  for  all  your  goodness.  None  of 
you  know  how  much  you  did  for  me.  In  a  day  or  two  after  we 
came  to  you  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  made  a  movement 
which  might  have  extended  over  weeks. 

From  the  few  of  my  people  whom  I  have  seen  I  have  had 
the  most  affectionate  welcome.  It  is  quite  wonderful  how  loyal 
and  good  they  are.  One  of  them  was  walking  up  and  down  the 
Bristol  Road  on  the  chance  of  seeing  us  pass  up  in  the  cab. 

The  trouble  is  that  the  impressions  of  God's  transcendent 
grace  which  have  come  to  me  at  times  during  the  last  few 
months  are  not  to  be  translated  into  words.  I  feel  like  a  dumb 
man  wanting  to  speak  and  knowing  that  I  cannot.  If  God 
would  but  touch  my  lips  ! 


REMINISCENCES    OF    DR.    DALE 

BY    THE    REV.    GEORGE    BARBER 

I  first  met  Dr.  Dale  in  the  old  vestry  at  Carr's  Lane  ; 
it  was  in  1892.  He  was  at  that  time  on  the  look-out 
for  an  assistant,  and  I  had  accepted  an  invitation  to 
preach  "  with  a  view."  From  what  I  had  heard  I  thought 
that  I  was  going  to  be  introduced  to  a  very  austere  man, 
and  one  of  whom  every  student  was  expected  to  be  afraid. 
As  my  host,  however,  who  happened  to  be  the  Secretary 
of  the  church,  knocked  at  the  vestry  door,  a  hearty,  cheery 
voice  called  "  Come  in,"  and  there  I  stood  face  to  face 
with  him  whom  afterwards  I  learned  to  love  with  the  love 
of  a  child  for  its  parent.  His  first  words  were,  "  Good 
morning — glad  to  see  you — please  take  a  seat "  ;  so  warm 
was  the  welcome  Dr.  Dale  gave  me  that  all  the  fears  that 
had  made  my  heart  tremble  passed  away  and  I  felt 
perfectly  at  home. 

I  preached  in  the  evening  and  did  not  think  that  I 
was  at  all  nervous,  but  Dr.  Dale  who  was  present  said  that 
I  stormed  away,  first  to  the  right  of  me,  and  then  to  the 
left  of  me,  and  then  in  front  of  me  ;  and  so  it  was  settled 
by  the  family  that  I  must  have  been  a  little  nervous.      It 


REMINISCENCES  639 

was  not  until  I  preached  a  second  time  and  had  some  talk  The  Rev. 
with  Dr.  Dale  in  his  study — that  was  where  I  found  after-  G"  Barber- 
wards  he  always  talked  best — that  I  really  felt  how  much 
I  should  like  to  become  his  assistant.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  first  real  talk  I  had  with  him.  He  told  me 
all  about  his  younger  days  —  the  early  years  of  his 
ministry,  his  associations  with  Mr.  James,  and  how  he 
loved  and  trusted  him.  He  spoke  of  the  confidence  Mr. 
James  had  in  him,  and  he  in  Mr.  James  ;  and  expressed 
the  hope  that  he  might  find  some  young  man  who  would 
be  to  him  what  he  had  been  to  Mr.  James.  It  was  then 
that  I  felt  how  much  I  should  like  to  be  that  young  man, 
but  I  did  not  say  so.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  say  how 
much  Dr.  Dale  had  impressed  me  in  that  hour  or  two's 
talk.  He  was  by  far  the  greatest  man  I  had  ever  met. 
We  stood  up  to  go — for  a  knock  had  come  at  the  door, 
telling  us  it  was  time  to  go  to  bed  ;  then  it  was  that  Dr. 
Dale  said,  "  Before  we  say  good-night  I  want  to  tell  you 
that  I  should  like  you  to  come  and  be  my  assistant." 
"  But  what  about  the  church  ?  "  I  said  ;  "  do  you  think  the 
people  wish  it  ?  "  "  Yes,"  he  said  ;  "  I  have  made  inquiries 
and  I  am  perfectly  certain  they  are  with  me.  Do  not, 
however,  say  anything  now  ;  you  must  think  about  it ; 
now  let  us  kneel  down  and  pray."  When  we  rose  from 
our  knees  tears  were  in  his  eyes,  and  I  felt  I  had  seen  the 
face  of  God. 

I  accepted  the  call  which  was  sent  a  few  days  later, 
and  began  my  ministry  on  the  first  Sunday  in  May  1892. 
I  remained  as  Dr.  Dale's  assistant  until  March  of  1895. 

At  the  outset  Dr.  Dale  was  looking  forward  with  great 
hopefulness  to  the  work  "  we  should  be  able,  under  God, 
to  do  together  " ;  for  his  health,  which  for  some  time  past 
had  been  uncertain,  seemed  to  be  surer  and  the  tide  was 
still  flowing.  However  it  only  seemed  ;  for  almost 
immediately  after  I  went  to  Birmingham,  he  had  a  most 
serious  break-down,  and  was  compelled  to  go  into  Wales 
and  stay  for  more  than  two  months.  This  was  a  great 
blow  to  me,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  kind  and  affec- 
tionate letters,  so  strong  with  the  assurance  that  God  in 


640  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

The  Rev.  answer  to  so  many  prayers  would  sustain  me,  I  should 
G.  Barber.  haye  aitogether  lost  heart. 

It  was  a  great  day  both  for  me  and  for  Carr's  Lane 
when  he  returned.  What  eager,  joyful  faces  those  were 
crowding  the  old  chapel  to  welcome  him  ;  but  no  heart 
was  more  glad  than  mine.  I  felt,  as  I  opened  the  door 
for  him  that  led  from  the  vestry  into  the  chapel,  the 
proudest  man  on  earth.  That  was  the  morning  when  he 
preached  on  the  "  Grace  of  God,"  and  pleaded  for  the 
recovery  of  that  lost  word  "  Grace."  It  was  a  wonderful 
sermon,  and  in  the  vestry  afterwards  I  told  him  it  was 
unfair  for  him  to  come  from  Llanbedr  and  preach  such  a 
sermon  as  that,  for  it  gave  me  no  chance  ;  he  only  laughed. 
This  reminds  me  of  another  amusing  incident  about  the 
same  time.  He  was  wearing  a  new  silk  hat,  and  I  told 
him  I  thought  I  should  get  one,  as  mine  was  rather 
shabby  ;  but  he  charged  me  very  seriously  not  to  buy  one 
just  yet,  for  if  I  did  the  people  would  never  know  that  he 
had  bought  a  new  one. 

It  is  not  possible  for  me  to  go  over  my  associations 
with  Dr.  Dale,  marking  the  sequence  of  events,  although  I 
could  easily  do  it  ;  for  I  have  lived  through  that,  alas  ! 
too  short  but  happy  history  so  often  that  almost  every- 
thing that  happened  is  fixed  for  ever  in  my  mind.  But 
the  space  allowed  me  makes  it  impossible.  My  love  for 
my  old  chief — as  he  used  to  call  himself — and,  as  far  as  it 
lay  in  my  power,  my  devotion  to  him  I  cannot  put  into 
words. 

I  remember  Dr.  Fairbairn  telling  me  how  much  he  was 
impressed  when  for  the  first  time  he  read  Dr.  Dale's 
Discourses  on  Special  Occasions,  which,  I  believe,  he  said 
was  his  first  acquaintance  with  any  work  Dr.  Dale  had 
done,  and  how  on  a  subsequent  visit  to  Birmingham  he 
sought  out  Carr's  Lane  and  walked  to  and  fro  in  front  ot 
the  chapel  and  looked  up  at  it  and  thought,  "  It  is  here 
that  so  great  a  preacher  proclaims  the  everlasting  Gospel." 
But  afterwards  when  he  came  to  know  Dr.  Dale,  he  found 
the  man  greater  than  his  sermons.  Indeed  it  was  so. 
What  he  once-  said   in  those  sirady  talks  of  his  respecting 


REMINISCENCES  641 

John  Bright  was  equally  true  of  himself.  "  When,"  said  The  Rev. 
he,  "you  listened  to  Bright  you  always  felt  more  im-  '  "  * 
pressed  with  the  force  he  kept  in  reserve  than  with 
what  he  actually  used."  It  was  this  sense  of  invisible 
strength  and  greatness  that  laid  hold  of  men  who  came 
near  to  Dr.  Dale  and  made  them  proud  to  call  him  their 
friend. 

What  privilege  and  happiness  were  mine.  Almost 
every  day  for  three  years  I  saw  him  and  talked  with  him. 
On  Monday  mornings  I  used  to  call  to  see  if  he  were  well 
after  the  Sunday's  preaching  ;  for  preaching  when  I  knew 
him  used  to  take  a  great  deal  out  of  him.  If  he  were  well 
he  would  suggest  that  we  knelt  down  together  to  ask  God 
to  be  good  to  both  of  us,  and  grant  His  blessing  to  follow 
our  labours  on  the  day  before.  How  earnestly  he  used  to 
pray  that  God  would  "  save  the  unsaved."  It  was  in 
these  Monday  morning  prayers  that  he  made  me  feel 
almost  oppressed  with  the  burden  of  preaching  to  save 
sinners.  Once  when  talking  of  Mr.  Charles  Vince  and 
the  kind  of  preacher  he  was,  he  said  that  Mr.  Vince  had 
told  him  that  his  own  work  was  to  get  men  converted  and 
then  send  them  on  to  Carr's  Lane  to  finish.  But  no  one 
could  have  listened  to  such  prayers  as  I  heard  and  not 
have  felt  that  to  save  men  was  the  height  of  all  Dr.  Dale's 
thought  and  work.  A  member  of  the  congregation  at 
the  close  of  a  sermon  that  lasted  for  an  hour,  and  had  been 
preached  amid  a  stillness  most  painful,  nothing  heard  but 
the  tones  of  the  preacher,  and  during  the  pauses  the 
ticking  of  the  clock — a  sermon  on  the  sad  and  awful  issues 
of  a  sinful  life,  and  the  glory  and  the  joy  of  a  life  lived  in 
Christ — said  if  Dr.  Dale  intends  to  preach  like  that  I  shall 
not  come  and  hear  him,  for  I  cannot  stand  it ;  it  goes 
through  me.  I  spoke  to  Dr.  Dale  afterwards  about  the 
stillness  and  said  it  was  simply  awful.  "  Ah  !  yes,"  he 
said  ;  "  but  it  was  more  awful  to  me  ;  it  is  hard  to  preach 
like  that,  but  it  must  be  done." 

About  six  months  after  I  had  become  his  assistant  he 
gave  me  his  Fellowship  with   Christ,  saying  that  he  would 
like  me  to  see  what  he  preached  about      We  had  been 
2  T 


642  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

The  Rev.  speaking  of  various  kinds  of  preaching,  and  I  had 
21  er*  suggested  a  certain  text  as  a  good  one  for  a  sermon.  He 
was  not  a  little  amused,  and  replied  :  "  Yes,  it  would  make 
a  good  '  fancy  sermon,'  but  '  fancy  sermons '  are  useless 
things.  No  doubt  they  attract  the  people  and  please 
them  ;  they  are  a  sort  of  religious  brandy  and  water 
sermons  ;  and  the  people  find  a  certain  delight  in  taking 
them  in,  but  they  are  not  wholesome  enough  to  do  any 
lasting  good."  From  that  time  to  this  I  have  had  a 
horror  of  "  fancy  sermons." 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Dr.  Dale  put  Dean  Church's 
and  Dr.  Francis  Paget's  sermons  into  my  hands,  saying, 
"  Read  them  —  read  them  over  and  over  again,  and 
you  will  see  the  kind  of  sermons  I  like."  He  also 
often  read  Newman's  sermons  and  recommended  them 
to  me. 

How  he  hated  "  flashy  "  preaching  !  Once  I  told  him 
of  a  striking  and  brilliant  sermon  I  had  heard  from  a 
popular  preacher  ;  he  listened  as  I  described  it,  and  then 
said  with  considerable  warmth  :  "  Yes,  I  used  to  preach 
like  that  when  I  was  a  young  man  ;  but  now,  thank  God, 
I  have  more  sense." 

The  Living  Christ  and  the  Four  Gospels  next  to  The 
Atonement  was,  he  believed,  one  of  the  most  helpful 
things  he  had  ever  written.  Dr.  Amory  Bradford  of  New 
Jersey  told  me  that  Dr.  Dale  had  done  through  that 
book  more  for  the  people  of  America  in  making  them 
realise  that  Christ  was  really  alive  than  any  other  preacher 
or  book  he  knew. 

How  he  came  to  write  The  Living  Christ — so  he 
said — was  in  this  way.  He  was  writing  an  Easter  sermon, 
and  when  half-way  through,  the  thought  of  the  risen  Lord 
broke  in  upon  him  as  it  had  never  done  before.  "  Christ 
is  alive,"  I  said  to  myself ;  "  alive  !  and  then  I  paused  ; — 
alive  !  and  then  I  paused  again  ;  alive !  Can  that  really 
be  true  ?  living  as  really  as  I  myself  am  ?  I  got  up  and 
walked  about  repeating  '  Christ  is  living ! '  '  Christ  is 
living !  At  first  it  seemed  strange  and  hardly  true,  but 
at  last  it  came   upon    me  as  a  burst  of  sudden    glory ; 


REMINISCENCES  643 

yes,  Christ  is  living.  It  was  to  me  a  new  discovery.  The  Rev. 
I  thought  that  all  along  I  had  believed  it ;  but  not  until 
that  moment  did  I  feel  sure  about  it.  I  then  said,  '  My 
people  shall  know  it  ;  I  shall  preach  about  it  again  and 
again  until  they  believe  it  as  I  do  now.' "  For  months 
afterwards,  and  in  every  sermon,  the  Living  Christ  was  his 
one  great  theme  ;  and  there  and  then  began  the  custom 
of  singing  in  Carr's  Lane  on  every  Sunday  morning  an 
Easter  hymn.  When  first  I  attended  service  there  I  was 
surprised  to  hear  on  a  November  morning  the  hymn  given 
out  "  Christ  is  risen  :  Hallelujah  !  "  I  mentioned  it  to  Dr. 
Dale  afterwards  and  he  said  :  "  I  want  my  people  to  get 
hold  of  the  glorious  fact  that  Christ  is  alive,  and  to  rejoice 
over  it ;  and  Sunday,  you  know,  is  the  day  on  which 
Christ  left  the  dead." 

Many  of  these  study  talks  to  which  I  have  referred, 
and  from  which  I  received  so  much  help,  were  upon  the 
great  truths  of  the  Christian  gospel.  How  patient  and 
attentive  he  was  whenever  I  told  him  of  the  difficulties 
that  perplexed  me  !  Often  I  found  he  had  anticipated 
them,  and  when  I  could  hardly  express  them  myself,  he 
expressed  them  for  me.  He  had  a  wonderful  way  of 
leading  men  out  of  a  fog  and  showing  them  the  blue 
heavens  again  and  the  sunlight.  This  he  did  for  me  over 
and  over  again.  Never  once  did  I  leave  him  without  feei- 
ing  that  I  had  a  new  gospel  to  preach.  He  seemed  to  be 
able  to  lift  the  curtain  on  every  side  of  him  and  show  you 
glimpses  of  an  unseen,  invisible  world.  What  he  said 
once  of  Bishop  Westcott  was  equally  true  of  himself — 
he  had  "  repose  among  eternal  things." 1  I  remember 
going  to  him  on  one  occasion  in  great  distress  ;  I  wanted 
to  preach  on  "  Christ  died  for  our  sins,"  and  I  thought 
that  if  I  could  only  show  how  through  the  death  of  Christ 
it  was  made  possible  for  God  to  forgive  sin,  many  whom  I 
knew  might  be  led  to  believe.  He  replied  :  "  Give  up 
troubling,  my  friend,  about  how  it  was  possible  for  God  to 
forgive  sin,  and  go  straight  and  tell  the  people  that  God 
does  forgive  sin,  and  tell  them  straight  that  Christ  died  for 
1   "Repose  and  hope  amid  eternal  things." — Wordsworth. 


644  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

The  Rev.  their  sins.  It  is  the  fact  the  people  want  most  to  know, 
and  not  your  theory,  nor  mine,  as  to  how  it  was  or  is 
possible."  I  saw  it  at  once,  and  went  to  my  work  with  a 
lighter  heart. 

I  cannot  omit  to  mention  all  the  help  his  prayers 
were  to  me ;  those  in  the  sanctuary  were  the  noblest 
and  the  tenderest  I  have  ever  heard  or  read.  One 
of  the  old  members,  a  poor  old  woman  of  sixty-five, 
used  to  say,  "  Ah  me !  I  cannot  understand  his 
sermons,  but  his  prayers  do  me  so  much  good  that  I 
always  come."  * 

It  was,  however,  at  family  prayers  that  I  felt  most  the 
power  he  seemed  to  have  with  God.  Night  after  night 
have  I  made  an  excuse  to  call,  so  that  I  might  stay  for 
family  worship  ;  it  was  as  though  one  were  in  the  presence 
of  the  "  burning  bush,"  and  oftentimes  as  we  rose  from 
our  knees  we  saw  a  new  light  shining  in  each  other's 
face. 

To  tell  all  that  Dr.  Dale  was  to  me  would  be  to 
express  all  that  Timothy  felt  Paul  was  to  him.  To  say 
that  I  loved  him  with  a  great  and  tender  love,  and  that  I 
was  prepared  to  do  any  and  every  service  he  asked  of  me 
or  could  ask,  will  perhaps  show  how  much  I  felt  I  owed 
to  him,  and  as  time  goes  on  I  feel  the  debt  to  be  increas- 
ing. To  know  that  my  love  was  reciprocated  was  a  great 
joy  to  me  ;  no  father  could  have  been  kinder  to  his  own 
child,  no  teacher  more  patient  with  his  scholar,  and  no 
friend  more  loyal  to  his  friend.  Towards  the  close  of  his 
life,  indeed  not  many  weeks  before  his  death,  when  I  called 
to  say  good-bye  to  him,  he  said  :  "  Good-bye  ;  you  must 
often  write  to  me,  and  often  come  to  see  me,  for  I  have 
learned  to  love  you  far  more  than  ever  I  thought  was 
possible  ;  preach  still  the  same  gospel  you  have  preached 
here,  and  all  will  be  well."  I  left  Birmingham  with  a  light 
and  happy  heart.      Never  once  during  the  three  years  I 

1  Some  regret  has  been  expressed  that  the  prayers  were  not  reported,  but 
Dale  set  his  face  against  any  attempt  to  do  so.  On  one  such  occasion  he 
wrote:  "Pray  do  not  dream  of  reporting  my  prayers:  they  are  for  God 
Who,  I  trust,  interprets  and  answers  them." — Ed. 


REMINISCENCES  645 

was  his  assistant  had  there  been  a  single  unkind  word  The  Rev. 
spoken  on  his  part,  nor  a  reluctance  on   mine  to   do  all    '    ax 
that  I  could  to  save  him  or  make  his  work  lighter.     They 
were  happy,  peaceful  years,  and  to-day  are  to  me  as  fresh 
and  as  inspiring  as  ever. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

"REPOSE    AND    HOPE    AMID    ETERNAL    THINGS" 

Withdraws  from  public  life — Free  Church  Councils  :  his  attitude  towards 
them  —  Speech  at  the  preliminary  conference  —  Stands  apart  —  The 
"  Borderland  "  and  hypnotism — Divine  sonship  and  Divine  Fatherhood 
— Religious  life  in  Birmingham — Theology  and  politics — The  discipline 
of  suffering — The  Church  Congress  at  Birmingham  ;  writes  the  address  of 
welcome — The  ministry  a  vocation — A  letter  on  religious  difficulties — 
Mr.  Stead's  book — Stanley  and  Pusey. 

In  the  third  week  of  September  1892  Dale  returned  to  work 
and  preached  for  the  first  time,  with  every  outward  sign  of 
renewed  health.  He  was  able  to  conduct  the  whole  service 
without  assistance.  Once — and  only  once — his  voice 
failed  him  for  a  moment ;  but  after  nearly  five  months' 
silence  that  was  not  unnatural.  His  tone  and  temper 
were  buoyant  and  hopeful.  He  had  learnt,  however,  that 
he  must  go  gently  if  he  was  to  go  safely,  and  during  the 
autumn  and  winter  he  kept  himself  free  from  all  exhaust- 
ing engagements.  The  result  of  this  precaution  was  most 
satisfactory.  He  took  a  Sunday's  rest  in  November  and 
a  week  in  January  ;  but  with  these  two  exceptions  he 
Aged  63.  preached  continuously  until  the  end  of  February,  when  he 
went  away  to  Llanbedr  for  a  fortnight.  In  addition  to 
his  regular  work,  he  wrote  his  "  Memoir  of  Henry  Rogers," 
prefixed  to  the  new  edition  of  The  Superhuman  Origin 
of  the  Bible,  reviving  early  memories  with  great  enjoyment. 
He  also  began  to  meditate  a  series  of  lectures  or  sermons 
on  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christianity. 

From  public  work  of  all   kinds  he  had  almost  wholly 
withdrawn.      He  continued  to  act  on  the  Governing  Body 


"REPOSE  AND  HOPE  AMID  ETERNAL  THINGS"        647 

of  the  Grammar  School  and  as  Chairman  of  the  Mansfield 
College  Council.  But  this  was  all  that  he  attempted.  He 
attended  very  few  public  meetings,  and  none  held  at  night. 
In  fact,  after  this  second  illness,  he  determined  to  give  up 
all  political  and  ecclesiastical  controversy,  except  under 
circumstances  that  absolutely  compelled  him  to  express  an 
opinion.  But  in  one  case  he  felt  bound  to  speak — even 
with  the  certainty  that  he  would  speak  in  vain,  and  though 
shrinking  from  the  effort  that  speech  involved. 

At  this  time  the  movement  towards  organised  co-opera- 
tion among  the  Nonconformist  churches  was  making  rapid 
progress.  Free  Church  Councils,  as  they  were  called,  had 
been  established  in  many  parts  of  the  country.  It  was 
proposed  to  form  such  a  council  in  Birmingham.  From 
the  outset  Dale  had  regarded  the  movement  with  grave 
distrust  ;  and  notwithstanding  his  personal  regard  for 
some  of  its  leaders,  especially  for  Dr.  Mackennal  and  Dr. 
Berry,  he  would  have  no  part  in  it.  But  he  did  not  seek 
occasion  to  publish  his  hostility.  Until  the  friends  of  the 
movement  began  to  stir  in  Birmingham,  forcing  the 
churches  and  their  ministers  to  decide  whether  they  would 
help  or  hold  aloof,  he  was  silent.  Then,  knowing  that  his 
silence  would  be  misinterpreted,  he  found  himself  com- 
pelled to  make  his  position  clear,  and  at  a  preliminary 
conference  of  ministers  and  delegates  he  stated  his  objec- 
tions to  the  policy  which  was  pressed  upon  them.1 

To  any  organisation  tending  to  promote  union  for 
strictly  religious  objects  he  was  ready  to  give  a  hearty 
support.  One  of  the  propositions  before  the  conference 
was  that  a  house-to-house  visitation  should  be  arranged 
throughout  the  town,  in  which  all  Evangelical  Noncon- 
formists should  combine.  Such  a  scheme  commanded  his 
strongest  sympathy  ;  indeed  it  was  one  of  his  own  un- 
fulfilled purposes.  When  it  was  carried  into  effect,  he 
urged  the  members  of  his  church  to  take  their  share  in 
the  work.  But  the  formation  of  a  council,  such  as  was 
now  in  men's  minds,  seemed  to  him  to  involve  considera- 
tions of  a  wholly  different  order.  Its  object — as  stated  by 
1  See  also  pp.  394-397. 


648  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  Rev.  F.  L.  Wiseman,  the  most  active  exponent  of  the 
scheme — was  to  enable  Evangelical  Nonconformists  to  take 
concerted  action  on  questions  affecting  their  common 
interests,  or  bearing  on  the  social,  moral,  and  religious 
welfare  of  the  people  ;  among  the  instances  that  he  gave 
were  intemperance,  gambling,  sweating,  overcrowding, 
vice,  the  opium  monopoly,  arbitration,  and  the  moral 
character  of  public  men.  The  resolution  before  the  confer- 
ence did  not  go  beyond  discussion,  but  Mr.  Wiseman  in 
his  speech  contemplated  united  action  also.  At  this 
point,  Dale  felt  that  they  had  come  to  the  parting  of  the 
ways  in  the  choice  of  methods  by  which  the  Christian 
Church  should  attempt  to  regenerate  the  social  life  of 
nations.  For  himself  he  was  convinced  that  the  Church 
was  in  its  very  essence  a  religious  institution  established 
for  religious  ends  ;  that  social  and  political  reforms,  how- 
ever desirable,  were  not  the  objects  of  its  activity  ;  and 
that  so  to  regard  them  would  be  to  degrade  the  Church 
into  a  political  organisation.  The  dominion  of  the  State 
over  the  Church  he  regarded  as  perilous  to  religion  ;  the 
dominion  of  the  Church  over  the  State  as  perilous  to  both. 
He  pleaded  for  delay,  for  deliberation,  before  they  com- 
mitted themselves  finally  to  this  policy. 

The  following  extracts  from  his  speech  to  the  conference 
will  indicate  his  line  of  argument. 

There  have  been  two  methods  in  which  the  Christian  Church 
has  exerted  its  power  over  the  ethical  life  of  the  kingdoms  in 
which  it  has  existed,  and  over  the  political  action  of  those  king- 
doms. For  three  centuries  it  was  content  to  address  itself 
immediately  to  the  great  work  of  drawing  those  within  its  reach 
to  the  acceptance  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Lord  and 
Redeemer  of  men.  It  disciplined  their  character ;  it  breathed 
into  them  a  new  spirit ;  they  reached  higher  and  nobler  ethical 
principles,  and  large  changes  were  wrought  upon  society  as  the 
result  of  that  work.  Then  came  a  time  when  the  Church  was 
impatient  of  the  slow  progress  which  it  made  by  that  method ; 
and  if  we  descend  a  few  centuries  later  we  shall  find  the  great 
Church  of  Western  Christendom  directly  interfering  as  a  church 
in  the  social  and  political  affairs  of  nations.  In  the  hands  of 
the  great  Popes,  and  in  the  circumstances  under  which  that  inter- 


"  REPOSE  AND  HOPE  AMID  ETERNAL  THINGS  "        649 

ference  was  made,  I  am  not  prepared  to  dispute  the  value  of 
what  was  done  for  the  civilisation  of  Europe  by  the  Papal 
power.  .  .  . 

But  we  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  interference  of 
organised  churches  with  organised  political  societies  has  proved 
after  all  a  false  method  of  effecting  the  great  objects  of  the 
Christian  gospel.  ...  I  have  always  felt  that  the  line  to 
be  taken  is  this :  that  the  churches  should  do  all  they  can  in  the 
power  of  the  grace  and  truth  of  Christ  to  renew  and  sanctify  all 
whom  they  reach ;  and  that  then  Christian  men — as  citizens,  not 
as  members  of  churches — should  appear  in  the  community  to 
discharge  their  duties  to  it,  under  the  control  of  the  spirit  and 
law  of  Christ.  The  Papacy  dealt  with  imperial  power.  There 
seems  now  to  have  come  a  great  chance  to  the  Free  Churches  of 
the  country  to  deal  with  democratic  power.  .  .   . 

:  You  will  not  be  able  to  stop  with  pronouncing  an  opinion  on 
questions  that  are  practically  before  Town  Councils  and  Parlia- 
ment. I  believe  that  you  will  be  bound  to  interfere  in  local 
elections,  both  municipal  and  parliamentary,  if  you  carry  out  the 
principles  which  led  to  the  formation  of  such  a  council  as  is  now 
proposed.  I  believe  that  we  shall  not  hasten  the  triumph  of 
the  principles  for  which  we  care — shall  not  hasten  the  securing 
of  the  ends  on  which  our  hearts  are  set — by  any  such  organised 
interference  of  churches  with  municipal  and  political  life.  I  do 
not  want  to  see  a  Nonconformist  party  in  Birmingham  touching 
municipal  elections.  I  do  not  want  to  see  a  Nonconformist 
party  in  Birmingham  touching  political  elections.  .   .   . 

I  look  back  upon  the  history  of  this  town.  Some  twenty 
years  ago,  I  remember,  there  was  a  great  and  successful  move- 
ment for  reforming  our  administration  and  ennobling  it.  The 
men  that  took  part  in  that  movement  had  learnt  the  principles 
on  which  they  acted,  and  caught  the  spirit  by  which  they  were 
inspired,  very  largely  in  the  Nonconformist  churches  of  Birming- 
ham. ...  I  do  not  believe  that  if  the  Nonconformist  churches 
of  Birmingham  had  been  organised  to  secure  the  results  which 
were  achieved  by  that  municipal  reform,  their  organised  efforts 
would  have  been  half  as  effective  as  the  efforts  of  their  individual 
members  as  citizens  in  the  community. 

In  private  letters  he  stated  his  objections  still  more 
forcibly. 

I  have  the  gravest  fears  of  what  will  come  from  the  present 
passion  of  some  excellent  persons  to  capture  Christian  churches 
and  to  change  them  into  political  and  municipal  caucuses.     It 


650  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

will  compel  a  serious  reconsideration  of  the  true  idea  of  the 
Church.  I  have  no  objection  to  political  caucuses ;  they  are 
necessary ;  but  God  forbid  that  any  church  of  which  I  may  ever 
be  minister  or  member  should  be  a  caucus. 

Mr.  and  his  friends  ...  do   not  seem  to  believe  in 

leaven  ;  they  want  law,  and  want  it  swiftly.  Nor  do  they  believe 
in  the  power  of  the  spirit ;  they  want  the  letter.  They  would 
have  had  Paul  write  to  Onesimus  a  letter  which  would  have 
anticipated  Lloyd  Garrison,  and  would  have,  been  disappointed 
by  the  Apostle's  "want  of  courage."  1 

His  resistance  was  ineffectual,  as  he  had  foreseen. 
From  those  whom  he  withstood — they  should  not  be  called 
opponents — he  received  something  more  than  courtesy  ; 
and  he  was  grateful.  But  it  was  the  parting  of  one  more 
link.  He  had  already  separated  himself  from  his  allies  in 
politics  ;  he  had  practically  withdrawn  from  the  Congre- 
gational Union  ;  now  he  found  himself  outside  the  Non- 
conformist Federation  in  his  own  town.  The  sense  of 
isolation  was  deepened.      He  felt  more  than  ever  alone. 

The  letters  that  follow  sufficiently  indicate  the  kind  of 
life  that  he  was  leading  at  this  time. 


To  Mr.  W.  T.  Stead 

13th  December  1892. 

It  was  very  kind  of  you  to  send  me  your  Christmas  number2 
and  the  private  note  which  came  with  it.  I  have  read  the  story 
through ;  it  happened  to  reach  me  just  before  I  had  rather  a 
bad  day  or  two,  and  as  I  was  unable  to  work  I  went  under  your 
conduct  to  Chicago. 

You  have  succeeded,  I  think,  beyond  hope  in  your  curious 
attempt  to  blend  story  and  guide-book  and  psychical  mystery 
into  one ;  just  now  and  then  I  came  upon  a  lump  of  guide-book 
which  had  remained  insoluble  ;  but  on  the  whole  you  have  been 
very  successful. 

I  read  with  care  the  passage  to  which  you  called  my  special 

1  The  most  complete  statement  of  his  position  in  relation  to  this  question 
may  be  found  in  the  sermon  "Christ  and  the  State,"  on  the  text,  "Jesus 
therefore  perceiving  that  they  were  about  to  come  and  take  Him  by  force,  to 
make  Him  King,  withdrew  again  into  the  mountain  Himself  alone  "  (John 
vi.  1 5). — Fellowship  with  Christ  and  other  Discourses,  pp.  1 92-2 1 5.    See  p.  602. 

2  How  Christ  came  to  Chicago. 


"  REPOSE  AND  HOPE  AMID  ETERNAL  THINGS  "         651 

attention.  What  strikes  me  about  it  is  that  it  gives  precisely 
that  account  of  the  invisible  life  which  I  should  have  expected 
you  to  give,  apart  from  the  control  and  assistance  of  one  who 
had  made  personal  experience  of  it.  It  is  "W.  T.  S. — his  mark." 
It  may  have  been  written  under  abnormal  conditions,  but  it 
bears  too  plainly  the  features  of  a  child  of  your  very  life  for 
there  to  be  any  mistake  about  the  parentage. 

Of  course  there  remain  to  be  accounted  for  those  parts  of 
the  story — the  Minerva  passage,  for  example — which  were 
written  without  any  knowledge  on  your  part  of  what  they  meant. 
These  point  to  mysterious  susceptibilities  and  powers  which 
deserve  the  consideration  of  thoughtful  people.  They  may 
belong  to  the  region  of  hypnotism.  "There  are  more  things  in 
heaven  and  earth  " — you  know  the  rest.  But  with  what  little 
knowledge  I  have  gained  of  these  things  from  persons  who  have 
made  them  subjects  of  serious  inquiry,  I  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  when  a  man  submits  himself  to  experiment  he 
surrenders  for  the  time  the  integrity  of  his  self-command ;  allows 
a  break  to  be  made  in  the  fences  which  protect  his  personality ; 
runs  grave  risks  of  madness  or  worse.  If  I  may  put  it  so,  there 
seems  to  me  to  be  a  sacrifice  of  the  chastity  of  our  inner  personal 
life  in  these  inquiries,  which  may  have  results  on  the  higher 
nature  analogous  to  those  which  follow  the  grosser  physical 
offence,  and  still  more  ruinous. 

Liberavi  anitnum.     But  a  merry  Christmas  to  you  ! 


To  Mr.  W.  T.  Stead 

16th  December  1892. 

One  word  of  explanation  in  answer  to  your  interesting  letter. 
I  thought  that  I  had  passed  from  the  mystery  of  Mediumship  to 
the  mystery  of  Hypnotism  and  the  like  before  I  spoke  of  surren- 
dering one's  personality  to  the  control  of  another,  with  all  its 
terrible  consequences.  As  yet  I  am  not  clear  that  what  happens 
when  a  person  supposes  himself  to  be  a  medium  may  not  be 
referred  to  the  automatic  action  of  brain  and  intellect.  I  re- 
member, for  example,  watching  myself  speak,  listening  to  myself 
as  though  the  speaker  were  wholly  another,  and  as  though  I  had  no 
part  in  the  performance  except  to  listen,  like  one  of  the  audience. 
It  was  an  odd  experience  and  it  lasted  for  several  minutes ;  then 
I  recovered  myself.  This  happened  in  the  Manchester  Free 
Trade  Hall.  I  asked  Rogers  afterwards  whether  he  had  noticed 
a  monotonous  and  mechanical  passage  in  my  speech,  and  after 
a  time  he  recalled  the  passage  in  which — if  I  believed  with  you 


652  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

— I  should  say  that  I  was  a  medium.  But  it  was  all  my  own ; 
what  happened — how  it  happened — I  can't  tell,  but  it  was 
"  automatic."  1  Hypnotism  is  another  matter ;  it  was  to  this  and 
similar  phenomena  that  I  intended  some  sentences  at  the  close 
of  my  letter  to  apply. 


TO  

1st  December  1892. 

It  is  a  great  happiness  to  me  to  receive  your  affectionate 
letter  and  to  know  that  you,  too,  are  stronger  than  you  were  a 
year  ago.  What  a  paradox  it  is  that  with  our  great  hopes  for 
the  life  to  come  we  should  still  cling  to  the  present  life.  And 
yet  there  is  reason  in  it.  By  suffering  as  well  as  service  we  are 
being  disciplined  for  a  larger  and  fuller  and  more  varied  blessed- 
ness. The  trouble  is  that  ideals  of  fidelity  seem  so  inaccessible. 
I  suppose  that  one  reason  is — this  is  a  bit  for  you  as  well  as  for 
myself — we  are  so  very  much  disposed  to  construct  ideals  for 
ourselves  instead  of  taking  the  actual  work  of  life  and  doing  it  as 
well  as  we  can  to  please  Christ. 

I  suppose  too — and  this  also  is  a  bit  for  you  as  well  as  for 
myself — that  the  wise  thing  is  to  take  it  for  granted  that  we 
cannot  know  how  things  are  going  with  us  except  that  we  may 
rely  on  God's  infinite  mercy  to  save  us.  Beyond  this  we  have  to 
wait  for  the  great  day.  With  regard  to  the  worth  of  our  work  I 
am  clear  that  this  is  so.  The  other  day  I  preached  a  sermon  in 
which  I  thought  that  I  had  quite  missed  and  failed  of  my  aim, 
and  I  found  that  beyond  anything  that  I  had  said  for  a  long 
time  it  had  reached  and  impressed  some  whom  I  most  desired  to 
reach.  Thanks  for  the  case ;  it  will  do  admirably :  I  hope  that 
it  may  hold  some  sermons  that  may  give  comfort  and  light  and 
courage  to  the  maker  of  it. 


To  Mr.  George  Marris 

29th  December  1892. 

How  the  years  drift  away  !  And  what  thankfulness  ought 
you  and  I  to  have  who  have  so  many  years  behind  us  and 
cannot  have  very  many  before  us — though  you  are  likely  to  have 
many  more  than  I — that  we  have  been  brought  thus  far  without 
wreck.  I  feel  this  more  and  more.  Merely  to  have  been  kept 
from  ruin  seems  to  me  so  great  a  thing.  .  .  . 

1  See  pp.  385-386. 


"  REPOSE  AND  HOPE  AMID  ETERNAL  THINGS  "        653 

What  Canon  Liddon  wrote  to  me  very  shortly  before  his 
death  is  very  much  in  my  thoughts.  Referring  to  his  sharp  and 
agonising  sufferings,  which  he  regarded  as  giving  him  a  fresh 
opportunity  for  exercising  unfaltering  faith  in  the  Divine  love 
and  perfect  submission  to  the  Divine  will,  he  said,  "Pray  for 
me  that  they  may  not  be  laid  against  me  in  that  great  day." 
If  he  had  occasion  so  to  think  of  physical  tortures,  I  have  much 
more  reason  to  cherish  similar  thoughts  in  relation  to  the  pro- 
longing of  my  life  and  ministry. 


To  the  Rev.  George  Barber 

Llanbedr,  6th  January  1893. 

I  am  greatly  enjoying  the  quiet ;  on  the  whole,  this  absolute 
rest  suits  me  better  than  anything  else.  I  do  not  read  very 
much,  nor  do  I  think  very  much ;  but  I  succeed  in  laying  by 
just  a  little  thought  for  a  rainy  day.  I  meditate  on  the  sermons 
that  I  want  to  preach  on  Christian  doctrine.  Yesterday,  or  the 
day  before,  I  think  that  I  succeeded  in  sketching  one  on  God 
in  Christ. 

To  the  Bishop  of  Durham 

list  January  1893. 

I  am  delighted  to  hear  that  your  recent  visit  to  Birmingham 
was  pleasant  to  yourself;  to  us  it  was  pleasant,  and  very  much 
more.  The  impression  which  your  address  produced  upon  those 
who  heard  it,  especially  on  the  masters  and  mistresses,  was  deep, 
and,  I  trust,  will  be  enduring.  The  bailiff  will  send  you  a  copy 
of  the  resolution  to  put  with  the  letter  which  you  received  from 
his  remote  predecessor.1 

Accept  my  hearty  thanks  for  the  copy  of  your  Primary 
Charge.  I  have  read  it  with  perfect  sympathy.  There  are 
passages  in  it  which,  with  God's  blessing,  will,  I  trust,  do  great 
good. 

There  is  only  one  observation  that  I  venture  to  offer  on  it. 
In  its  early  pages  you  insist  emphatically  on  the  true  idea  of 
the  brotherhood  spoken  of  in  the  New  Testament:  it  is  the 
brotherhood  of  those   who   have   ethically  realised   that  union 

1  The  Bishop  of  Durham,  Dr.  Westcott,  a  former  pupil  of  King  Edward's 
School,  had  visited  Birmingham,  and  had  given  an  address  to  the  masters  and 
mistresses  of  the  schools  on  that  Foundation.  The  letter  referred  to  is  one 
which  Dr.  Westcott  received  "from  the  bailiff  of  the  day  about  forty-seven 
years  ago  on  some  successes  which  were  given  me  at  Cambridge." 


654  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

with  the  Eternal  Son  of  God  to  which  the  grace  of  God  has 
destined  all  men.  You  also  insist  with  emphasis  on  the  cognate 
truth — or  rather,  it  is  the  same  truth  under  another  aspect — 
that  our  sonship  to  God  in  Christ  has  to  be  ethically  realised. 
But  much  of  what  you  have  written  later  in  the  Charge  appears 
to  rest  on  the  assumption  that  all  men  are  actually  brothers  in 
Christ  and  sons  of  God  in  Him. 

I  was  probably  the  more  impressed  with  this  because  I  think 
that  I  have  recently  discovered  a  want  of  coherence  in  what  I 
myself  have  been  accustomed  to  say  on  these  matters.  As  a 
descendant  of  the  Puritans,  this  is  in  me  inexcusable.  I  have 
always,  I  think,  seen  very  clearly  that  we  are  "children  of  God" 
(i)  by  faith  (2)  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  but  I  have  talked  loosely  about 
sonship  and  Fatherhood. 

Of  course  if  the  Divine  ideal  must  be  realised,  the  potential 
may  be  treated  as  if  it  were  actual.  This  appears  to  be  the 
manner  of  John  when  he  is  speaking  of  those  who  have  really 
received  the  eternal  life,  although,  as  yet,  they  are  very  far  from 
having  made  all  its  power  their  own.  When,  indeed,  through 
all  the  ages,  will  any  of  us  make  all  its  power  our  own  ?  But  it 
does  not  seem  to  be  the  New  Testament  manner  in  relation  to 
those  who  have  not  become  incorporate  with  Christ  by  Faith. 
The  tares  are  not  regarded  as  wheat,  though  the  wheat  which 
is  hardly  above  the  ground  is  spoken  of  as  though  it  were  in  the 
golden  ear. 

To  the  Rev.  J.  P.  Perkins 

2%th  JlfarcA  1891. 

I  know  of  no  satisfactory  account  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood. 
Dr.  Candlish  wrote  a  book  on  the  subject  which  I  read  thirty 
years  ago  or  more ;  it  did  not  satisfy  me  at  the  time,  but  I 
think  there  were  some  good  things  in  it.  I  have  often  preached 
about  it  and  have  a  theory ;  but  I  do  not  remember  that  there 
is  anything  to  indicate  my  position  in  what  I  have  published. 
The  main  points  seem  to  me  to  be  these : — 

1.  Our  ideal  relation  to  God  is  that  of  sons ;  this  comes  from 
our  creation  in  Christ. 

2.  Sonship  involves  community  of  life — life  derived  from 
life.  But  the  life  of  God  has  essentially  an  ethical  quality  ;  it 
is  a  holy  life. 

3.  Ethical  quality  cannot  be  simply  given ;  it  must  be  freely 
appropriated.  We  were  created  to  be  sons ;  but  to  be  sons 
really  and  in  fact  we  must  freely  receive  and  realise  in  character 
the  holiness  of  God. 


"  REPOSE  AND  HOPE  AMID  ETERNAL  THINGS  '  655 

4.  There  is  a  potency  of  sonship  in  every  man,  and  ideally 
every  man  is  a  son ;  but  it  is  only  as  a  man  becomes  like  God 
that  he  actually  beco?nes  a  son.  This,  in  the  case  of  all  who 
know  Christ,  is  effected  initially  by  receiving  Christ ;  when  He 
is  freely  accepted  as  the  Root  and  Lord  of  life  the  principle  of 
sonship  is  in  us. 

This  approaches  the  Divine  Fatherhood  from  the  human 
side ;  but  I  think  that  it  is  in  this  way  that  we  can  best 
approach  it. 

To  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Shakespeare 

17^  February  1893. 

The  responsibility  of  replying  to  the  questions  in  your  letter 
is  very  grave ;  but  I  will  answer  them  as  accurately  as  I  am 
able,  and  with  perfect  frankness. 

I  will  begin  with  your  postscript.  It  was  true  for  many  years 
that  the  people  of  Birmingham  were  less  accessible  to  religious 
thought  and  influence  than  people  elsewhere ;  at  least  I  thought 
so.  Their  life  was  a  full  life;  large  numbers  of  them  had 
increased  their  material  resources  very  rapidly ;  the  old  Liberal 
party,  before  the  split,  had  in  a  lower  form  many  of  the  qualities 
of  a  church,  and  interest  in  politics  was  very  keen  and  almost 
universal.  I  have  said  very  often  during  the  last  eight  or  ten 
years  that  a  great  though  gradual  change  seemed  to  me  to  have 
come  about  in  the  temper  of  the  city.  Many  causes  have 
contributed  to  this  which  I  cannot  enumerate.  But  now,  I  do 
not  know  that  we  are  harder  or  more  secular  than  other  people ; 
and  there  are  very  many  who  are  living  a  thoroughly  Christian 
life. 

The  Hagley  Road  Church  has,  as  you  say,  wealthy  people 
about  it.  In  my  judgment,  we  have  cared  too  little  about 
saving  the  wealthy,  and  then  have  denounced  them  for  their 
luxury  and  selfishness.  In  every  part  of  the  country  I  hear  of 
the  mischievous  result  of  an  almost  exclusive  solicitude  for  the 
salvation  of  the  working  people ;  and  I  think  that  it  is  time  to 
remember  that  Christ  died  for  the  rich  and  for  the  cultivated 
as  well  as  for  the  ignorant  and  the  poor.  But  in  addition  to 
the  rich  there  are  thousands  of  people  within  half  a  mile  of  the 
Church  of  the  Redeemer  living  in  houses  rented  at  from  ^35  to 
^"50 ;  and  indeed  I  am  very  much  mistaken  if  within  that  area 
there  are  not  large  numbers  living  in  houses  rented  at  a  much 
lower  figure. 

Any  amount  of  work  is  within  reach  of  the  congregation  if 
they  are  willing  to  do  it.     To  take  one  illustration  only : — the 


656  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Men's  Morning  School  which  has  been  largely  worked  by  the 
Hagley  Road  Church  may  be  the  centre  of  innumerable 
evangelistic  and  philanthropic  agencies.  This  is  within  easy 
reach.  To  predict  with  confidence  that  you  would  fill  the 
church  soon  and  create  a  powerful  congregation  would  be 
presumptuous.  Who  can  tell?  In  every  change  there  is 
always  a  venture — an  act  of  faith.     But  it  is  my  conviction  that 

you  would.     's  failure,  which  I  deeply  regret,  counts  for 

nothing.  Owing  perhaps  to  bad  health  he  was  very  unequal  in 
his  preaching :  he  could  do  divinely ;  but  if  report  is  to  be 
trusted  he  did  it  only  occasionally.  And  his  best  was  often 
remote  from  the  lives  of  common  men.  It  fascinated  thoughtful 
and  mystical  women  :  God  bless  them  !  They  are  a  good  sort. 
But  our  Lord  did  not  deliver  the  discourse  in  John  xiv.-xvi.  in  the 
presence  of  the  multitude  when  they  gathered  on  the  mountains 
above  the  lake.     If  He  had  they  would  not  have  heard  Him 

out.     Then  again,  I  believe  that lived  a  very  isolated  life. 

He  saw  very  little  of  his  people ;  and  if  I  may  judge  from  his 
attendance,  or  rather  non-attendance,  at  our  ministers'  meetings, 
he  saw  very  little  of  his  brethren.  He  is  a  man  to  whom 
contact  with  life  and  thought  other  than  his  own  is  indis- 
pensable ;  and  he  got  on  to  the  top  of  a  pillar  in  the  desert  like 
Simon ;  only,  unlike  Simon,  his  standing  there  attracted  no 
Curiosity. 

There  is  one  point  I  have  omitted.  Look  at  the  list  of  your 
ministers  in  Birmingham,  and  then  judge  how  much  you  might 
do  for  the  churches  in  the  city.  You  would  come  here  with  the 
power  of  your  ten  years'  ministry  behind  you,  and  with  all  the 
disciplined  strength  you  have  received  from  it.  Not  on  the 
next  morning  after  you  moved — nor  in  the  next  month — but 
within  a  year  or  two  your  position  here  would  be  inevitably  one 
of  great  power  and  responsibility.  My  own  work  must  soon  be 
done.  You  and  Houghton  would  lead  the  Baptist  and  Inde- 
pendent churches  of  the  city. 

I  think  that  I  have  covered  your  inquiries.  God  help  you ! 
I  have  known  the  misery  of  having  to  look  at  a  question  of  this 
kind  and  can  sympathise  with  you. 


To  Chief-Justice  Way 

Llanbedr,  13th  March  1893. 

It  is  very  kind  and  generous  for  a  busy  man  like  you  to  write 
to  me.  Your  letter  has  found  me  at  our  little  cottage  in  Wales, 
some  seven  or  eight  miles  north  of  Barmouth.     I  was  rather  run 


"  REPOSE  AND  HOPE  AMID  ETERNAL  THINGS  "         657 

down,  and  so  Mrs.  Dale  and  I  have  got  away  for  a  parson's 
fortnight.  We  have  been  here  for  a  week  and  I  am  already 
very  much  better. 

As  far  as  I  can  judge,  the  quality  of  my  work  is  no  worse 
than  usual ;  but  I  cannot  sit  at  my  desk  for  many  hours  in  the 
day,  and  I  get  tired  sooner  than  I  like.  Very  much  of  my  work 
in  the  week  I  give  to  my  assistant,  and  I  am  trying  to  keep  out 
of  general  public  work.  In  the  early  winter  I  wrote  a  bio- 
graphical sketch  of  my  old  tutor,  Henry  Rogers,  to  be  prefixed 
to  a  new  edition  of  his  Superhuman  Origin  of  the  Bible.  I  think 
that  you  told  me  that  you  had  read  his  Eclipse ;  if  so,  you  will 
be  interested  in  learning  something  about  him,  and  I  have 
asked  the  publishers  to  send  you  a  copy.  I  have  also  asked 
them  to  send  with  it  a  copy  of  Dr.  Fairbairn's  new  book.  At 
present  I  have  read  only  about  two-thirds  of  it ;  whether  the 
constructive  part  will  wholly  suit  me,  I  am  not  sure ;  but  the 
historical  and  critical  part  is  admirably  done.  He  uses  his 
learning  with  consummate  ease. 

I  have  been  watching  with  great  concern  the  financial 
troubles  which  have  been  accumulating  on  the  Australian 
colonies.  Some  of  my  friends  have  been  hit  very  hard.  I 
agree  with  you  that  the  facility  with  which  the  young  heir  has 
obtained  loans  on  the  security  of  his  prospects  has  been  a 
terrible  temptation.  It  is  an  evil  thing  for  nations  as  well  as 
for  individuals  to  be  able  so  easily  to  mortgage  their  future. 

I  am  too  little  in  political  society  to  be  able  to  form  any 
confident  judgment  on  our  own  position ;  but  it  is  difficult  to 
believe  that  Mr.  Gladstone's  Irish  Bill  can  become  law  without 
very  serious  changes — if  indeed  it  can  pass  in  any  form.  He  is 
playing  a  bold  game.  His  Liquor  Bill  and  his  Suspensory  Bill 
(Welsh  Church)  are  intended  to  quiet  some  of  the  sections  of 
his  own  party  that  threatened  to  be  troublesome ;  but  I  think 
that  they  will  do  more  to  feed  the  fires  of  the  opposition  than 
to  strengthen  the  loyalty  of  his  supporters.  What  experience  I 
have  had  of  politics  has  led  me  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
extreme  teetotallers  are  not  worth  buying  at  a  high  price :  they 
are  mostly  ardent  Radicals,  and  the  cases  are  very  rare  in  which 
they  would  abstain  from  voting  for  a  Radical,  whatever  his  views 
might  be  on  Local  Option  ;  the  cases  are  rarer  still  in  which 
their  fidelity  to  Local  Option  would  make  them  vote  Tory. 
The  Welsh  members — or  the  majority  of  them — would,  I  think, 
have  gone  into  revolt  if  he  had  not  done  something  for  them. 
But  to  infuriate  the  publicans  and  the  Church  is  a  desperate 
measure  when  he  has  such  a  thorny  business  as  the  Irish  Bill  od 
hand.      But  what  an  amazing  old  man  he  is  ! 

2  U 


658  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Paton 

10th  April  1893. 

Hearty  thanks  for  your  cordial  letter.  In  the  lonely  life 
which  I  am  now  living  it  is  pleasant  to  be  assured  that  my  old 
friends  have  not  forgotten  me,  and  that  their  affection  for  me  is 
undiminished.  You,  too,  have  had  much  of  the  "  chastisement " 
which  God  suffers  to  come  on  those  whom  He  loves ;  and  you 
have  learnt,  I  dare  say,  how  much  more  grace  is  needed  to 
endure  than  to  work.  But  perhaps  in  the  suffering  we  more 
easily  discover  how  sorely  we  need  the  grace.  Looking  back 
upon  the  years  of  my  activity,  I  wonder  how  much  of  what 
seemed  zeal  and  earnestness  had  any  divine  quality  in  it :  many 
forces,  earthly  and  heavenly,  may  impel  us  to  work ;  it  is  only 
the  heavenly  that  can  make  us  perfectly  trustful  and  submissive 
in  suffering. 

I  wish  that  I  could  say  Yes  to  your  invitation ;  but  I  greatly 
shrink  from  intellectual  strain.  I  can  work  well  enough  at 
times — but  only  at  times ;  and,  further,  what  little  strength 
remains  I  want  to  use  to  carry  out  a  scheme  of  sermons  which 
I  have  long  had  in  my  mind  and  from  which  I  do  not  want  to 
be  diverted.  You  must  look  to  a  younger,  or,  at  least,  a  stronger 
man. 


To  Mr.  E.  A.  Lawrence 

6th  May  1893. 

Hearty  thanks  for  the  copy  of  Faith  and  Criticism.1  I 
congratulate  you  very  sincerely  on  your  own  paper ;  it  contains, 
I  think,  very  much  that  is  admirable,  and  is  excellently  written. 
Twenty  years  ago,  I  think  that  I  should  have  accepted  its  main 
point  with  much  more  complete  concurrence  than  I  can  now. 
At  that  time — or  about  that  time — I  was  accustomed  to  insist 
incessantly  on  submission  to  the  authority  of  Christ  as  the 
critical  act  of  the  soul,  though  I  think  that  even  then  I  began 
by  dwelling  on  the  redemption  which  Christ  had  achieved  for 
the  race — the  change  which  He  had  brought  about  in  the 
relation  of  every  man  to  God ;  and  connected  the  recognition 
of  this  more  closely  with  submission  to  His  authority  than  I 
think  is  done  in  your  paper.  Explicitly  or  implicitly,  submission 
to   our   Lord's   authority  is  present  in   every  act   of  faith ;  but 

1  A  volume  of  essays  by  some  younger  Congregational  ministers.     See  p.  636. 


"  REPOSE  AND  HOPE  AMID  ETERNAL  THINGS  "        659 

faith  is  rather  the  answer  of  the  soul  to  a  revelation  of  grace 
than  the  submission  of  the  soul  to  the  assertion  of  authority. 

I  have  read  two  or  three  of  the  other  papers.  Horton's  is 
excellent  as  far  as  it  goes,  though  it  does  not  strike  me  as  show- 
ing his  real  power.  Forsyth's,  which  I  have  not  quite  finished 
and  do  not  as  yet  wholly  understand,  is,  out  of  sight,  the  most 
brilliant  and  vigorous.  Bennett's  and  Adeney's  do  not  strike  me 
as  containing  much  that  is  fresh ;  and  I  doubt  whether  conser- 
vative people  will  find  much  comfort  in  Bennett's  "  compensa- 
tion." I  have  not  turned  up  the  two  similar  volumes  which 
appeared  many  years  ago — Ecdesia  ;  but  the  difference  between 
the  subjects  of  the  earlier  volumes,  as  far  as  I  can  remember 
them,  and  of  this  last  strikingly  illustrates  the  movement  through 
which  we  have  been  passing  in  the  interval. 

During  the  spring  and  summer  of  1893  his  health  was 
less  fluctuating.  At  the  end  of  April  he  preached  at 
Kensington,  in  the  course  of  the  centenary  commemoration 
of  the  church  at  Allen  Street,  and  in  May  for  the  London 
Missionary  Society  at  Union  Chapel,  Islington — as  had 
been  his  custom  for  many  years  during  Dr.  Allon's  life- 
time. (This  must  have  been  the  last  occasion  on  which 
he  took  part  in  any  public  service  in  London.)  Before 
and  after  his  summer  holiday  he  preached  regularly  at 
Carr's  Lane  until  the  middle  of  September,  when  he  was 
again  laid  aside  by  two  attacks  of  illness  following  in  rapid 
succession.  He  could  not  attend  the  Church  Congress 
which  met  in  Birmingham  during  the  first  week  of  October, 
or  present  the  address  of  welcome  which  he  had  prepared 
on  behalf  of  the  Nonconformist  churches.  His  recovery 
was  slow,  and  he  twice  attended  the  Sunday  services 
before  he  was  allowed  to  preach.  But  he  was  not  entirely 
cut  off  from  work.  During  the  enforced  seclusion  he 
began  to  put  into  shape  the  discourses  on  doctrine  which 
had  long  been  in  his  mind.  He  also  wrote  a  few  articles — 
for  the  Independent  a  sketch  of  Calvinistic  Methodism  in 
Wales  as  he  knew  it,  and  for  the  British  Weekly  a  bio- 
graphical account  of  his  friend  Dr.  Porter,  the  late  Presi- 
dent of  Yale,  and  also  a  careful  review  of  a  volume  of 
sermons  by  Dr.  Berry,  He  also  began  to  revise — prob- 
ably at  this  time — the  manuscript  of  his  Congregational 


66o  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

History.  He  had  occupation  enough  to  save  him  from 
unbearable  restlessness,  but  the  longing  for  his  pulpit  and 
his  people  rarely  left  him.  "  To  see  your  faces,"  he  wrote, 
"  and  to  join  with  you  in  worship  is  for  me  one  of  the 
best  as  well  as  the  most  delightful  of  tonics "  ;  and  he 
was  ill  content  that  his  doctors  had  not  recognised  it  as 
the  true  remedy. 

To  the  President  and  the  Members  of  the 
Church  Congress 

yd  October  1893. 

Brethren  in  Christ — We  respectfully  offer  you  a  hearty  wel- 
come to  this  city.  We  earnestly  trust  that  every  meeting  of  this 
Congress  will  be  consecrated  and  transfigured  by  manifestations 
of  the  grace  and  glory  of  our  common  Lord.  If  it  were  possible 
for  us  to  regard  with  indifference  an  assembly  so  large  as  yours, 
and  including  in  it  so  many  men  whom  we  honour  for  their 
high  Christian  character,  their  intellectual  force,  their  learning, 
and  the  service  which  they  are  rendering  to  God  and  man,  that 
gracious  and  august  presence  which  by  Christ's  own  words  is 
assured,  even  to  two  or  three  of  the  humblest  and  obscurest  of 
His  disciples,  gathered  together  in  His  name,  would  draw  to  your 
meeting  our  deep  interest  and  devout  sympathy.  We  are  sorrow- 
fully conscious  that  in  our  own  assemblies  we  have  too  often 
missed  the  blessedness  of  that  presence  when  we  might  have  known 
it,  but  we  trust  and  pray  that  during  this  week  you  may  be  so 
vividly  conscious  that  Christ  is  with  you  that  your  recollections  of 
the  awe  and  the  joy  which  He  inspired  may  be  distinct  and  endur- 
ing in  years  that  are  still  in  the  remote  future,  and  when  the 
wisest,  most  animating,  and  most  impressive  words  that  you  may 
hear  from  your  brethren  shall  leave  hardly  any  trace  in  your 
memory. 

We  gratefully  acknowledge  the  aid  in  our  Christian  life  and 
in  our  ministry  which  we  have  received  from  the  preachers, 
theologians,  and  saints  of  the  Church  which  is  represented 
in  this  Congress.  We  trust  that  the  great  succession  may  be 
long  maintained.  The  homely  vigour  and  robust  courage  of 
Hugh  Latimer,  a  predecessor  in  the  see  of  Worcester  of  the  dis- 
tinguished President  of  this  Congress,  the  splendours  of  Jeremy 
Taylor,  the  sagacity  of  Isaac  Barrow,  the  stately  and  earnest 
eloquence  of  Liddon,  and,  speaking  in  this  city,  which  for  many 
years  was  his  home,  may  we  be  permitted  to  add,  the  searching 


"  REPOSE  AND  HOPE  AMID  ETERNAL  THINGS  "         661 

and  penetrating  power  of  the  sermons  of  John  Henry  Newman, 
while  he  was  still  at  Oxford, — we  pray  that  they  may  reappear 
in  large  numbers  of  your  clergy,  both  in  this  generation  and  in 
the  generations  that  are  to  come.  May  there  be  among  the 
masters  and  leaders  of  your  thought  men  who  shall  possess  the 
majesty  of  Hooker,  the  deep,  calm  wisdom  of  Butler,  the  learning 
of  Pearson,  of  Bull,  and  of  Lightfoot.  May  you  long  maintain 
the  gracious  tradition  of  the  saintliness  of  Henry  Venn  and 
Charles  Simeon,  of  John  Keble,  of  Bishop  Andrewes  and  Bishop 
Wilson,  and  the  missionary  passion  of  Henry  Martyn  and  Selwyn 
and  Patteson.  We  shall  be  enriched  by  these  golden  gifts  which 
we  trust  that  God  will  bestow  upon  you,  and  in  sharing  your 
wealth  with  us  you  will  not  be  impoverished. 

Brethren,  our  presence  on  this  platform,  not  as  members  of 
the  Congress,  but  as  visitors  to  whom  your  courtesy  allows  the 
opportunity  of  addressing  you,  reminds  both  you  and  us  that 
on  some  subjects  which  are  of  grave  importance  in  relation  to 
the  organisation  and  life  of  Christian  Churches  we  hold  different 
judgments.  We  do  not  believe  that  either  loyalty  to  Christ 
or  Christian  charity  requires  either  you  or  us  to  be  always  silent 
on  these  differences  or  to  depreciate  their  importance.  But  in 
Christ  we  are  members  one  of  another.  We  are  troubled  by 
whatever  lessens  your  spiritual  force  and  the  effectiveness  of  your 
spiritual  work  ;  we  rejoice  in  all  your  spiritual  successes  ;  and  we 
pray  that  to  your  bishops  and  curates  and  all  congregations 
committed  to  their  charge,  God  will  grant  in  continually  in- 
creasing measures  the  healthful  spirit  of  His  grace. 


To  Mrs.  Holder 

yd  December  1893. 

Your  letter  gave  me  a  great  deal  of  pleasure.  Detached  as  I  Aged  64. 
have  been  for  a  long  time  from  nearly  all  work  outside  Birming- 
ham, it  is  a  delight  to  be  assured  that  old  friends  have  not  for- 
gotten me.  And  it  was  very  pleasant  to  be  told  that  you  and 
Mr.  Holder  are  sufficiently  interested  in  the  supreme  objects  of 
thought  to  read  a  book  like  my  Atonement.  There  are  a  great 
many  very  good  people  who  seem  unwilling  to  do  anything  for 
the  maintenance  of  their  religious  life  that  requires  the  use  of  f 
their  understanding  ;  as  a  result,  their  life  suffers  in  depth  and 
force.  I  am  very  conscious — as  indeed  I  always  was — that  the 
latter  part  of  my  book  contains  only  the  rudiments  of  a  theory 
of  the  relation  between  the  Death  of  Christ  and  the  forgiveness 
of  sin  ;  but  whatever  else  I  might  have  to  say  about  it  as  the 


662  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

result  of  the  experience  of  the  last  eighteen  years  I  should  have 
— as  far  as  I  remember — nothing  to  unsay.  As  far  as  it  goes, 
I  believe  that  what  I  wrote  then  is  true  and  solid.  In  a  year  or 
two,  and  when  I  have  got  through  some  other  things  that  I  want 
to  do,  I  may  revise  the  book — if  I  have  life  and  strength- — add  a 
few  notes  and  write  a  new  preface ;  but  I  believe  that  the  body 
of  the  lectures  will  remain  unchanged. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

yd  December  1893. 

I  had  kept  in  my  clip  the  affectionate  letter  which  you  wrote 
me  after  your  visit  a  few  weeks  ago,  intending  to  write  to  you 
soon  ;  and  now  I  have  another  to  thank  you  for,  and  I  thank 
you  for  it  with  all  my  heart.  Whether  your  hopes  will  be  ful- 
filled and  a  moderate  measure  of  strength  come  back  to  me, 
enabling  me  to  continue  public  work  for  a  few  years  longer,  who 
can  tell?  I  sometimes — and  indeed  generally — trust  and  wish 
that  it  may  be  so.  Each  of  my  last  two  illnesses  has  been  less 
severe  than  the  preceding  one,  and  much  less  alarming ;  but,  of 
course,  each  attack  diminishes  whatever  reserve  of  strength  is 
left  to  me.  The  physician  in  Birmingham  who  has  seen  me 
from  time  to  time  during  the  last  two  years  smiled  as  he  said 
on  Tuesday,  "  You  have  a  wonderful  way  of  picking  up " ;  he 
thought  at  the  close  of  1892 — or  rather  in  July  1892 — that 
I  had  not  much  resource  to  draw  upon.  With  his  consent  I 
preached  this  morning ;  it  tired  me.  Mrs.  Dale  insists  that  I 
preached  over  forty  minutes ;  but  it  has  done  me  no  harm,  and 
I  shall  probably  be  less  tired  next  Sunday.  I  seem  to  have  so 
much  to  say  that  I  want  to  preach  and  write  a  little  longer — and 
yet  I  tremble ;  my  hold  of  what  is  highest  and  deepest  seems  so 
uncertain  and  so  intermittent.  But  I  fear  that  I  have  done  so 
much  harm  in  many  ways  that  I  should  be  thankful — if  God  will 
only  give  me  grace,  and  if  He  does  not  despair  of  me — to  have 
another  chance.  I  am  grateful  that  in  His  infinite  compassion 
He  has  done  some  good  through  me  in  past  years ;  it  humbles 
me  and  rebukes  me,  for  it  shows  how  much  He  might  have  done 
had  I  been  faithful ;  so  that  the  measure  of  usefulness  He  has 
given  me  seems  rather  a  reproach  than  an  encouragement.  It 
is  very  terrible.     But  enough  of  this. 

One  of  the  points  which  has  pressed  upon  me  very  heavily 
during  the  last  ten  weeks  is  that  in  my  resentment  against  the 
evil  which  had  come  from  making  the  ministry  a  profession,  I 
realised  most  inadequately  that  it  is  a  vocation.  Of  course  I 
knew    and    felt   that   it   was   a    vocation — a  most  blessed   and 


"  REPOSE  AND  HOPE  AMID  ETERNAL  THINGS  "        663 

glorious  though  perilous  one — but  I  did  not  get  even  near  the 
heart  of  what  it  must  mean  to  be  "  separated  unto  the  gospel  of 
God  "  ;  when  I  have  a  chance — if  I  have  one — I  want  to  preach 
on  that.  I  do  not  know  that  I  should  make  it  an  occasion  for  a 
series  of  what  Augustine  would  have  called  retractationes,  for  this 
would  merely  provoke  controversy.  But  I  should  like  to  put 
positively  what  seems  the  true  position.  The  trouble  is  that 
between  the  inward  thought  and  the  outward  expression  the  gulf 
is  so  wide  and  deep.  I  felt  this  keenly  this  morning  when  I 
tried  to  say  some  of  the  things  which  have  greatly  possessed  me 
during  my  illness. 

To  Mrs.  Stuart 

12th  December  1893. 

I  am  getting  better,  and  preached  yesterday  for  the  first  time 
since  the  second  Sunday  in  September  j  but  I  feel  rather  like  a 
ship  that  can't  get  quite  over  the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  har- 
bour ;  with  another  foot  or  two  of  water,  I  could  get  away  into 
the  open  sea.     The  tide  rises  slowly,  but  it  continues  to  rise. 

How  sorry  I  am  for  all  you  political  people ;  what  a  miser- 
able, dreary  time  it  must  be  at  Westminster !  And  in  some 
directions  which  still  interest  me  in  a  languid  way  there  are 
formidable  signs  of  reaction.  The  anti-liberal  party  in  Educa- 
tion seems  to  be  more  hopeful  and  resolute  than  it  has  been  at 
any  time  since  the  National  Education  Union — as  I  think  it  was 
called — broke  up  after  the  Act  of  1870.  Acland  is  straight  and 
courageous ;  but  the  forces  on  the  other  side  are  very  strong, 
and  I  have  seen  indications  of  a  disposition  to  make  disastrous 
compromises  where  I  should  have  least  expected  it. 


To  Miss  Clara  Jeeves 

$th  December  1893. 

Just  as  my  strength  was  failing  before  my  recent  illness,  I  had  Aged  64. 
a  letter  from  you  which  I  put  aside  to  answer.  I  wonder  whether 
since  then — for  it  is  three  months  ago — the  great  things  have 
become  clearer  to  you.  What  strikes  me  most  powerfully  about 
your  letter  is  this  :  you  should  give  God  thanks  that  He  has 
made  you  dissatisfied  with  your  life.  Be  sure  of  it,  the  convic- 
tion that  you  had  fallen  short  of  Christ's  will  came  from  God's 
merciful  and  gracious  Spirit,  not  from  yourself.  "Whom  He 
loveth  He  chasteneth,  and  scourgeth  every  son  that  He  receiveth." 
You  have  had  your  scourging  ;  it  is  a  proof  given  direct  from 


664  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

God  to  yourself  that  He  has  not  forsaken  you,  and  that  the  true 
life  is  not  to  be  despaired  of. 

The  next  thing  that  strikes  me  is  this :  He  has  enabled 
you  to  receive  with  faith  the  disclosures  which  have  humbled 
and  distressed  you.  It  was  these  disclosures  which  were 
to  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  time  to  you.  You  have  not 
rejected  them,  or  struggled  against  them ;  or  if  you  have 
struggled,  the  struggle  has  been  subdued.  This  direct  per- 
sonal dealing  with  you  should  give  you  larger  courage  to 
receive  all  the  wonderful  assurances  given  to  the  world  through 
Christ  of  God's  mercy.  "  He  suffered  for  sins  once,  the  Right- 
eous for  the  unrighteous,  that  He  might  bring  us  to  God." 
That  He  desires  to  bring  you  to  God  you  cannot  doubt :  the 
scourging  confirms,  or  should  confirm,  your  faith  in  this.  But 
He  must  bring  you  in  His  own  way :  the  patient  does  not  pre- 
scribe to  the  physician  how  he  is  to  be  treated ;  or  the  traveller 
to  the  guide  by  what  path  he  is  to  be  led.  This  you  may  be 
sure  of,  that  if  you  avail  yourself  of  the  opportunities  of  serving 
others  that  lie  nearest  to  you,  and  actually  serve  them,  you  will 
gradually  become  more  and  more  unselfish.  But  do  not  ask  for 
great  opportunities  of  service,  or  be  disappointed  if  you  feel  no 
glow  of  devotion  to  other  people  or  even  to  God.  We  are  all 
too  anxious  to  be  conscious  of  beautiful  feelings ;  they  comfort 
us  and  lead  us  to  think  that  we  are  in  the  right  way ;  but  the 
real  test  is  obedience — doing  the  right  things  as  far  as  we  know 
them.  Feelings  are  very  misleading :  let  them  come  when  they 
come ;  do  not  be  disheartened  if  they  do  not  come,  or  if  when 
they  come  they  soon  vanish.  This  I  think  is  the  path  to  higher 
perfection  ;  at  any  rate  no  other  path  is  certain.  Hold  fast  to 
the  assurance  that  God  wants  you  to  have  the  mind  of  Christ ; 
pray  for  it ;  but  meanwhile,  whether  your  heart  goes  with  it  or 
not,  try  in  humble,  unostentatious  ways  to  serve  Christ  by 
serving  others. 

To  the  Rev.  F.  H.  Stead 

6th  December  1893. 
Accept  my  thanks  for  your  kind  present  of  a  copy  of  your 
new  book.1  I  have  gone  through  it — rapidly,  of  course,  and  super- 
ficially— and  am  impressed  by  the  immense  amount  of  work  and 
thought  that  you  have  put  into  it.  In  the  hands  of  an  effective 
teacher  (especially  of  one  who  differed  from  you  on  some  im- 
portant points  !)  it  might  be  made  a  most  useful  text-book  for  a 
Bible  Class. 

1    The  Kingdom  of  God :  A  Plan  of  Study. 


"  REPOSE  AND  HOPE  AMID  ETERNAL  THINGS  "         665 

I  can  hardly,  on  so  rapid  an  examination,  venture  to  express 
a  judgment  on  some  critical  questions,  but  there  are  one  or  two 
things  which  perhaps  you  will  allow  me  to  say.  I  think  that  like 
some  others  of  our  younger  theologians  you  permit  the  charac- 
teristic elements  of  prophetism,  which  hoped  to  realise  the  King- 
dom of  God  in  a  visible  earthly  state,  to  exert  too  much  influence 
over  you.  The  prophets  are  no  doubt  noble,  stirring,  animating  ; 
but  prophetism  was  a  failure — so  great  a  failure  that  according  to 
the  modern  theory  it  had  to  be  followed  by  a  rigorous  external 
and  ceremonial  law. 

Another  matter  of  still  greater  importance  which  I  should 
despair  of  making  clear  in  a  few  sentences  is  your  estimate  of 
the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  during  His  humiliation  (and 
especially  to  the  people  of  Galilee  whose  ethical  and  spiritual 
condition  rendered  them  incapable  of  the  higher  disclosures  of 
the  life  and  thought  of  God)  as  compared  with  the  revelation 
which  has  come  with  the  Spirit  of  Christ — a  revelation  which 
immensely  changes,  illuminates,  and  transfigures  the  earthly 
story  of  our  Lord.  I  do  not  believe  that  after  our  Lord  departed 
from  the  world — withdrew  His  visible  presence — the  light  which 
had  come  into  the  world  declined :  it  grew  and  grew,  and  I  find 
in  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans  and  the  Ephesians  a  fuller  mani- 
festation of  the  mind  of  Christ  than  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

Another  point  is,  that  revelation  in  its  form  must  be  largely 
determined  by  the  conditions  of  those  to  whom  it  comes ;  the 
form  of  the  Kingdom  was  what  Jewish  history  and  thought  pro- 
vided ;  among  the  Gentiles  that  form — if  it  had  been  made  as 
prominent  as  in  our  Lord's  ministry — would  have  concealed 
rather  than  disclosed  His  meaning.  I  wonder  whether  these 
broken  sentences  are  intelligible.  I  hope  that  things  are  going 
well  with  you. 

To  Miss  A.  M.  Davies 

29th  December  1893. 

.  .  .  Mrs.  Dale  is  reading  Stanley's  Life  to  me  in  the 
evenings.  My  publishers  usually  send  me  a  Stilton  cheese  at 
Christmas — have  sent  it,  I  think,  for  twenty  years ;  but  by  some 
happy  inspiration  (I  am  not  allowed  to  take  cheese  now  !)  they 
have  this  year  sent  Stanley  instead. 

It  is  very  interesting,  and  I  hope  to  feel  the  charm  of  Stanley 
as  I  have  not  felt  it  before.  I  met  him  at  dinner  at  Dr.  Allon's 
some  years  ago,  with  Mr.  Binney,  Dean  Alford,  Dr.  Reynolds, 
Hutton  of  the  Spectator,  Matthew  Arnold,  and  some  other  inter- 
esting men,  and  though  he  talked  pleasantly,  there  was  for  me 


666  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

no  spell  in  it.  I  thought  that  perhaps  there  were  too  many 
others  present  for  me  to  discover  the  attraction  of  Stanley ;  but 
I  met  him  afterwards  at  a  breakfast  where  he  and  I  were  the 
only  guests ;  and  I  went  chiefly  because,  when  I  had  begged  our 
host  to  excuse  me,  he  said  that  the  Dean  had  expressed  a  wish 
to  meet  me.  I  thought  that  there  would  be  a  good  chance  of 
being  drawn  to  him,  but  though  he  was  extremely  pleasant  the 
charm  did  not  work.  I  am  hoping,  as  I  have  said,  that  his  Life 
will  at  last  touch  me,  for  I  like  to  feel  affection  for  men  who 
draw  to  themselves  much  love ;  not  to  feel  it  suggests  uncom- 
fortable thoughts  about  one's  sensitiveness  to  what  is  morally 
attractive. 

I  have  just  finished  the  first  two  volumes  of  Pusey's  Life,  and 
the  change  to  Stanley  is  very  striking.  I  am  doubtful  whether 
Stanley  will  "  find  "  me  as  Pusey  did.  What  a  man  that  was  ! 
I  seemed  to  know  all  about  him  before  I  began ;  and,  indeed, 
the  new  facts  illustrating  the  rise  of  the  Tractarian  Movement 
and  Pusey's  part  in  it  are  very  few  indeed ;  but  I  closed  the  book 
with  a  deep  impression  of  the  nobleness  and  massiveness  of  his 
nature,  and  feeling  more  than  ever  that  the  power  of  God  was 
in  him.  The  absence  of  joy  in  his  religious  life  was  only  the 
inevitable  effect  of  his  conception  of  God's  method  of  saving 
men ;  in  parting  with  the  Lutheran  truth  concerning  Justifica- 
tion he  parted  with  the  springs  of  gladness. 

Thank  you  very  much  for  all  your  affectionate  good  wishes. 
It  is  pleasanter  than  you  can  imagine  to  find,  as  one  grows  older 
and  loses  year  after  year  the  dear  friends  of  earlier  days,  that 
other  friends  are  given  whose  affection  brightens  the  dull  sky  and 
warms  the  chill  air.  I  trust  that  the  New  Year  will  bring  to  all 
of  you  at  Treborth — not  only  the  greater  and  more  enduring 
blessings  of  God's  grace,  but  a  thousand  pleasant  things  to  make 
life  easy  and  happy. 


CHAPTER    XXVI 

THE    DARK    VALLEY 

New  tenderness — Carr's  Lane  Reunion — Letters  to  friends — Sense  of  loneli- 
ness— Mr.  Harrison's  death — A  birthday  letter — Resolution  of  the 
Congregational  Union — The  Bishop  of  Durham's  letter — Discourses  on 
Christian  Doctrine — The  Bishop  of  Winchester's  letter — Last  letters — 
The  approach  of  death — Memorials. 

In  the  spring  of  1894  it  was  a  delight  to  find  himself  Aged  64. 
once  more  in  regular  work,  and  to  be  assured  that  he 
could  still  speak  with  clearness  and  force.  Indeed  it  was 
evident,  even  to  himself,  that  his  experience  of  suffering 
and  silence,  without  relaxing  his  intellectual  grasp  of  the 
great  truths  of  revelation,  had  brought  with  it  a  new 
power.  It  was  not  merely  that  he  had  become  less  re- 
ticent about  himself,  and  that  the  veil  of  reserve,  so  rarely- 
lifted  in  earlier  years,  was  now  withdrawn.  Nor  was  it 
an  enlargement  of  human  sympathy,  and  nothing  more. 
His  personality  had  been  touched  and  transformed.  One 
who  had  often  heard  him  in  the  days  of  his  strength, 
listening  to  him  now,  carried  away  a  wholly  new  con- 
ception of  his  preaching. 

The  contrast  between  the  mental  vigour  and  the  physical 
weakness  created  the  impression  of  a  man  helped  by  some 
power  not  his  own.  .  .  .  His  great  force  had  become  wreathed 
in  tenderness.  A  new  pathos  had  come  into  the  voice  that 
made  the  delivery  perfect.  There  was  something  musical  in  his 
tones.      It  was  like  no  other  voice  I  ever  heard.1 

Two  sermons  delivered  at  this  time — one  on  the  "  New 

1  Dr.  Reuen  Thomas  of  Boston,  Massachusetts. 


668  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Name"  (Rev.  ii.  17),  the  other  on  the  "Crown  of  Life" 
(James  i.  12)  deeply  impressed  those  who  heard  them, 
filling  their  hearts  with  forebodings  of  impending  loss  ;  so 
full,  so  vivid  was  his  sense  of  speedy  escape  from  the 
limitations  and  infirmities  of  this  world  into  the  endless 
life  beyond,  with  its  unknown  expansion  of  power  and 
achievement.  But  he  did  not  allow  himself  either  in 
private  meditation  or  in  public  ministry  to  be  wholly  en- 
grossed by  such  themes  as  these.  Before  the  summer 
ended,  as  if  to  link  the  opening  of  his  pastorate  with  its 
close,  he  completed  the  series  of  discourses  on  doctrine, 
published  in  the  autumn.  At  the  same  time  he  began  an 
exposition  of  the  Epistle  of  James,  so  dealing  side  by 
side  with  creed  and  conduct,  ethics  and  theology — prin- 
ciples too  often  divorced  by  religious  teachers. 

It  was  not  a  year  of  incident,  but  one  occurrence 
should  not  pass  unnoticed.  In  March — at  the  suggestion 
of  Mr.  Hotchkiss,  who  spared  no  pains  to  carry  out  the 
project — a  Reunion  was  held  at  Carr's  Lane  of  members 
who  had  been  in  fellowship  with  the  church  during  any 
part  of  the  years  1  853-1863,  the  first  decade  of  Dale's 
ministry.  Many  of  these  were  still  there  ;  others  had 
been  transferred  to  churches  in  the  suburbs  and  else- 
where. One  hundred  and  fifty  met  on  the  evening  of 
1 3th  March,  and  letters  received  from  all  parts  of  the 
country  showed  how  strong  an  attachment  to  the  church 
and  its  pastor  was  still  cherished  by  many  who  could  not 
be  present.  The  address  read  by  the  Chairman,  Mr. 
Joseph  Warden,  had  the  warmth  and  the  felicity  that 
nothing  but  genuine  affection  can  bestow,  and  the  taces — 
some  familiar,  some  half-forgotten — spoke  with  an  elo- 
quence of  their  own.  Dale's  speech  in  reply  was  rich  in 
personal  reminiscences,  of  his  experiences  as  Mr.  James's 
colleague — though  he  said  more  about  Mr.  James  than 
about  himself — and  of  the  early  period  of  his  sole  pastor- 
ate up  to  the  time  when  he  began  to  touch  a  wider  circle 
outside  his  own  church,  and  to  enter  upon  an  ampler  and 
a  more  public  service.  He  spoke  with  deep  emotion,  as 
well    he   might.      It  was,  he   said,  as   if  a   long-vanished 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  669 

period  of  his  life  had  suddenly  taken  form  and  stood 
before  him  once  more  ;  and  to  find  himself  face  to  face 
with  those  to  whom  he  had  preached  the  gospel  in  the 
beginning  of  his  ministry — men  and  women  who  after 
thirty  or  forty  years  were  still  striving  to  do  the  will  of 
God,  still  loyal  to  their  first  faith — was  a  strange  and 
affecting  experience.  They  were  there — many  of  them  ; 
and  it  was  a  delight  to  see  them,  and  to  feel  that  his 
work  had  not  been  altogether  in  vain.  But  he  could  not 
forget  those  who  had  fallen  asleep  and  those  who  had 
fallen  away ;  and  the  pleasure  was  not  unmixed  with 
pain. 

During  these  months  he  wrote  freely  to  his  friends. 
He  had  larger  leisure  than  he  had  ever  known  before ; 
for  even  when  he  was  at  his  best,  serious  work  in  an 
evening  was  strictly  prohibited.  His  letters — only  a  fewr 
can  be  selected — show  the  gradual  detachment  that  was 
taking  place  in  his  life  :  he  begins  to  look  even  at  his 
work  as  a  minister  as  if  it  were  already  something  remote 
and  outside  himself. 

To  Chief-Justice  Way 

l&th  February  1894. 

My  dear  Lieutenant-Governor  * — Ever  since  I  heard  of  the 
new  distinction  conferred  upon  you  I  have  wanted  to  send  con- 
gratulations. It  can  add  nothing  to  your  own  position  in  South 
Australia,  but  it  will  be  a  gratification  to  yourself  because  it  will 
be  a  gratification  to  your  innumerable  friends  both  in  Australia 
and  in  England. 

If  I  may  judge  from  the  newspapers,  your  reign  commenced 
in  a  time  of  depression,  if  not  of  disaster,  and  I  trust  that  you 
will  have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  that  the  clouds  have  begun  to 
scatter  before  you  lay  down  your  authority. 

It  must  be  a  curious  experience  for  a  man  to  feel  that  he  has 
no  one  above  him  within  twelve  or  thirteen  thousand  miles. 
That  abstract  thing  the  law,  however,  assumes,  I  suppose,  a 
personality  to  a  Judge,  and  is  always  present,  not  as  an  abstrac- 
tion, but  as  a  Power. 

1  He  had  recently  been  appointed  Lieutenant-Governor  of  South  Aus- 
tralia. 


670  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

You  will  be  interested  to  know  that  I  have  had  the  courage 
to  begin  a  course  of  sermons  on  Christian  doctrine  with  a  view 
to  publication.  I  have  got  through  seven  out  of  twelve  or  four- 
teen. It  has  seemed  to  me  for  some  years  that  the  vagueness 
of  thought  which  prevails  among  intelligent  people  with  regard 
to  Christian  doctrine  is  a  serious  injury  to  the  vigour  of  religious 
life.  The  injury  is  the  graver  because  of  the  increasing  pre- 
cision with  which  men  are  thinking  about  natural  phenomena. 
In  one  region  of  the  intellectual  life  there  is  granite,  above  it 
are  clouds. 

It  is  a  cowardly  thing,  perhaps,  but  I  am  glad  to  be  wholly 
out  of  politics.  Collision  with  old  friends  would  be  inevitable  if 
I  had  not  withdrawn  altogether,  and  this  would  be  a  great  pain 
to  me.  And  as  the  shadows  lengthen  I  am  more  disposed  than 
in  past  years  to  think  that  perhaps  my  "vocation,"  if  indeed  I 
have  one,  requires  an  abstention  from  the  actual  conflict  of 
political  life.  It  is  late  to  have  made  the  discovery,  but  the 
ghost  came  to  me  some  years  ago  when  I  was  giving  some  atten- 
tion to  the  history  of  the  later  Puritanism.  There  is  some- 
thing startling  in  the  sudden  extinction  of  the  fires  which  burnt 
during  the  Commonwealth ;  twenty  years  after  Cromwell's  death 
the  fervour  and  zeal  were  almost  gone :  twenty  years  later  still 
they  had  quite  vanished.  The  question  assailed  me,  whether 
the  explanation  did  not  lie  in  part  in  the  premature  attempt 
to  apply  to  the  political  order  the  laws  of  a  diviner  kingdom 
and  to  do  it  by  direct  political  action.  But  that  would  require  a 
dissertation. 


To  Mrs.  

2nd  March  1894. 

I  have  been  startled  and  a  little  alarmed  by  seeing  the  an- 
nouncement that  Mr. does  not  intend  to  stand  for at 

the  next  election ;  it  would  be  a  relief  to  know  that  this  is  not 
occasioned  by  any  serious  failure  of  health. 

It  is  possible — very  possible — that  I  am  disposed  to  think  too 
gloomily  of  the  prospects  of  the  Liberal  party;  but  to  me   it 

seems  a  misfortune  that  men  like  Mr.  should  disappear 

from  Parliament.  Increasingly  the  party  seems  to  be  passing 
into  the  hands  of  men  who  are  without  that  sobering  influence 
which  long  familiarity  with  the  practical  business  of  life  exerts 
on  a  man's  political  theories  and  actions.  "  Professors  "  require 
to  be  balanced,  not  by  agitators,  but  by  men  whose  judgment 
has  been   disciplined  by  the  administration  of  large   concerns ; 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  671 

and  at  present,  theorists  and  agitators  seem  to  be  getting  the 
party  more  and  more  into  their  hands. 

However,  if  in  the  absence  of  any  urgent  reason  for  retire- 
ment on  the  ground  of  health,  it  seems  desirable  that  Mr.  • 's 

work  should  be  lessened,  his  friends,  though  they  may  regret  it 
on  public  grounds,  will  admit  that  he  has  for  many  years  ren- 
dered the  party  and  the  country  good  service  and  has  earned 
the  right  to  some  relief. 

To  

$th  March  1894. 

My  dear  old  Friend — I  am  concerned  to  see  that  the  remem- 
brance of  the  trouble  at has  been  revived.     Is  it  not  time 

that  it  should  be  forgotten,  and  all  the  real  or  imagined  injuries 
which  you  received  forgotten?  You  know  that  I  had  the 
heartiest  sympathy  with  you  in  the  pain  that  you  felt  in  being 
obliged  to  leave  the  church  with  which  you  had  been  so  long 
connected  and  which  you  had  so  nobly  served.  But  I  want  you 
to  serve  it  still  by  letting  the  past  be  dead.     Whatever  complaint 

you  may  think  that  you  have  reason  to  make  against  Mr.  

on  the  ground  of  his  words  at ,  the  words  are  two  years 

old  and  might  well  have  been  allowed  to  remain  unnoticed.  Is 
it  not  our  clear  duty,  whatever  personal  offence  we  may  think 
that  we  have  received  at  any  time,  to  pass  it  over  for  the  sake  of 
maintaining  mutual  affection  and  confidence  among  our  brethren 
in  Christ  ?  It  is  not  as  if  you  were  a  young  man  who  may  have 
need  to  defend  his  reputation ;  whatever  can  be  said  against 
you — whether  it  is  true  or  false — will  not  diminish  the  affection 
and  esteem  in  which  we  hold  you.  What  is  the  good  of  being 
eighty-four  if  a  man  cannot  trust  himself  to  his  friends  ? 


To  Mrs.  Richard  Davies 

Llanbedr,  1st  April  1894. 

There  is  no  English  service  here  this  morning  ;  how  can  I  use 
part  of  the  leisure  time  better  than  in  writing  to  you  ?  Mrs. 
Dale  showed  me  the  affectionate  letter  which  you  wrote  to  her 
some  weeks  ago  when  we  were  arranging  for  our  present  holiday, 
and  it  drew  me  strongly  to  Treborth.  But  I  felt  too  much  like 
the  "  stricken  deer  "  which  leaves  "  the  herd  "  and  can  find  rest 
only  in  solitude,  to  venture.  My  last  illness  left  me  weaker  than 
either  of  the  preceding  ones,  and  though  I  have  been  able  to 
preach,  I  was  conscious  of  a  great  want  of  buoyancy.     During 


672  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  first  ten  days  that  I  was  here  I  began  to  think  that  even 
Llanbedr,  with  its  perfect  quiet,  had  lost  its  spell.  But  I  am 
thankful  to  say  that  the  springs  of  life  have  once  more  begun  to 
flow,  and  I  have  good  hopes  that  I  shall  go  back  to  Birmingham 
greatly  invigorated.  And  though  I  am  not  at  Treborth  I  get 
something  of  the  delight  of  being  there.  Now  and  then  I  see 
the  summit  of  Snowdon,  and  this  seems  to  bring  all  of  you  quite 
near.  Your  young  people,  I  hope,  are  all  well.  They  have 
been  very  kind  to  me,  and  it  is  always  a  source  of  happiness  to 
think  of  them. 

I  wonder  whether  they  have  read  Sabatier's  Life  of  Francis 
of  Assisi  which  is  making  such  a  stir  in  France.  It  is  a  long 
time  since  I  read  a  book  of  equal  charm.  And  though  Sabatier 
belongs  to  the  "  left "  wing  of  the  Protestant  Church,  and  his 
chilly  theology  sometimes  crosses  the  tropical  heat  of  St.  Francis 
like  an  east  wind,  this  happens  but  rarely,  and  I  have  found  the 
book  "edifying,"  to  use  the  good  old  word,  as  well  as  delightful. 
It  has  added  immensely  to  the  pleasure  and,  I  hope,  something 
to  the  profit  of  my  holiday. 

There  is  something  infinitely  pathetic  in  the  failure  of  St. 
Francis  to  carry  his  ideal  into  the  minds  and  hearts  even  of 
those  who  most  loved  and  honoured  him.  Sabatier  is,  I  suppose, 
right  in  maintaining  that  the  saint  was  dreaming  of  a  free  and 
spiritual,  and,  in  a  sense,  a  non-sacerdotal  form  of  life ;  but  the 
time  had  not  come,  nor  was  it  possible  that  it  should  come 
without  open  revolt  against  Rome. 

I  was  talking  to  Mrs.  Rowland  Jones  a  few  days  ago  about 
the  church  here ;  and  was  glad  to  find  that  the  old  lady,  who  is 
very  faithful  to  Calvinistic  Methodist  traditions,  was  hopeful. 
They  had  just  had  a  prayer  meeting  at  which  there  seemed  to 
be  a  great  deal  of  deep  and  intense  earnestness,  and  she  thought 
that  when  people  find  God  in  prayer  God  must  be  near  to  them. 
How  I  wish  that  I  could  believe  that  Welsh  Disestablishment 
was  likely  to  come  within  the  next  two  or  three  years  !  The 
agitation  cannot  stop  now  that  it  has  begun,  but  while  it  lasts 
it  will  be  perilous  to  the  higher  life  of  all  the  Free  Churches.  I 
doubt  whether,  outside  Wales,  there  is  sufficient  strength  in  the 
movement  to  compel  the  Lords  to  pass  the  Bill.  In  England 
the  popular  passion  has  all  run  into  the  channels  of  the  various 
labour  questions.  In  1875  we  seemed  nearer  to  English  Dis- 
establishment than  we  seem  now.  I  remember  that  the  Bishop 
of  Gloucester  said  that  if  the  Church  of  England  were  given 
twenty  years  she  would  be  safe.  She  has  got  her  twenty  years 
through  Mr.  Gladstone's  absorption  in  Irish  questions,  and  it 
looks  as  if  she  were  safe  for  many  years  to  come. 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  673 

To  Miss  A.  M.  Davies 

2$th  April  1894. 

It  was  really  very  good  of  you  to  write  so  much.  The  letter 
came  to  me  at  a  time  when  I  wanted  something  to  refresh  and 
cheer  me.  You  young  people  do  not  know  how  much  the 
freshness  and  buoyancy  of  your  life  can  do  for  those  of  us  who 
are  often  weary  of  the  world,  or  rather  of  ourselves. 

For  think  how  long  a  time  I  have  been  living  with  R.  W.  D. 
No  doubt  I  have  often  got  away  from  him.  I  often  get  away 
from  him  now.  But  he  and  I  part  company  for  so  short  a  time 
at  the  longest ;  and  there's  no  getting  away  from  him  for  a  whole 
day  together.  Even  when  I  look  at  the  grass  and  the  sky  I 
have  to  look  at  them  through  his  eyes ;  and  when  I  read  Milton 
or  Burke  I  have  to  take  his  impressions  of  them.  If  I  could 
only  have  Milton  to  myself  without  R.  W.  D.,  what  a  delight  it 
would  be  !  Sometimes  it  almost  seems  as  if  the  blessedness  had 
come ;  but  it  turns  out  that  R.  W.  D.'s  limitations  still  prevent 
me  from  grasping  all  the  wealth  and  seeing  all  the  glory.  And 
this  inseparable  companion  of  mine  is  of  course  not  quite  the 
same  person  that  he  was  twenty  years  ago ;  if  there  were  no 
change  at  all  in  him,  he  would  be  quite  intolerable  and  he 
would  drive  me  mad ;  but  still  I  often  find  him  a  terrible  bore. 
And  so  when  a  gracious  friend  like  you  comes  and  relieves  me 
for  a  time  of  his  dull  presence,  I  am  very  grateful.  Please  put 
me  down  in  the  list  of  the  infirm  and  the  poor  to  whom  you  pay 
visits  of  charity. 

What  an  odd  thing  it  is — this  sense  of  schism  and  difference 
between  the  real  "  I  "  and  the  organised  life.  Do  you  never  feel 
that  you  would  like  to  carry  your  "  I  "  into  another  personality — to 
turn  cuckoo  and  take  possession  for  a  time  of  another  mortal's 
nest  ?  I  dare  say  that  you  do  not  feel  it  yet.  I  hope  that  you 
may  not  feel  it  forty  years  hence ;  for  I  have  known  some  old 
ladies — more  old  ladies  than  old  men — who  seemed — shall  I 
say? — as  new,  not  merely  as  fresh,  as  they  could  have  been 
when  they  were  twenty  or  five-and-twenty. 

I  am  reading  Dr.  Hort's  Hulsean  Lecture,  The  Way,  The 
Truth,  and  The  Life.  I  do  not  quite  understand  it  yet ;  but  I 
shall  read  it  a  second  time  with  the  hope  of  understanding  it. 
He  was  a  great  friend  and  ally  of  Dr.  Westcott's ;  they  travelled 
together  in  the  highest  realms,  and  Hort  reminds  me  constantly 
of  Westcott.  I  want  to  learn,  among  other  things,  whether  he 
had  the  same  reluctance  as  Westcott  to  define  his  thought. 

We  are  all  well.  I  am  trying  with  more  or  less  success  to 
2  X 


674  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

lay  to  heart  the  great  moral  lesson  that  I  see  at  all  the  railway 
stations — "Don't  worry:  try  Sunlight  Soap."  The  "sunlight" 
is  not  always  to  be  had ;  that  is  the  trouble. 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mackennal 

30//;  April  1894. 

I  appreciate  the  honour  which  your  Committee  have  done  me 
by  the  invitation  to  preside  at  the  Birmingham  (Free  Church) 
Congress,  and  I  feel  very  deeply  the  kindness  of  the  letter  in 
which  you  have  conveyed  it.  But  I  have  seen  no  reason  to 
modify  the  judgment  which  I  formed  of  the  proposal  to  hold  a 
Free  Church  Congress  when  we  discussed  it  at  Mr.  Bunting's 
four  or  five  years  ago ;  and  I  am  therefore  obliged  to  decline 
the  proposal.  You  are  probably  aware  that  I  do  not  belong  to 
the  Birmingham  Council  which  has  invited  the  Congress. 

It  is  a  strange  and  unexpected  experience  which  I  have  had 
during  the  last  few  years.  First  I  was  obliged  to  withdraw  from 
old  political  associations ;  then  very  largely  from  Congregational 
associations ;  and  at  last,  partly  as  the  result  of  diminished 
strength,  partly  from  other  causes,  I  have  had  to  dissolve  or  to 
refuse  to  form  other  ties  which  might  have  compensated  in  part 
for  the  earlier  losses.  But  the  isolation  and  loneliness  are  not 
without  their  blessedness  and  power. 

From  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mackennal 

BOWDON,  2nd  May  1 894. 

A  sentence  or  two  in  your  letter  give  me  the  opportunity  of 
saying  what  I  have  long  wanted  to  say,  but  shrank  from  thrusting 
on  your  notice. 

I  regret  very  much  that  we  have  not  the  benefit  of  your 
leadership  and  the  help  to  many  of  our  convictions,  and  much  of 
our  action,  which  would  come  from  your  agreement  with  us. 

But  I  have  again  and  again  thanked  God,  when  reading 
extracts  from  your  sermons  and  references  to  your  public  utter- 
ances, as  these  have  been  reported,  that  He  was  vouchsafing  you 
an  intensive  force  which  more  than  compensated  for  the  loss  of 
your  general  influence  and  supervision. 

I  am  not  afraid  to  say  to  you — for  I  am  recognising  the 
Divine  source  rather  than  thinking  of  your  personal  gifts  and 
aptitudes — that  you  are  doing  a  work  now  which  marks  you  out 
as  one  of  the  Father's  elect.  You  once  said,  I  remember, 
"  When  God  has  confidence  in  one  of  His  children.  He  is  able  to 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  675 

give  him  whatever  he  would  like  " — this  in  reference  to  the  story 
of  Mr.  Spurgeon  and  the  opal  ring,  etc.  I  trust  you  have  some- 
thing of  this  experience ;  but  there  is  another  truth  which  you 
must  not  forget — "Whom  the  Lord  loveth  He  chasteneth." 
And  your  seclusion,  painful  as  it  is,  is  only  a  hiding  in  the  secret 
of  His  tabernacle. 

I  would  also  suggest  to  you  that  you  need  not  look  at  your 
present  gainfulness  through  loss  as  casting  any  suspicion  on  the 
rightness  of  your  former  very  active  life.  Who  knows  if  you 
would  have  found  so  much  of  God  in  your  seclusion  if  you  had 
not  sought  to  serve  Him  out  in  the  open  ? 

Forgive  these  bold  speculations  on  you  and  yours ;  they  are 
not  irreverent.  Nor  am  I  presuming  to  lecture ;  but  I  should 
like  to  come  in  on  the  side  of  those  thoughts  of  your  own  which 
may  be  hopeful  rather  than  of  those  which  may  be  despondent. 


To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mackennal 

6th  May  1S94. 

I  am  very  grateful  for  your  affectionate  letter — grateful,  though 
I  cannot  take  all  the  comfort  which  you  meant  me  to  receive 
from  it.  God  has  been  infinitely  good  and  gracious  to  me,  and 
His  very  goodness  and  graciousness  make  the  review  of  life 
terrible.  My  ministry  has  been  so  different  from  what  it  might 
have  been.  And  when  I  sometimes  hear  that  what  I  have  said 
or  written  has  been  of  service  to  men,  I  am  driven  to  a  theory 
not  unlike  that  by  which  some  expositors  have  attempted  to 
explain  the  miracle  of  Pentecost.  The  speakers  were  Galilean 
peasants  and  fishermen,  and  according  to  this  theory  they  spoke 
their  Galilean  dialect ;  but  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
what  they  said  seemed  to  the  people  who  heard  them  a  testimony 
delivered  in  their  own  tongue,  though  they  came  from  many 
remote  lands. — But  the  final  judgment  for  me  cannot  be  very  far 
off,  and  God  is  merciful. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Paton 

6th  May  1S94. 

Hearty  thanks  for  your  affectionate  and  consolatory  letter. 
That  you  should  think  that,  through  God's  grace,  my  life  has  not 
been  a  great  and  flagrant  failure — which  I  sometimes  think  it 
has  been — ought  to  be  a  support  to  me ;  but  since  I  have  been 
laid  aside  from  the  more  active  life  of  former  years  it  has  become 
more  and  more  apparent  to  me  that  God  may  do  good  work 


676  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

through  a  man  in  which  the  man  himself  has  no  share,  and  which 
will  not  count  for  him  in  the  Judgment.  I  can  but  leave  myself 
in  the  hands  of  His  infinite  mercy. 

I  wonder  whether  you  saw  the  whole  of  the  letter  in  which  I 
recalled  our  old  Eclectic  and  Patriot  years,  or  whether  you  saw 
only  what  appears  in  the  British  Weekly.  I  send  you  a  copy  of 
"  Number  Ten,"  x  for  which  the  letter  was  written.  There  will 
be  a  second  letter  in  the  July  number ;  for  "  Number  Ten  "  is 
a  kind  of  Quarterly  Review. 

I  had  occasion  to  look  through  the  Eclectic  for  the  year  in 
which  I  began  to  write.  I  had  kept  no  copy,  and  had  to  trust 
my  memory  for  the  first  three  or  four  articles.  One  of  them — 
that  on  Benjamin  Parsons — I  was  doubtful  about,  though  I  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  mine.  I  was  particularly  puzzled 
by  a  paragraph  in  which  I  deprecated  the  waste  of  strength 
occasioned  by  intermeddling  with  politics  and  other  matters 
lying  outside  the  direct  line  of  ministerial  work.  It  seemed  odd 
that  at  the  beginning  of  my  ministry  I  should  have  seen — ap- 
parently with  such  clearness — the  truth  which  has  come  home 
to  me,  as  if  it  were  quite  fresh  and  unfamiliar,  at  the  close  of  it. 
It  is  a  clear  case  of  seeing  the  better  path  and  choosing  the 
worse.     Alas !     Alas ! 

You,  I  hope,  are  strong  enough  to  do  a  fair  amount  of  work 
at  the  Institute.2  If,  by  God's  good  help,  you  can  send  out  a 
fair  number  of  men  with  a  deep  and  vivid  realisation  of  the 
power  and  glory  of  the  Christian  redemption,  you  may  be  content 
that  wider  schemes  of  usefulness  have  been  checked.  I  have  not 
forgotten  your  early  dreams  of  organising  the  work  of  a  few 
Evangelical  scholars  for  the  literary  and  scholarly  service  of 
Christ.     I  suppose  that  you  could  not  find  the  scholars. 

To  the  Bishop  of  Worcester3 

\%th  May  1894. 

Allow  me  to  congratulate  you  very  heartily  on  the  absence  of 
your  name  from  the  signatures  appended  to  the  Episcopal  mani- 
festo on  the  Government  Bill  for  the  Disestablishment  of  the 
English  Church  in  Wales.  I  can  imagine — and  yet  perhaps  I 
cannot — how  severe  an  effort  it  needed  to  dissociate  yourself  in 
this  movement  from  your  episcopal  brethren.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  grounds  of  your  isolation,  I  thank  God  that  you 
had  the  courage  to  be  faithful  to  your  own  light. 

1  See  p.  10. 

2  A  Congregational  College  at  Nottingham  for  ministerial  training. 

3  Dr.  J.  J.  S.  Perowne. 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  677 

I  do  not  fail  to  pray  that  God  will  sustain  you  by  His  grace 
in  your  great  and  difficult  position ;  I  can  do  this  without 
"conforming."  l 

To  the  Rev.  J.  C.  Harrison 

Llanbedr,  itfhjuly  1S94. 

My  very  dear  Friend — I  am  deeply  concerned  to  hear  of 
your  illness.  Some  one  told  me  of  it  a  week  ago  and  I  wanted 
to  write  to  you  at  once ;  but,  being  away  from  home,  I  had  no 
means  of  getting  at  your  address  till  Miss  Harrison's  note  reached 
me  this  morning.  But  I  have  prayed  that  God  would  comfort, 
sustain,  and  relieve  you.  Indeed,  my  dear  friend,  you  have 
been  such  a  support  to  me  for  a  long  time,  and  your  affection 
has  been  the  source  of  so  much  happiness  to  me,  that  you  had  a 
place,  long  before  I  heard  of  your  illness,  in  my  daily  interces- 
sions. You  cannot  tell  to  what  extent  you  have  been  a  channel 
of  God's  blessing  to  me.  God  loves  you  well  and  has  made  you 
more  than  you  can  ever  know  in  this  world  to  your  brethren. 
And  whom  He  loveth  He  chasteneth.  In  weary  nights  when 
breathing  was  difficult  and  it  seemed  as  though  my  heart  must 
stop,  and  in  nights  when  from  physical  causes  a  horror  of  great 
darkness  came  upon  me,  I  have  found,  if  not  always  comfort,  a 
certain  steadiness  of  mind  in  remembering  this. 

Sometimes,  too,  at  such  seasons  I  have  been  tortured  by  a 
sense  of  my  unfaithfulness  to  God  and  the  greatness  of  my  sin ; 
but  then  I  have  remembered  that  He  scourgeth  every  son  that 
He  receiveth ;  and  it  is  better  to  have  the  scourging  with  the 
sonship  than  to  escape  the  scourging  at  the  cost  of  losing  the 
sonship.  I  trust  that  God  may  give  you  relief,  and  spare  you  to 
us  for  some  time  longer ;  for  we  sadly  need  you ;  but  whatever 
comes,  you  know  that  you  are  in  His  strong  and  loving  hands. 

To  Miss  Harrison 

Llanbedr,  zqthjuly  1894. 
I    have  just  seen  the  announcement   in  yesterday's   Times.2 
God  be  thanked  that  he  has  entered  into    rest.     Last    night, 

1  In  so  writing,  Dale  did  not  assume  or  suppose  that  the  Bishop  was  in 
favour  of  the  Disestablishment  of  the  Welsh  Church  ;  he  merely  wished  to 
express  his  admiration  of  the  Bishop's  courage  in  standing  apart  from  his 
episcopal  colleagues.  "Of  late  years,"  he  said  in  another  letter,  "I  have 
known  something  of  the  effort  necessary  to  dissociate  oneself  from  the  public 
action  of  old  friends  and  comrades  ;  and  perhaps  this  made  me  the  more  ready 
to  sympathise  with  your  Lordship's  position." 

2  The  announcement  of  her  father's  death. 


678  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

whenever  I  woke,  I  thought  of  him,  and  prayed  that  his  night 
might  be  peaceful,  that  he  might  not  have  to  endure  distress, 
that  he  might  be  solaced  and  supported  by  God's  presence ;  but 
instead  of  having  a  night  of  suffering  he  had  already  passed  into 
the  blessedness  of  the  eternal  Light. 

There  was  no  other  man  in  our  ministry  who  was  so  deeply 
and  universally  loved.  Men  who  provoke  no  antagonism  do 
not,  for  the  most  part,  create  much  affection.  But  your  father 
had  no  enemies,  and  the  love  he  drew  to  himself  was  very  strong 
and  tender.  We  all  felt  that  he  had  very  much  of  the  spirit  of 
Christ  in  him  :   and  the  better  we  knew  him  we  felt  this  the 


more, 


Allow  me  to  express  my  affectionate  sympathy  with  yourself. 
He  relied  very  much  upon  you.  You  were  a  great  consolation 
and  support  to  him.  You  have  done  a  great  work  which  Christ 
will  remember ;  and  for  the  opportunity  of  doing  it  you  may 
always  be  grateful.  Those  who  loved  him  are  grateful  to  you  for 
all  that  you  did  for  him.  Cicero  said  of  a  friend  that  it  was 
better  to  have  the  memory  of  him  than  to  have  the  living  friend- 
ship of  other  men  ;  and  to  you  your  father's  memory  will  always 
be  a  strength  and  joy. 

Mrs.  Dale  unites  with  me  in  affectionate  sympathy.  God 
comfort  you  ! 

To  Mr.  E.  Wheeler 

Llanbedr,  \bthjuly  1894. 

I  was  glad  to  see,  a  few  days  ago,  that  you  were  through ; 2 
and  I  heartily  congratulate  you.  Dr.  Fairbairn  had  told  me  that 
when  you  went  in  you  were  not  very  well,  and  that  this  might 
destroy  your  chance  of  a  first ;  in  those  circumstances  you  did 
well  to  get  a  second. 

In  the  time  which  remains  for  you  at  Mansfield  you  will,  I 
trust,  work  hard — not  too  hard — at  your  theology ;  and  will  also 
endeavour  to  construe  theological  truth  under  forms  which  will 
make  it  available  for  your  preaching.  There  are  methods  of 
thought  as  unintelligible  to  ordinary  people  as  the  language  of 
the  schools ;  our  thought,  as  well  as  our  words,  has  to  be  trans- 
lated into  the  vulgar  style.  And  above  all  you  will  endeavour, 
in  the  light  and  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God  and  in  close  fellow- 
ship with  the  Personal  Christ,  to  look  at  the  actual  facts  of 
human  life  and  the  power  of  the  Christian   redemption.     For 

1  "It  is  a  grace  from  heaven  to  be  loved  by  such  a  man.'' — To  Miss 
Harrison. 

2  Final  Schools  at  Oxford. 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  679 

the  moment  I  suppose  that  your  chief  duty  is  to  do  nothing  and 
to  get  vigorous. 

To  Mr.  E.  Wheeler 

10th  November  1894. 

Your  letter  filled  me  with  great  thankfulness ;  not  that  I  ever 
thought  that  you  would  remain  very  long  among  the  cold  and 
lifeless  abstractions  which  were  fascinating  you  a  year  ago,  but 
you  are  making  your  escape  sooner  than  might  have  been  feared. 
Many  of  us  have  an  experience  of  the  kind ;  we  need  not  be 
permanently  the  worse  for  it. 

For  myself  I  believe  that  the  religious  life  is  originated  and 
sustained  in  activity  by  the  actual  experience  of  the  objective 
reality  of  the  Divine  righteousness  and  grace,  and  the  power  and 
glory  of  Christ  as  the  Redeemer  of  men.  Dr.  Nicoll  in  his 
notice  of  my  new  book l  in  the  British  Weekly  has  stated  with 
great  precision  what,  to  use  a  pretentious  word,  is  the  "method  " 
which  I  have  endeavoured  to  apply  to  theological  truth.  Mr. 
Illingworth  in  his  very  remarkable  Bamptons  grasps  the  concep- 
tion firmly:  religious  truth,  he  says,  must  be  present  in  life 
before  it  can  be  definitely  present  in  thought. 

You  are  now  on  the  true  line  of  the  preacher.  Realise  in 
experience — without  haste  and  impatience — the  contents  of  the 
Christian  revelation,  and  then  you  will  be  able  both  to  "  think  " 
and  to  state  them.  But,  as  I  have  said,  avoid  haste  and 
impatience.  These  great  things  take  time  to  know.  I  remember 
that  when  I  discovered  and  knew  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is 
alive,  I  could  think  of  nothing  else  and  preach  of  nothing  else 
for  weeks.  That  is  thirty  years  ago,  and  I  sometimes  wish  that 
I  could  recall  the  vividness  and  delight  of  the  discovery.  It  was 
a  genuine  Easter  time.  But  I  must  not  write  more.  God  be 
with  you. 

To  the  Rev.  George  Barber 

Llanbedr,  16th  July  1S94. 

I  am  getting  through  the  proof  of  my  sermons :  here  and 
there  I  have  to  add  a  passage  to  make  the  argument  clearer; 
and  I  have  to  cut  out  epithets. 

I  am  also  reading  Dr.  Andrew  Bonar's  Life  with  much  interest. 
He  was  a  man  of  unusual  devoutness.  He  tried  to  get  two 
hours  every  day  for  actual  prayer,  and  still  was  unsatisfied.     You 

1  Christian  Doctrine. 


6So  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

must  read  the  book  when  I  come  home.  He  said  one  striking 
thing : — "  I  can  do  more  by  praying  than  I  can  do  in  any  other 
way." 

To  Mr.  E.  A.  Lawrence 

Llanbedr,  i6tk  Augitst  1894. 

It  was  very  good  of  you  to  send  me  so  full  an  account  of  the 
Summer  School ;  l  I  read  it  with  great  interest.  I  had  already 
been  struck  by  the  inconsiderable  number  of  English  Congrega- 
tional ministers  whose  names  were  registered.  Norman  Smith 
had  sent  me  the  list,  and  there  were  hardly  any  whom  I  knew. 
It  is  curious ;  I  wonder  how  it  is.  Do  our  men  care  for 
Theology  ?  Do  they  get  their  sermons,  as  one  conspicuous  man 
recently  informed  the  public  he  did,  from  novels  rather  than 
from  the  Bible  ?  I  hear  very  discouraging  things  sometimes — 
things  showing  the  most  melancholy  indifference,  on  the  part  of 
very  good  men,  to  exegesis  and  to  the  whole  range  of  theological 
inquiry.     I  am  afraid  that  I  am  apt  to  drift  towards  what  you 

say  is 's  mind,   minus  the  feeling  that  there  is  an   Elijah 

at  Horeb.  But  I  fight  against  it.  The  newspapers  and  the 
Congregational  Union  discussions  probably  show  us  at  our  worst. 

To  Mrs.  Richard  Davies 

22nd  August  1894. 

I  cannot  tell  you  how  grateful  I  am  for  all  your  kindness,  or 
what  happiness  it  was  to  me  to  see  Treborth  again — by  which  I 
do  not  mean  Treborth  so  much,  as  the  people  who  are  there ; 
though  Treborth  itself  is  beautiful.  It  was  a  delightful  surprise 
to  find  Mr.  Davies  so  well,  and  your  own  vigour  so  wonderful. 
You  must  not  be  surprised  if  you  have  more  than  your  own 
share  in  bearing  the  burdens  of  others ;  that  seems  to  be  the 
reason  that  God  gives  some  people  strength.  What  a  mystery 
life  is  !  We  may,  I  think,  listen  to  God  saying  to  us  every  day, 
"What  I  do  thou  knowest  not  now,  but  thou  shalt  know  after- 
wards." The  most  gracious  of  the  Divine  acts  are  sometimes 
concealed  under  what  seems  to  us  the  roughest  circumstances ; 
and  His  grace  is  working  both  in  ourselves  and  others  when  we 
can  hardly  see  the  faintest  signs  of  it.  But  it  is  hard  to  walk  by 
faith. 

If  I   can  lay  my  hands  on   a  copy  of  my  lectures  on  the 

1  The  "  Summer  School "  of  Theology  carried  on  in  connection  with 
Mansfield  College,  Oxford. 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  63 1 

Ephesians  this  afternoon  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  sending  it  to 
you.  It  is  the  book  of  mine  that  I  like  best ;  Paul  found  me  the 
material,  and  I  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  say  over  again  what  he 
had  already  said.  I  was  looking  at  it  this  morning,  and  found 
that  twelve  years  ago  I  had  seen  something  which  I  thought  I 
had  seen  for  the  first  time  during  my  recent  stay  at  Llanbedr : 
but  I  doubt  whether  I  saw  it  clearly  twelve  years  ago ;  Paul  had 
seen  it,  and  I  only  repeated  it  after  him.  I  am  referring  to  that 
pregnant  phrase — "according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  His  will," 
which  Paul  uses  in  connection  with  God's  pre-ordaining  us  to  the 
adoption  of  sons.     It  is  full  of  consolation  and  strength. 

To  Mrs.  Richard  Davies 

nth  September  1894. 

Mrs.  Dale  tells  me  that  your  birthday  will  be  on  Thursday ; 
allow  me  to  offer  my  affectionate  congratulations,  and  to  express 
the  earnest  hope  that  you  have  still  many  vigorous  and  happy 
years  before  you. 

You  will  think  of  all  the  goodness  and  grace  that  God  has 
shown  you,  and  of  all  the  reasons  you  have  for  being  thankful 
that  you  were  born  at  all,  and  have  been  kept  in  life  till  now. 
You  will  think  of  the  divine  air  that  you  must  have  breathed  in 
your  home,  of  all  that  I  know  you  must  have  become  to  your 
father  and  mother — what  joy  and  strength  and  light  you  gave 
them.  You  will  think  of  all  that  you  have  been  to  Mr.  Davies 
and  to  your  children.  You  will  think  of  what  you  have  been 
to  friends,  many  of  whom  have  gone  to  their  rest.  And  yet  you 
cannot  know  what  you  have  been  to  others — how  much  solace 
and  courage  and  hope  a  warm  and  generous  heart  like  yours  is 
constantly  giving  to  others.  Be  assured,  my  dear  friend,  you 
have  been  a  blessing  to  others  far  beyond  your  thoughts.  I 
suppose  that  we  often  confer  the  best  blessings  when  we  are  not 
thinking  of  doing  any  service  either  to  God  or  man.  Of  course 
you  have  your  unfulfilled  hopes ;  that  is  the  lot  of  every  child  of 
God  until  the  final  home  is  reached.  But  we  have  to  learn  to 
lose  our  own  care  in  the  larger,  deeper,  mightier  care  of  God ; 
we  have  to  think — shall  I  say  ? — not  of  how  much  we  need  God's 
sympathy,  but  of  how  much  He  needs  ours.  I  do  not  cease  to 
pray  that  all  your  young  people — in  whom  there  is  so  much  to 
love  and  admire — may  learn  the  true  secret  of  this  blessed  life. 

Mrs.  Dale  and  I  are  venturing  to  send  you  Moule  on  the 
Romans.  I  am  reading  it  with  great  interest  and,  I  trust,  with 
profit.  I  do  not  always  agree  with  him ;  but  he  has  a  deep 
knowledge  of  the  things  of  Christ,  and  there  is  something  con- 


682  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

tagious  in  his  earnestness.     His  theology  will,  I  suppose,  recall 
to  you  the  theology  of  your  own  earlier  years. 

To  Miss  A.  M.  Davies 

Malvern,  %th  October  1894. 

It  was  more  than  good  of  you  to  write  to  me,  and  your  letter 
brought  warmth  and  light.  I  should  have  answered  it  long  ago 
but  I  have  had  rather  a  bad  time.  There  has  been  a  striking- 
originality  about  me  during  the  last  six  weeks.  At  Treborth,  as 
you  know,  I  started  asthma.  After  I  got  home  my  eyes  troubled 
me  for  the  first  time  in  my  life.  For  several  days  I  was  unable 
to  write  more  than  a  few  lines  at  a  time ;  and  I  was  wearied 
after  reading  for  three  or  four  minutes.  It  was  a  curious  ex- 
perience to  be  able  neither  to  read  nor  write.  But  life  was  not 
so  dull  as  you  might  imagine  it  would  be.  For  years  I  have 
been  in  the  habit,  at  quiet  times,  of  thinking  about  my  friends, 
brooding  over  them,  as  one  broods  over  striking  lines  in  a  poem  ; 
and  I  found  that  this  was  a  very  happy  way  of  passing  the  time. 
And  then  I  thought  about  great  Christian  experiences  and  tried 
to  translate  them  into  approximately  accurate  intellectual  forms — 
into  definition  and  doctrine.  This  is  always  a  delight.  The 
intellectual  interest  of  the  Christian  gospel  and  of  the  life  it 
creates  remains  eternally  fresh.  Indeed  I  have  sometimes  feared 
that  I  find  the  mere  intellectual  interest  of  Christian  truth  too 
absorbing  and  stimulating.  .  .  . 

You  are  only  partly  right  in  saying  that  we  can  do  so  little 
for  those  we  love :  my  experience  is  that  the  affection  of  my 
friends  is  bread  for  strength  and  wine  for  joy;  the  things  it 
cannot  do  may  with  God's  good  help  be  endured. 

The  last  link  with  the  outside  world  was  severed  during 
the  summer,  when  he  resigned  his  Chairmanship  of  the 
Council  and  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Mansfield 
College.  For  some  time  previously  he  had  been  unable 
to  discharge  his  official  duties,  but  his  colleagues  had  in- 
duced him  to  remain  ;  now  he  insisted  that  a  successor 
should  be  appointed.  In  the  winter,  Mr.  Barber,  his 
assistant,  left  Carr's  Lane,  having  accepted  a  pastorate  at 
Bolton.  Dale  felt  the  parting  keenly.  The  personal 
relations  between  them  had  been  so  close  ;  Mr.  Barber 
had  served  the  church  so  well  ;  his  temperament  was  so 
full  of  warmth  and  light,  that  the  separation,  though  in- 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  6S3 

evitable,  was  a  real  sorrow,  and  it  was  with  regret  as  well  as 
anxiety  that  Dale  began  to  search  for  a  successor  to  the 
vacant  place. 

About  the  same  time,  in  a  season  of  great  depression, 
when  the  sense  of  weakness  had  well-nigh  mastered  him, 
and  his  work,  as  he  looked  back  on  it,  filled  him  with  self- 
reproach,  he  received  unexpected  encouragement.  The 
Congregational  Union,  assembled  at  Liverpool,  passed  a 
resolution  expressing  their  affectionate  sympathy  with  him 
in  his  retirement,  their  gratitude  for  his  past  services,  and 
their  cordial  appreciation  of  the  work  that  he  was  still 
able  to  do  through  his  books.  His  friends — as  Dr.  Guin- 
ness Rogers  said  in  moving  the  resolution — wished  "  to 
send  a  bright  moment  to  him  in  this  hour  of  weakness  "  ; 
and  their  purpose  was  abundantly  fulfilled.  The  affection 
of  his  brethren  had  never  been  so  precious,  and  the  tele- 
gram in  which  the  vote  of  the  assembly  was  communicated 
stirred  him  deeply.  Only  a  few  days  later,  before  the 
first  impression  had  time  to  fade,  came  a  letter  from  the 
Bishop  of  Durham  bringing  fresh  assurance  that  he  had 
not  laboured  in  vain,  and  referring  especially  to  the  Lectures 
on  the  Ephesians.  "  I  am  not  a  patient  reader  of  commen- 
taries," he  wrote,  "  but  your  lectures  give  me  better  than 
anything  else  the  help  which  I  welcome."  The  whole 
letter  was  full  of  affectionate  regard.  No  other  living 
man  could  have  so  cheered  him.  For  Dr.  Westcott, 
though  they  seldom  met,  he  had  the  most  profound  admira- 
tion, and  a  reverence  that  learning  by  itself  can  never 
command.  The  assurance  that  it  had  been  granted  him 
in  any  degree  to  minister  to  the  strength  of  such  a  spirit 
filled  him  with  inexpressible  joy.  And  as  if  to  crown 
his  gladness,  the  same  week  brought  an  unlooked-for 
blessing  in  the  innermost  circle  of  the  home.  His  heart 
was  full  to  overflowing,  and  the  brightness  of  "  the  great 
week,"  as  he  called  it,  remained  with  him  to  the  end. 

The  end  was  nearer  than  he  thought.      The  new  year, 
1895,  had  set  in  brightly.      His  book  on  Christian  Doctrine  Aged  65. 
had  met  with  a  welcome  far  exceeding  his  expectation.     His 
hope  had  been  that  it  would  slowly  make  its  way  among 


684  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  few  who  cared  for  such  subjects  ;  on  immediate  success 
he  had  not  ventured  to  reckon  ;  and  the  generous  appre- 
ciation with  which  the  volume  was  at  once  received,  even 
by  those  who  in  theological  thought  stood  farthest  from 
him,  gave  him  fresh  courage  and  confidence.  The  letter 
that  he  received  from  the  Bishop  of  Winchester — a  most 
friendly  and  genial  correspondent — was  one  of  many  such 
that  came  to  him. 

From  the  Bishop  of  Winchester1 

Farnham  Castle,  Surrey,  7th  December  1894. 

I  cannot  lay  down  your  book  on  Christian  Doctrine  without 
thanking  you  for  the  solid  and  exhilarating  instruction  it  has 
given  me,  and  for  the  contribution  which  it  represents,  with  so 
much  lucidity  and  force  and  erudition,  to  the  maintenance  of 
the  common  faith. 

If  there  is  one  passage  in  it  which  exceptionally  commends 
itself  to  my  judgment  for  diction  and  a  certain  majestic  loftiness 
of  idea  it  is  in  page  155,  where  you  ask,  For  what  does  the  word 
"  God  "  stand  ?  I  doubt  if  there  is  another  man  living  who  could 
have  written  the  passage  that  follows — not  many  dead.2 

If  we  were  sitting  near  to  each  other  by  the  fire  I  could  say 
a  great  deal — all  in  a  happy  and  admiring  concord.  I  quite 
feel  with  you  that  the  sense  of  sin  is  comparatively  little  felt, 
and  perhaps  less  dwelt  on  by  Christian  teachers  now  than  of 
old.  We  learn  it  in  old  age,  if  not  sooner ;  and  there  is  a  gulf 
of  difference  between  repentance  and  penitence.  I  am  not  sure 
if  Evangelical  teaching — which  however  among  thoughtful  men, 
not  cankered  by  party  spirit,  is  filling  out  and  completing  itself 
on  all  sides — does  not  need  to  grow  in  its  recognition  and 
appreciation  of  the  objective  side  of  truth.  In  your  next  volume 
I  shall  eagerly  look  for  your  teaching  on  the  Sacraments.  To 
ignore  or  minimise  divinely-ordained  methods  of  grace  is  to  play 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

Your  book  will  now  take  its  place  with  many  others  from  the 
same  honoured  pen,  in  a  bookcase  just  under  a  portrait  of 
Bishop  Andrewes. 

1  Dr.  Thorold. 

2  The  passage  to  which  the  Bishop  refers  is  in  the  lecture  on  the  Trinity  : 
Christian  Doctrine,  pp.   155,  156. 

For  whom  does  the  word  "God"  stand?  It  stands  for  One  of  whose 
greatness  it  seems  presumptuous  to  speak,  and  in  whose  presence  silence 
seems  the  truest  worship.      He  lives  from  Eternity  to  Eternity.      He  is  here ; 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  6S5 

He  looked  forward  to  completing  his  original  plan 
with  a  second  series  of  similar  discourses.  He  also  began 
to  prepare  for  writing  a  book  on  the  Holy  Spirit,  which 
had  been  in  his  mind  for  many  years.  He  had  touched 
upon  the  subject  at  many  points ;  but  hitherto  in  attempt- 
ing to  bring  his  thought  into  system,  he  had  found  himself 
confronted  by  an  obstacle  that  he  could  not  surmount. 
It  was  the  one  book  that  he  longed  to  write  ;  and  now 
the  path,  he  hoped,  might  open  before  him. 

As  he  looked  back,  it  appeared  that  the  attacks  of 
illness  had  gradually  diminished  in  severity.  In  1891  he 
had  been  absent  from  his  pulpit  for  twenty-one  Sundays 
in  succession;  in  1892  for  nineteen;  in  1893  for  ten. 
But  during  the  past  twelvemonth  his  longest  absence 
through  illness  had  not  extended  beyond  three  Sundays  ; 
and  on  1 2th  February  when  he  recalled  these  details  in 

He  is  everywhere ;  there  is  no  remotest  region  where  He  is  not.  To  say 
that  He  created  all  things,  and  that,  after  sustaining  all  things  through  count- 
less ages,  He  fainteth  not,  neither  is  He  weary,  is  to  say  nothing  concerning 
His  infinite  strength  :  He  Himself  is  infinitely  greater  than  the  universe,  and 
He  lives,  has  ever  lived,  and  will  live  for  ever,  in  the  power  of  His  own  life. 
We  say — and  yet  we  know  not  what  we  are  saying — that  all  things  in  this 
world  and  in  all  worlds,  are  present  to  His  mind  ;  in  this  world — every  grain 
of  sand  on  the  desolate  shores  of  unknown  seas,  every  ripple  that  breaks  the 
surface  of  quiet  inland  streams,  every  wave  that  foams  in  mid-ocean  ;  the 
flutter  of  every  leaf  in  a  thousand  forests ;  the  birth  and  the  death  of  every 
wild  flower ;  every  drop  of  dew  that  glitters  in  the  morning  sun ;  the  song  of 
every  bird  ;  the  joy  and  the  pain  of  every  living  thing ; — every  word  that  is 
spoken,  every  deed  that  is  done,  by  all  the  millions  of  the  human  race  ;  every 
settled  purpose,  every  transient  thought,  every  vague  longing,  every  passion, 
every  memory,  every  hope,  of  every  man  in  all  countries  and  in  all  times. 
We  say  that  all  things  are  present  to  His  mind — all  things  in  the  heavens 
above  as  well  as  on  the  earth  beneath  :  and  then, — if  the  countless  worlds 
which  relieve  the  solitudes  of  the  infinite  realms  of  space  are  filled,  as  well 
they  may  be,  with  countless  races  of  living  creatures  having  other  joys  and 
sorrows  than  ours,  other  forms  of  intellectual  faculty,  other  temptations  to 
sin,  other  possibilities  of  virtue, — their  innumerable  and  various  lives  with  all 
the  shadows  that  darken,  and  all  the  lights  that  brighten  them,  are  always 
present  to  Him. 

He  Himself  is  removed  by  an  infinite  distance  from  all  the  fluctuations 
and  vicissitudes  of  created  life.  His  blessedness  is  unclouded,  His  peace 
unbroken,  by  the  storms  that  beat  upon  the  universe,  which  is  infinitely 
beneath  Him.  His  righteousness  can  be  assailed  by  no  temptations.  The 
Law  of  Righteousness  itself,  though  not  the  creature  of  His  will,  is  not  above 
Him.  In  His  supremacy  the  law  is  supreme  ;  He  does  not  obey  it.  In 
Him  and  through  Him  it  exerts  its  august  authority.  He  dwells  in  light 
that  no  man  can  approach  unto.  Clouds  and  darkness  are  round  Him. 
God  is  great,  and  we  know  Him  not. 


686  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

writing  his  yearly  preface  to  the  Carr's  Lane  Church 
Manual,  he  had  been  well  enough  to  preach  for  twelve 
Sundays  out  of  thirteen,  and  on  Christmas  Day  also. 
But  the  winter  had  been  severe,  and  the  protracted  cold 
was  against  him.  On  18th  January  he  had  been  laid 
aside,  and,  to  his  bitter  disappointment,  he  could  not 
attend  the  reception  given  to  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers  in 
Birmingham  on  the  24th.  He  was  looking  forward,  he 
said,  with  much  uncertainty  to  the  next  three  or  four 
weeks. 

He  knew  well  that  his  hold  on  life  was  feeble  and  pre- 
carious, but  the  letters  written  during  these  weeks,  and  the 
address  on  "  Friendship "  that  he  gave  to  his  church  on 
Christmas  Day,  showed  that  his  interests,  his  sympathies, 
and  his  affections  were  as  strong  as  ever. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Reynolds 

26th  November  1S94. 

I  see  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  called  you  away  from 
your  Cheshunt  work  to  rest  awhile.1  I  hope  that  it  will  not  be 
in  a  "  desert  place,"  but  if  it  is,  He  will  be  with  you ;  and  then 
sooner  or  later  will  come  the  free  and  vigorous  life  and  the 
larger  service  in  the  presence  of  His  glory. 

What  solace  and  strength  there  is  in  a  time  like  this  in 
remembering  His  great  power  and  His  perfect  love  for  you  ! 
To  your  friends  there  is  also  solace  in  thinking  of  all  that  the 
grace  of  God  has  been  accomplishing  through  you  for  many 
years.  You  may  not  find  in  this  all  the  solace  that  they  find ; 
but  the  solace  will  come  to  you.  I  suppose  that  even  you  may 
feel  that  you  have  fallen  far  short  of  the  faithfulness  which  the 
infinite  love  of  Christ  should  have  created  in  you ;  but  is  there 
not  a  kind  of  satisfaction  in  thinking  that  we  have  had  no  part 
in  the  good  work  that  God  has  done  through  us ;  that  He  has 
done  it  notwithstanding  our  want  of  fidelity ;  that  His  grace  has 
been  shown  as  abundantly  in  the  good  that  He  has  done  through 
us  as  in  the  forgiveness  of  our  sins  ?  I  have  been  walking  in 
paths  that  have  brought  me  to  this.  You,  too,  if  you  have 
times  when  the  failures  of  the  past  seem  terrible  to  you,  may 
come  to  it. 

But  to  your  brethren  your  life  and  work  are  full  of  a  light 

1  Dr.  Reynolds  had  just  resigned  the  Presidency  of  Cheshunt  College. 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  687 

from  Heaven,  and  they  bless  God  for  what  you  have  been  to 
them.  They  love  you  because  they  have  found  Christ  in  you. 
I  trust  that  you  are  not  destined  to  suffer  severe  pain  or  even 
that  permanent  weakness  and  prostration  which  sometimes 
seem  to  me  worse  than  pain.  Nor  must  you  think  that  your 
service  to  Christ  and  us  is  over.  You  may  sit  quietly  on  the 
shore — perhaps  for  years — looking  across  to  the  land  on  the 
other  side  shining  in  the  Eternal  light ;  and  you  will  tell  us 
what  you  see. 

You  know — no,  you  do  not  know — how  much  we  love  you. 
The  discovery  of  that  will  be  one  of  the  blessed  surprises  of  the 
great  future.  But  we  do  love  you  and  we  pray  that  you  may 
have  peace. 


To  Mrs.  Richard  Davies 

ntk  December  1894. 

I  assure  you  that  I  was  never  more  serious  in  my  life  than 
when  I  said  that  I  hoped  that  the  Discourses  on  Christian 
Doctrine  would  meet  with  your  approval  as  far  as  the  substance 
of  them  is  concerned.  For  it  is  a  fundamental  principle  with 
me  that  Christian  people  who,  like  yourself,  have  known  Christ 
for  a  long  time,  and  who  have  been  under  such  influences  as  those 
which  rested  on  you  during  your  father's  life,  realise  for  them- 
selves such  great  facts  as  those  with  which  I  deal  in  this  volume; 
and  if  I  found  that  my  statements  on  these  central  glories  of  the 
Faith  did  not  satisfy  them,  I  should  be  troubled.  If  I  gave  an 
account  of  Menai  Straits  which  seemed  to  you  on  any  important 
point  inaccurate  I  should  know  that  I  was  wrong;  for  you  have 
lived  there ;  and  you  have  lived  in  those  high  realms  with  which 
the  discourses  deal.  About  the  Notes  I  do  not  feel  quite  the 
same.  For  in  them  I  had  to  deal  with  questions  which  are 
raised  by  speculation,  and  about  which  there  must  for  a  long 
time  to  come  be  differences  among  Christian  people. 

The  book  is  making  its  way  fairly,  and  is  getting  more 
commendation  than  it  deserves.  The  Tablet — the  chief  Roman 
Catholic  newspaper,  had  a  long  and  cordial  review  of  it  a  week 
or  two  ago.  Of  course  it  cannot  recommend  Roman  Catholic 
laymen  to  read  a  theological  book  by  a  Congregationalist ;  but 
it  thinks  that  priests  who  will  know  how  to  supply  its  defects 
might  read  it  with  profit. 

I  wonder  when  your  young  people  will  land.  I  have  thought 
of  them  every  day  since  they  started.  God  grant  that  they  may 
come  back  to  you  in  health  and  safety. 


688  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Fairbairn 

iT,th  December  1894. 
Hearty  thanks  for  the  affectionate  warmth  of  your  review  of 
Christian  Doctrine  in  the  Speaker.  Do  you  remember  what 
Macaulay  wrote  to  Henry  Rogers  when  Rogers  had  spoken 
enthusiastically  about  his  Speeches  ? — "  Your  kind  partiality 
diminishes  the  value  of  your  critical  approbation.  But  I  had 
much  rather  that  you  should  like  my  writings  for  my  sake  than 
for  their  own."  This  is  a  wholesome  check  on  whatever  conceit 
might  have  been  encouraged  by  your  generous  words,  but  it 
creates  satisfaction  of  another  and  better  kind. 

To  Miss  A.  M.  Davies 

31^  December  1894. 

Please  always  write  to  me  when  you  have  "nothing  to  say." 
I  like  letters  of  that  sort.  Other  letters  are  apt  to  lose  the 
interest  of  personality. 

That  poem  of  Goethe's  to  which  you  refer  is  charming. 
But  I  feel  very  unlike  an  eagle ;  indeed  I  never  had  any 
experience  of  that  kind.  If  I  wanted  to  find  an  analogue  I 
think  that  the  most  suitable  would  be  an  old  cab-horse  that  had 
never  known  any  other  life,  and  could  not  look  back  upon  the 
time  when,  like  many  of  his  fellows,  he  pricked  up  his  ears  at 
the  sound  of  the  huntsman's  horn  and  was  fiercely  happy  when 
clearing  hedges  and  ditches  and  listening  to  the  dogs  in  full  cry. 
I  seem  to  have  been  nearly  always  in  the  shafts,  though  just 
now  and  then  I  have  had  a  good  time  when  turned  out  to  grass. 

But  there  was  one  of  your  letters  in  which  you  had  a  great 
deal  to  say  and  which  gave  me  a  great  thrill  of  joy.  I  remember 
very  vividly  the  months  of  happiness  which  I  had  after  it  was 
settled  that  I  should  go  to  the  Holy  Land.  The  thought  of  it 
was  with  me  by  day  and  by  night ;  that  was  one  of  the  times 
when  I  was  looking  forward  to  be  turned  out  to  grass,  and  the 
lumbering  old  cab  at  my  heels  rattled  over  the  granite  road  as 
it  had  never  done  before.     I  share  your  delight.  .  .  . 

You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  I  am  still  mending — in  my 
health  I  mean — as  to  other  matters,  who  can  say?  I  have 
preached  seven  Sundays  in  succession,  and  I  also  preached  on 
Christmas  Day.  I  told  your  mother  that  on  Christmas  Day  I 
was  going  to  quote  a  sentence  in  which  Whately  says  how  rare 
it  is  that  people  after  they  have  passed  middle  life  make  new 
friendships  :   "  For  grafts  of  old  wood  to  take,  the  trees  must  be 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  689 

very  congenial."  I  have  found  that  it  is  not  impossible.  On 
my  own  account  I  said — and  I  think  for  once  I  hit  upon  an 
original  thought — that  when  friendships  of  a  close  and  happy 
kind  are  formed  after  middle  life  it  is  usually  with  persons  much 
younger  than  ourselves.  I  could  have  mentioned  Treborth  as 
an  example  of  both.  I  gave  the  congregation  a  story  of 
Bagehot's  in  illustration  of  the  use  of  the  term  "  friends  "  as 
what  I  called  a  "  mere  courtesy  title "  ;  I  wonder  whether  you 
remember  it.  A  week  or  two  after  Louis  Napoleon's  coup  d'etat 
a  French  lady  said  to  him  :  "  Ah  Monsieur  !  this  revolution  has 
saved  the  country :  all  my  friends  are  in  prison." 

I  really  think  I  could  go  on  writing  till  the  New  Year  comes 
in,  and  as  yet  there  are  eleven  hours  and  a  half  of  the  old  year  to 
run  out — but  I  must  stop.  To  you  and  to  all  of  you  at  Treborth, 
I  trust  that  the  New  Year  will  be  very  gracious  and  bountiful- 
kinder  than  all  your  hopes. 

To  Miss  A.  M.  Davies 

gth  February  1S95. 

And  you  start  this  day  week ;  at  least  I  think  that  that  was 
the  date  you  gave  in  one  of  your  earlier  letters.  You  will  find 
it,  I  think,  a  journey  that  will  yield  harvests  for  many  years  to 
come.  I  am  not  sure,  indeed,  that  the  new  reality  and  substance 
which  it  will  give  to  the  visible  and  material  environment  of  the 
greatest  events  in  the  history  of  our  race  does,  in  itself,  very 
much  to  reveal  the  inner  mystery  and  power  of  the  events  them- 
selves. The  house  in  which  a  man  lives — unless  he  designed 
and  built  and  finished  it  himself — does  not  make  the  real  life  of 
the  man  more  intelligible.  And  even  if  he  builds  or  reconstructs 
or  adorns  it,  it  leaves  the  great  secret  untold.  Gorhambury 
might  declare  something  of  Bacon's  love  of  magnificence  and 
grandeur,  but  what  can  it  show  of  the  singular  contrast  in  the 
man  of  intellectual  grandeur  and  moral  meanness?  What  light 
can  it  throw  on  his  treachery  to  Essex  and  his  subserviency  to 
Buckingham  ?  And  the  man  who  lived  there  after  Bacon  might 
have  been  of  stainless  integrity  but  half  a  fool.  You  get  no 
deeper  into  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  by  seeing  the  grassy 
slopes  above  Gennesaret  and  "the  city  set  on  a  hill"  to  which 
our  Lord  may  have  pointed  while  He  was  speaking.  Nor  do  the 
olive  trees  of  the  traditional  Gethsemane  contribute  anything  to 
illustrate  the  awful  mystery  of  the  Agony.  But  a  new  colour 
will  emerge  on  nearly  every  page  of  the  Four  Gospels  and  on 
many  of  the  pages  of  the  Old  Testament.  When  you  read  the 
words  of  the  woman  of  Samaria — "  Our  fathers  worshipped  in 
2  Y 


690  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

this  mountain  " — you  will  think  of  the  hour  when  you  sat  at  the 
well  and  looked  up  at  Gerizim ;  and  a  hundred  experiences  of 
the  same  kind  will  come  to  you  in  connection  with  story  after 
story,  discourse  after  discourse.  Did  I  tell  you  that  in  the 
small  Bible  which  I  carried  in  my  hand-bag  I  always  inserted  in 
the  margin  the  dates  at  which  I  read  passages  connected  with 
particular  places  that  I  visited — e.g.  in  the  margin  of  John  xi. — 
Bethany — such  and  such  a  date  ?     It  was  a  pleasant  record. 

But  if,  without  any  attempt  to  force  deeper  thinking,  and 
without  any  dream  of  God's  being  nearer  to  one  in  Jerusalem  or 
on  the  path  over  the  Mount  of  Olives  by  which  our  Lord  must 
often  have  gone  to  Bethany,  the  mind  and  heart  are  open  to 
the  power  of  the  great  memories  of  the  country,  I  think  that  by 
God's  grace  much  may  come  to  one  unsought  that  will  be  an 
everlasting  possession.  Now  and  then,  indeed,  it  is  natural  to 
make  a  deliberate  attempt  to  take  hold  of  the  inner  reality  of 
the  events  which  took  place  at  the  spots  one  is  visiting.  I  hope 
that  your  friends  have  that  great  and  most  desirable  quality  in 
travelling  companions — the  disposition  and  the  power  to  be 
silent  at  times.  When  riding  it  is  delightful  to  be  able  to  brood 
for  an  hour  over  some  fact  and  its  meaning,  and,  if  you  could 
but  smoke,  you  would  find  it  wonderful  to  sit  outside  your  tent 
in  the  evening  and  brood  again.  But  if  those  young  ladies 
chatter  continually  you  will  have  to  ask  Gabriel  to  wring  their 
little  necks. 

God  be  with  you,  and  give  you,  as  you  can  bear  it,  a 
strong  and  full  sense  of  His  presence  !  Take  it  for  granted 
that  as  you  travel  He  will  be  seeking  you — that  you  will  not 
merely  have  to  seek  Him.  You  may  miss  each  other  for  a  time 
(that's  an  anthropomorphic  way  of  speaking,  but  anthropomorphic 
ways  of  speaking  of  God  are  the  truest),  but  you  will  find  each 
other  before  long,  and  perhaps — in  a  double  sense — in  unlikely 
places.  He  does  not  give  you  this  time  of  release  from  your 
common  life  for  nothing.  And  may  He  keep  you  and  your 
friends  in  health  and  safety  and  peace.  Every  day  that  you  are 
away  I  shall  ask  Him  to  do  it. 


To  Mrs.  Richard  Davies 

^th  January  1895. 

I  trust  that  the  New  Year  has  begun  with  you  in  brightness 
and  joy,  and  that  it  will  become  brighter  as  it  goes  on.  We  can 
never  tell  what  blessed  surprises  are  near  to  us.  When,  as  the 
Collect  says,  we  love  what  God  commands  and  desire  what  He  has 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  691 

promised,  it  is  certain  that  all  things  will  go  well  with  us.  With 
me,  apart  from  the  anxiety  which  it  is  hardly  possible  to  avoid, 
arising  from  the  prospect  of  losing  my  assistant  and  having  to 
find  another,  the  year  is  beginning  very  happily.  There  is 
happiness  at  home  and  happiness  in  the  church,  and  God  has 
been  enabling  me  to  realise  with  new  vividness  and  joy  some  of 
the  great  blessings  of  His  grace,  especially  what  it  is  to  have 
risen  and  ascended  with  Christ.  My  people,  too — many  of  them 
at  least- — seem  to  have  been  drawn  towards  that  great  blessed- 
ness, and  to  desire  to  know  by  experience  what  it  is.  It  is 
wonderful  how  the  congregation  holds  together ;  it  has  been  a 
constant  surprise  to  me  for  many  years,  and  year  after  year  I 
have  asked  myself,  How  long  will  it  last  ?  I  have  been  able  to 
preach  on  eight  successive  Sundays  besides  Christmas  Day,  and  I 
think  that  I  am  getting  stronger.  But  I  suppose  that  I  still  need  to 
be  reminded  how  uncertain  the  continuance  of  my  strength  is,  and 
now  and  then  there  comes  a  gentle  touch  from  an  unseen  hand 
to  remind  me  of  it.  I  tell  you  about  my  own  affairs,  because  I 
like  you  to  tell  me  about  yours. 


To  the  Very  Rev.  Dr.  Paget1 

C)th  January  1895. 

Accept  my  warmest  thanks  for  the  copy  of  your  Studies  in 
Christian  Character,  which  reached  me  this  morning,  and  especi- 
ally for  its  kindly  inscription. 

As  yet  I  have  not  read  beyond  the  Introductory  Essay,  which 
has  interested  me  deeply.  Your  other  books  belong  to  the  kind — 
not  too  numerous — which  one  reserves  for  those  times  when  one 
can  brood  over  the  deeper  facts  of  human  life  and  the  central, 
the  innermost,  relations  of  God  to  all  that  we  are  and  all  that 
through  His  grace  we  are  destined  to  be ;  and  I  want  to  keep 
this  volume  for  the  same  uses  to  which  its  predecessors  have 
ministered. 

I  am  glad  to  have  this  opportunity  of  thanking  you,  which  I 
trust  that  I  may  do  without  presumption,  for  your  sketch  of  the  late 
Dean  of  St.  Paul's.  You  have  succeeded  in  giving  it  the  atmo- 
sphere— as  of  another  and  higher  world — which  one  is  conscious 
of  breathing  when  reading  some  of  his  writings,  and  of  which 
those  who  were  so  happy  as  to  know  him  must  have  been  still 
more  conscious  in  their  personal  intercourse  with  him.  And  you 
have  maintained  the  reserve  which  he  himself  would  have  main- 
tained in  speaking  of  one  whom  he  greatly  loved  and  honoured. 
1  Dean  of  Christ  Church. 


692  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

To  have  said  about  him  all  that  one  feels  you  might  have  said, 
would  have  been  to  say  less. 

The  renewal  of  strength  which  had  gladdened  him 
proved  fictitious.  He  preached  on  ioth  February — for 
the  last  time.  Towards  the  end  of  the  week  he  became 
unwell.  Weakness  grew  rapidly  ;  he  could  not  sleep  ;  he 
suffered  severely  from  physical  and  mental  distress.  Dr. 
Saundby,  who  was  called  in,  and  his  own  doctor,  Mr.  Vickers 
Whitby,  who  throughout  his  illness  had  attended  him  with 
unremitting  care,  could  do  nothing  but  relieve  his  pain. 
And  so  day  after  day  the  weary  struggle  continued.  For 
hours  together  his  mind  wandered  in  darkness.  When 
himself,  though  fully  aware  of  his  danger,  he  did  not  give 
up  hope.  He  would  like,  he  said,  if  it  were  God's  will,  to 
have  a  few  years'  more  work  for  Carr's  Lane,  and  to  write 
one  more  book.  When  asked,  "  Do  you  not  feel  the  mystery 
of  death  ?  "  he  replied,  "  No,  not  the  mystery  of  death,  but 
the  mystery  of  pain."  On  Saturday  9th  March,  Sir 
Walter  Foster,  an  old  friend  and  neighbour,  came  as  a  last 
resource.  He  at  once  saw  that  nothing  could  be  done, 
but  his  visit  and  the  memories  that  it  recalled  brought  a 
passing  gleam  of  brightness.  The  shadow  soon  closed  in 
again,  and  on  the  Wednesday  evening,  13th  March,  after 
an  unavailing  effort  to  rally,  the  end  came  and  the  sufferer 
was  at  rest. 

On  his  study  desk  lay  a  sheet  of  an  unfinished  sermon, 
with  its  last  sentence — the  last  words  that  he  wrote — 
broken  off  in  the  middle.  It  states  the  law  by  which  his 
life  had  been  ruled  ;  it  suggests,  in  its  incompleteness,  the 
mystery  of  the  great  hope  into  which  he  had  entered. 

"  Unworldliness  "  does  not  consist  in  the  most  rigid  and  con- 
scientious observance  of  any  external  rules  of  conduct,  but  in  the 
spirit  and  temper,  and  in  the  habit  of  living,  created  by  the 
vision  of  God,  by  constant  fellowship  with  Him,  by  a  personal 
and  vivid  experience  of  the  greatness  of  the  Christian  redemp- 
tion, by  the  settled  purpose  to  do  the  will  of  God  always,  in  all 
things,  at  all  costs,  and  by  the  power  of  the  great  hope — the  full 
assurance — that,  after  our  mortal  years  are  spent,  there  is  a 
larger,  fuller,  richer  life  in . 


THE  DARK  VALLEY  693 

Memorial  services  were  held  on  the  following  Sunday. 
Dr.  Fairbairn  preached  in  the  morning,  and  Dr.  Guinness 
Rogers  at  night.  In  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  by 
men  of  all  churches,  reference  was  made  to  the  loss  that 
had  befallen  Christian  faith  and  Christian  thought.  Dis- 
tinctions of  creed  were  forgotten  in  the  presence  of  a 
common  sorrow.  By  none  was  a  fuller  or  a  more  generous 
tribute  paid  to  the  life  and  work  of  the  dead  than  by 
Archdeacon  Sinclair  in  St.  Paul's  and  by  Canon  Gore  in 
Westminster  Abbey. 

The  funeral  took  place  the  next  day.  To  dwell  on  its 
details  would  be  fruitless — save  in  so  far  as  the  sorrow  of 
the  living  attests  the  worth  of  the  dead.  It  was  a  solemn 
mourning,  but  the  dominant  note  was  one  of  triumph.  It 
was  not  with  dirges  that  God's  servant  was  carried  to  the 
tomb  ;  not  with  tears  only,  but  with  thanksgiving  for  the 
long  life  of  service  that  had  reached  its  earthly  close. 
Death  was  swallowed  up  in  victory. 

To  some  the  sight  of  the  coffin  as  it  lay  beneath  the 
pulpit  at  Carr's  Lane  recalled  the  words,  already  quoted, 
in  which  Mr.  James  addressed  his  young  colleague  at  his 
ordination  more  than  forty  years  before  :  "  Rich  in  years, 
in  honours,  and  in  usefulness,  may  you  come  at  some  far 
distant  day  to  your  end :  and  then,  after  labouring 
in  the  same  pulpit,  come  and  lie  down  with  me  in  the 
same  grave  at  the  foot  of  it :  so  shall  we  resemble  warriors 
resting  on  the  field  where  they  fought  and  conquered." 1 
The  old  man's  prayer  had  been  more  than  fulfilled,  even 
though  they  might  not  share  one  grave. 

As  the  long  procession  made  its  way  through  the 
crowds  that  lined  the  streets  to  the  cemetery  on  Key 
Hill,  the  city  seemed  to  have  ceased  from  its  activity  and  to 
have  gathered  to  render  the  last  tribute  to  the  minister 
and  the  citizen.  No  such  concourse  had  been  seen  for 
many  years,  and  it  had  gathered  not  in  curiosity  but  in 
reverence.  Above,  on  the  sandstone  cliff  in  which  the 
cemetery  is  quarried,  on  the  long  platform  of  the  railway 
station  close  by,  and  on  the  station  roof  itself,  men   and 

1  P-  97- 


694  LIFE  OF  DR-  DALE 

women  stood  in  serried  lines,  and  from  beyond  the  walls 
came  the  faint  murmur  of  unseen  thousands  outside.  But 
within  the  cemetery  all  was  stillness  and  peace.  The 
afternoon  was  warm  and  bright.  Spring  had  come  in  its 
beauty,  with  its  parable  and  promise  of  resurrection. 
Sunlight  flooded  the  sombre  spot  with  a  divine  glory  ;  the 
pall  of  smoke  had  given  place  to  a  cloudless  blue. 

The  service  at  the  grave -side  was  simple  and  brief. 
When  the  coffin  had  been  lowered  to  its  resting-place  with 
the  words  of  hope  and  trust — "  We  commit  his  body  to 
the  grave,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust,  in  sure  and  certain 
hope  of  a  blessed  resurrection  " — Dr.  Fairbairn  offered  a 
short  prayer  : — "  Now,  as  we  depart  our  several  ways  into 
the  world  and  its  life,  may  the  memory  of  the  sainted 
dead  be  a  memory  that  blesseth  and  abideth  with  us." 
The  benediction  followed  ;  then  the  silence. 

He  is  not  without  a  memorial  in  the  city  that  he  loved 
so  long  and  so  well.  His  statue  in  the  Art  Gallery — the 
work  of  Mr.  Onslow  Ford — shows  him  as  he  was,  not  in 
the  pulpit  or  on  the  platform,  with  the  vehemence  and 
passion  of  the  orator,  but  in  those  hours  of  quietness 
when,  apart  from  the  conflict  and  turmoil  of  the  world,  he 
dwelt  in  those  high  and  sacred  regions  where  the  springs 
of  the  inner  life  take  their  rise.  And  he  has  another 
memorial,  nobler  and  imperishable — one  that  even  the 
genius  of  the  sculptor  cannot  match  —  in  the  abiding 
strength  of  the  great  church  to  which  he  ministered  for 
more  than  forty  years,  and  which,  under  a  new  leader 
and  with  increasing  power,  is  still  unwearied  in  service  and 
still  loyal  to  the  Faith. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

DALE    AS    A    THEOLOGIAN 

By  Principal  Fairbairn,  D.D. 

It  will  be  admitted  without  question  that  Dale  occupied 
an  influential  and  distinctive  position  among  the  theo- 
logians of  the  second  half  of  our  century.  Men  who 
differed  from  him  profoundly  on  questions  of  ecclesiastical 
polity  gratefully  recognised  his  eminence  as  a  divine.  The 
men  who  agreed  with  him  in  his  theory  of  the  Church 
confessed  that  it  was  mainly  by  his  massive  thought  that 
he  had  moulded  or  guided  their  minds.  His  theological 
work  had  the  rare  note  of  integrity  and  reality.  It  was  his 
own ;  won  by  the  sweat  of  his  own  brain  ;  interpreted  for 
him  by  the  experiences  of  his  own  life.  His  manhood  was 
rooted  in  it  ;  and  in  it  he  had  articulated  the  convictions 
by  which  he  lived.  He  was  a  theologian  by  intellectual 
necessity,  for  his  was  a  nature  to  which  thought  was 
native.  No  man  ever  had  less  of  the  mere  rationalist  in 
him  ;  yet  his  faith,  however  penetrated  by  emotion  and 
transfigured  by  imagination,  had  been  passed  through  the 
fire  of  an  intellect  that  was  not  so  much  critical  as 
synthetic.  But  into  the  synthesis  no  element  was  allowed 
to  enter  that  he  had  not  rationally  tested  and  that  he 
could  not  logically  justify.  He  was  anything  but  a 
schoolman.  Technical  precision  he  neither  loved  nor 
coveted,  and  where  it  became  scholasticism  he  even 
cordially  despised  it.  This  means  that  the  form  of  his 
thought  as  well  as  its  substance  was  his  own,  made  by 
himself  for  the  expression   of  his  own  mind.      What  he 


696  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

believed  he  preached,  and  his  beliefs  were  those  of  a  man 
who,  while  he  stood  rooted  in  the  past,  lived  in  the  present, 
feeling  in  his  thoughtful  life  the  modifying  influences  of 
the  various  forces  he  was  yet  helping  to  modify. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  Dale's  work  as  a  theo- 
logian may  be  presented — the  chronological  and  the  logical. 
Were  we  to  adopt  the  former  we  should  have,  first,  to 
enumerate  his  several  works  in  the  order  of  their  appear- 
ance, and,  next,  to  analyse  and  expound  their  contents  in  the 
light  of  their  occasion,  their  purpose  and  their  scope.  But 
this  would  be  to  intrude  into  the  province  of  the  biographer, 
and  the  biographer  has  done  it  in  a  way  which  admits 
neither  of  correction  nor  of  supplement.  And  so  it  will 
be  more  agreeable  to  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  follow 
the  logical  method,  and  attempt  to  make  his  position  as  a 
theologian  clear  and  intelligible.  It  is  the  more  necessary 
to  take  this  line  as  his  theology  is  nowhere  systematically 
developed,  but  is  embedded  in  the  many  books  which 
came  from  his  pen. 

One  of  the  remarkable  features  both  of  the  man  and 
the  theology  is  that  it  was  not  written  by  a  cloistered 
student  for  students,  but  by  a  man  who  lived  much  in  the 
public  eye  and  who  was  accustomed  to  address  large  and 
mixed  congregations.  And  so  his  thought  took  shape  in 
the  spoken  discourse,  but  then  it  was  discourse  that 
recalled  the  heroic  age  of  the  English  sermon.  His 
words  though  written  to  be  spoken  are  even  more  fitted 
to  be  read  than  to  be  heard,  for  his  books  are  as  firm 
in  texture,  as  weighty  in  matter,  as  vigorous  in  expression 
as  the  concentrated  thought  of  a  strong  man  could  make 
them.  But  while  he  did  not,  with  all  the  apparatus  of 
logical  exactitude  and  completeness,  attempt  to  deliver  his 
whole  mind  in  any  single  work,  he  was  too  clear,  too  in- 
dependent and  too  resolute  a  thinker  ever  to  leave  us  in 
any  doubt  as  to  what  he  meant  or  what  he  believed.  The 
form  in  which  he  delivered  his  theology  is  all  the  more 
significant  of  the  man  that  it  was  so  directly  addressed  to 
the  living  and,  as  it  were,  unadulterated  mind.  There  was 
nothing  that  he  so  much  loved  to  do  as  to  test  the  reality 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  697 

of  his  beliefs  by  their  applicability  to  life,  their  power  to 
change,  to  possess,  and  to  command  the  souls  of  men. 

Before  attempting  to  estimate  Dale's  place  and  work 
as  a  theologian,  we  must  endeavour  to  set  him  and  his 
theology  in  their  proper  historical  relations. 

The  middle  decades  of  the  century  were  the  period  of 
his  formation.  From  1840  to  1850  he  was  a  youth, 
eager,  earnest,  active  in  mind,  with  a  strong  didactic  vein 
in  him,  anxious  to  know,  resolute  to  teach.  The  intensity 
of  the  didactic  passion  gives  to  his  earliest  utterances  a 
stamp  of  maturity  rather  than  prematurity,  for  his  moral 
gravity  was  too  native  to  allow  us  to  conceive  him  as  even 
then  juvenile.  From  1850  to  i860  he  was,  first,  the 
student  at  Spring  Hill  feeling  his  way  into  a  reasoned 
faith,  and,  next,  the  colleague  and  successor  of  the  grave 
yet  kindly  John  Angell  James,  then  minister  of  Carr's 
Lane,  who  had,  within  the  progressive  liberalism  of  the 
youth  whose  career  he  had  so  judiciously  yet  so  in- 
telligently watched,  discerned  the  promise  and  the 
conservative  power  of  a  positive  and  of  a  stalwart 
mind.  In  those  years  we  see  Dale  looking  eagerly  out 
on  the  world  in  which  he  was  to  work,  trying  and  dis- 
ciplining his  strength,  acquiring  knowledge  and  essaying 
the  methods  by  which  it  could  best  be  translated  into 
action,  learning,  in  a  word,  how  to  walk  alone  and  how  to 
become  a  leader  of  those  who  were  waiting  for  a  guide. 

And  what  was  the  then  state  of  religious  thought  in 
England  ?  The  air  was  thick  and  hot  with  controversies 
in  which  the  controversialists  felt  and  spoke  strongly,  but 
hardly  understood  either  themselves  or  their  opponents  or 
the  questions  over  which  they  so  fiercely  contended.  In 
the  earlier  of  the  two  decades  the  Tractarians  had  been 
worsted  in  Oxford,  but  had  carried  their  appeal  to  the 
country,  and  under  a  changed  name  and  most  unacademic 
conditions  were  strenuously  seeking  to  achieve  the  Anglican 
Revival.  The  causes  which  moved  Newman,  affected  in  a 
very  different  way  the  society  and  circle  within  which 
Dale  moved.  The  "  Liberalism "  which  the  Anglican 
feared,  the  Dissenter  loved  ;  while  to  the  one  it  seemed 


698  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

to  threaten  religious  extinction,  to  the  other  it  promised 
religious  emancipation.  The  long  maintained  disabilities 
of  Nonconformists  had  produced  among  them  a  double 
intellectual  tendency — the  tendency  to  claim  for  them- 
selves full  and  equal  rights  as  citizens, — which  meant 
emancipation  from  the  disqualifications  that  hindered 
their  service  of  the  State  and  the  city  ;  and  the  tendency 
so  to  define  and  limit  the  spheres  of  Church  and  State  as 
to  secure  the  independence  of  the  Church  from  the  control 
of  the  civil  power.  The  political  changes  which  Liberalism 
had  effected  meant  that  the  opportunity  of  the  Dissenter 
had  come,  and  that  he  could,  on  the  one  hand,  do  some- 
thing to  secure  the  embodiment  of  his  ideas  in  civil 
legislation  ;  and,  on  the  other,  make  his  ideal  of  the  Church 
active  and  efficient  as  it  had  never  before  been  within  the 
English  State.  These  changes  involved,  in  other  words, 
both  a  civil  and  a  religious  result,  viz.  (a)  the  removal  of 
those  privileges  which  had  marked  and  guaranteed  the 
ascendency  of  the  Established  Church  ;  and  (b)  the  making 
of  the  Church,  as  the  collective  religious  society  which 
included  all  churches,  potent  in  the  State  in  the  very 
degree  that  it  was  free  from  the  State.  For  the  Dissenter 
believed  in  freedom,  and  thought  that  through  it  the 
Church  as  the  interpreter  of  the  ethical  ideals  of 
religion  would  become  all  the  more  capable  of  being 
the  social  conscience,  at  once  individual  and  common, 
imperious  and  sensitive.  But  while  their  attitude  to 
Liberalism  was  thus  different,  there  was,  in  one  respect, 
complete  agreement  between  the  Anglican  and  the 
Dissenter.  They  differed,  radically,  as  to  what  the 
Church  was  ;  but  they  alike  believed  in  its  rights  as  a 
divine  community,  and  in  its  duties  as  a  society  charged 
with  the  saving  of  the  world.  These  affinities  were  often 
concealed  by  the  heat  and  fury  of  the  battle,  but  all  the 
same  they  were  there,  working  in  the  hearts  of  both  like  a 
leaven. 

Of  course  in  theology  proper  the  antagonism  was 
more  direct  and  more  complete.  Newman's  attitude 
on  Justification    by  Faith,  on  the  sources    and   bases  of 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  699 

authority  in  religion,  on  the  agencies  and  channels  of  grace, 
was  the  direct  opposite  of  Dale's.  And  the  intellectual 
influence  which  in  his  student  days  affected  him  most 
powerfully  was  that  of  Henry  Rogers,  who  was,  in  an 
equal  degree,  the  opponent  of  the  Catholicism  which  John 
Henry  Newman  represented,  and  of  the  rationalism  which 
had  found  its  most  gifted  spokesman  in  his  brother  Francis. 
Dale's  opinions  as  to  the  Tractarian  Movement  thus  took 
shape  while  it  was  in  its  most  truculent,  ill-informed,  and 
polemical  phase.  He  remembered  it  as  it  ran  amuck  at 
the  most  cherished  traditions,  the  most  characteristic 
beliefs,  the  most  honoured  personalities  of  the  older 
evangelical  theology.  The  men  he  had  been  trained  to 
honour  as  saints  were  to  the  Tractarians  pestiferous 
heretics  or  wilful  schismatics  ;  and  the  truths  that  were 
to  him  the  very  Gospel  of  God  were  to  them  the  last 
refuges  of  error.  But  it  ought  to  be  here  said,  that  as  the 
movement  grew  wiser  and  more  distinctly  religious,  his 
appreciation  of  what  was  good  in  it  became  clear  and 
impressive.  I  well  remember  how  earnestly  he  once  said 
to  me,  when  we  had  been  speaking  concerning  the  early 
volumes  of  Pusey's  Life,  "  The  blessing  of  God  was  in  it, 
though  we  did  not  see  it,  and  in  a  form  they  did  not 
understand  ;  in  the  lives  and  in  the  devotion  of  these 
men  a  new  endowment  of  the  Holy  Spirit  came  into  the 
life  of  England."  This  was  said  even  though  his  judgment 
as  to  the  theological  principles  and  the  ecclesiastical  claims 
of  the  Tractarians  had  become  only  the  more  clearly  and 
deliberately  adverse. 

But  other  and  more  potent  theological  influences  came 
to  Dale,  as  it  were,  by  inheritance.  This  inheritance  was 
represented  by  the  Puritan  theology  as  modified  by  the 
Evangelical  Revival  ;  and  as  defined  in  the  period  before 
the  Revival  by  the  conflict  with  the  Arminian  system,  and 
in  the  period  which  followed  it  by  the  conflict  with  the 
Socinian.  The  Puritan  theology  had  been  from  the  first 
a  rigorous  and  closely  knit  system.  It  had  been  built  on 
the  sovereignty  of  God,  the  sufficiency  of  Divine  Grace, 
and   the   necessity  of  the  Atonement    as    the    means    by 


700  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 

which  Grace  could  be  effectually  realised  while  Divine 
Justice  was  satisfied.  The  almighty  and  gracious  Will  of 
God  acted  upon  the  sinful  mass  of  mankind,  was  the  sole 
cause  of  any  good  at  work  within  it,  and  decreed  at  once 
the  method  of  Redemption  and  the  number  of  the 
redeemed.  All  its  doctrines — the  Incarnation,  Election, 
Justification,  Atonement — came  from  this  fundamental 
position  ;  and  so  long  as  it  was  a  question  of  mere  logic 
arguing  from  the  premisses  supplied  by  an  absolute 
Sovereignty,  the  system  had  little  to  fear.  The 
Arminian  or  Remonstrant  theology  of  the  seventeenth 
century  was  a  protest  against  the  Calvinistic  idea  of 
God  in  the  form  of  a  free  and  individualistic  conception 
of  man  ;  human  freedom  was  made  to  condition  the 
acts  of  the  Divine  Will  ;  the  rights  of  the  creature  set 
a  limit  to  the  absolute  power  of  the  Creator.  But  the 
Arminian  system,  from  the  very  necessity  of  its  premiss, 
was  strong  in  what  it  affirmed  as  to  men  and  denied  as 
to  God,  and  its  denial  was  so  conditioned  by  the  emphasis 
it  laid  on  its  primary  affirmations  —  i.e.  the  integrity  of 
the  human  reason  and  the  freedom  of  the  human 
will  —  as  to  produce  a  critical  rationalism  which  was 
as  shallow  in  religion  as  it  was  potent  in  logic.  Still, 
in  spite  of  these  defects,  it  laid  stress  on  Redemption  or 
the  means  for  the  reconciliation  of  God  and  man,  and  was 
able,  from  its  freer  spirit  and  less  conservative  standpoint, 
to  make  both  in  exegesis  and  in  theology  certain  remark- 
able contributions  to  the  exposition  and  vindication  of 
what  were  known  as  the  Doctrines  of  Grace.  These,  indeed, 
were  largely  neutralised  by  the  comparative  sterility  of  the 
Remonstrants  in  the  field  of  piety  or  practical  life  ;  while 
the  power  of  the  theology  they  opposed  was  seen  in  the 
intensity  it  created  in  the  region  of  spiritual  experience 
and  devotion.  The  Arminian  and  Calvinistic  systems 
thus  faced  each  other,  not  only  as  antithetical  theologies, 
but  as  opposed  types  of  religion  ;  the  one  marked  by  the 
eminence  it  gave  to  man,  upholding  his  dignity  even 
before  the  majesty  of  God  ;  the  other  by  the  submission 
it   claimed    from    man,   affirming   the   supremacy  of   the 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  701 

Divine  Will  over  the  whole  conscience  and  the  whole  of 
life. 

But  the  Evangelical  Revival  in  the  second  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  the  earlier  years  of  the  nineteenth, 
introduced  a  change  in  the  relation  of  these  ancient 
enemies.  For  the  first  time  Arminians  and  Calvinists 
were  exhibited  in  a  new  religious  relation  which  power- 
fully affected  their  intellectual  differences.  Wesley  was  a 
vehement  Arminian,  but  the  religious  value  of  his  work 
could  not  be  denied.  The  Nonconformists  who  maintained 
the  Puritan  tradition  long  regarded  him  with  doubt,  and 
even  with  jealousy  and  suspicion.  They  disliked  his 
doctrine  of  Free  Will,  the  insistence  with  which  he 
preached  the  possibility  of  an  immediate  conversion,  the 
excitement  which  his  preaching  created,  the  energy  with 
which  he  enlisted  as  preachers  the  men  whose  only  claim 
to  be  heard  was  the  completeness  with  which  they  had 
changed  from  the  old  life  to  the  new.  But  though  the 
historical  Nonconformists  disliked  the  new  movement,  its 
fervour  and  its  piety  were  stronger  than  their  aversion. 
It  is  true  that  Whitefield,  Toplady,  and  many  another 
son  of  the  Evangelical  Revival,  remained  as  strenuous 
Calvinists  as  ever ;  but  it  is  no  less  true  that  the  most 
marvellous  effects  were  created  by  Wesley,  and  the 
influence  exercised  by  him  was  the  more  far-reaching  and 
revolutionary.  The  Revival  in  penetrating  the  older 
Orthodox  Nonconformity  powerfully  affected  its  theology  ; 
and  made  it  feel  that  a  system  that  laid  so  much  stress 
on  the  conditionality  of  salvation,  the  freedom  of  the  will, 
and  the  universality  of  Grace,  could  yet  create  an  intenser 
and  more  expansive  religious  life  than  for  generations  it 
had  known  within  its  own  borders.  Hence  came  a  modified 
theological  attitude ;  for  where  the  practical  antithesis 
ceased,  the  intellectual  could  not  be  maintained  as  sharply 
as  before. 

And  now  another  force  came  to  complete  the  change 
and  carry  onward  the  modification  of  theological  opinion. 
The  growth  first  of  Arian  and  then  of  Socinian  views  is 
one  of  the  most  remarkable   features   in    the   theological 


702  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

thought  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  in  the  earlier 
decades  very  potent  in  the  Established  Church,  but  in  the 
later  it  took  definite  denominational  shape  within  the 
churches  of  the  Presbyterian  order.  The  tendencies  which 
had  made  the  Arians  turn  Socinian  were  those  which 
found  their  ultimate  logical  expression  in  the  current 
Deism  which  so  conceived  God  and  Man  as  to  find  the  per- 
fection of  each  in  his  independence  of  the  other.  Its  watch- 
word was  thus  the  sufficiency  of  man  as  a  moral  being  ; 
his  ability  to  obey  the  law  he  carried  in  his  own  bosom, 
and  thus  to  realise  the  end  of  his  existence.  Hence  the 
prevailing  temper  easily  took  offence  at  the  idea  of  Divine 
intervention  on  man's  behalf,  and  so  its  natural  effect 
was  to  direct  criticism  more  to  the  doctrines  of  Grace 
than  to  the  higher  and  abstruser  theology  concerned 
with  the  Godhead  and  the  Incarnation.  For  the  Evan- 
gelical Revival  had  thrown  into  the  foreground  the  dogmas 
of  Justification  and  Atonement  ;  and  the  ideas  which  were 
used  to  elucidate  and  justify  them — Imputation,  Satisfac- 
tion, Propitiation,  Substitution,  Justice,  public,  commuta- 
tive, commercial,  retributive,  and  vindictive — were  the  very 
points  which  lay  most  open  to  vigorous  and  derisive 
assault.  And  so  these  were  the  points  subjected  to  the 
severest  handling  ;  their  sources  were  declared  to  be 
heathen  rather  than  Christian,  and  Scripture — especially  the 
New  Testament — was  examined,  retranslated,  and  ex- 
pounded in  the  interests  of  this  destructive  criticism.  The 
result  was  a  vehement  controversy  which  had  not  quite 
spent  itself  even  in  the  days  when  Dale  became  a  student. 
It  is  a  note  distinctive  of  the  period  that  the  ideas  ot 
Atonement  which  were  assumed  on  the  Evangelical  side  in 
order  to  meet  the  Socinian  attack  were  drawn  from  an 
Arminian  rather  than  a  Calvinistic  source, — from  Hugo 
Grotius  rather  than  Turretine.  They  began  with  Andrew 
Fuller  among  the  Baptists,  whose  comparison  of  the 
Calvinistic  and  Socinian  systems  formulated  the  change ; 
and  with  Edward  Williams  among  the  Congregation- 
alists,1  who  based  his  theory  on   a  doctrine  of  a  limited 

1    The  Evangelical  Revival,  p.  2 1 . 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  703 

or  forensic  sovereignty ;  and  they  were  expounded  and 
fortified  by  writers  of  a  highly  scholastic  but  often  very 
liberal  spirit — men  like  Pye  Smith,  Josiah  Gilbert,  and 
Ralph  Wardlaw. 

Their  distinctive  position  may  be  described  as  an  at- 
tempt to  reconcile  a  universal  Atonement  with  a  particular 
Salvation  through  a  theory  of  Public  Justice  or  qualified 
Satisfaction.  They  distinguished  between  God  and  Law, 
a  private  person  and  a  public  personage.  God  was  not 
only  essentially  Father,  but  He  was  also  officially 
Sovereign,  Rector,  Judge ;  and  whatever  He  might 
have  been  willing  to  do  in  His  paternal  character — 
which  might  be  conceived  as  personal  or  private — He 
could,  in  His  legal  or  rectorial — which  was  social,  political, 
or  official — deal  with  man  only  on  terms  agreeable  to  His 
public  function.  From  this  point  of  view,  to  forgive  sin 
unconditionally  was  impossible  to  Him.  He  was,  as  it 
were,  the  impersonation  of  law ;  and  where  there  had 
been  offence,  law  from  its  very  nature  required  satisfac- 
tion. Satisfaction  was  of  various  kinds,  corresponding  to 
the  idea  of  Justice  ;  vindictive  or  retributive  justice  could 
be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  the  punishment,  to  the 
full  measure  of  his  deserts,  of  the  offender  himself ;  distri- 
butive justice  sought  out  the  offender  and  apportioned 
the  blame  ;  commutative  justice  was  more  or  less  a  justice 
which  accepted  in  lieu  of  penalty  something  which  the 
offender  could  give  or  obtain  ;  public  justice  was  justice 
which  simply  regarded  the  maintenance  of  law,  and  inflicted 
penalty  no  further  and  in  no  harsher  form  than  public 
safety  required.  If  only  order  could  be  assured,  and  the 
efficiency  of  law  vindicated,  it  was  willing  to  deal  gently 
with  the  offender.  And  it  was  this  public  justice  which 
God  enforced,  and  which  yet  enabled  Him,  where  there 
was  actual  provision  of  a  Substitute,  at  once  to  vindicate 
law  and  establish  a  ground  on  which  the  sinner  could  be 
forgiven.  Of  course,  though  the  ground  of  forgiveness 
was  established,  the  condition  on  which  it  was  to  be 
granted  might  still  require  to  be  fulfilled.  And  this 
was  represented  as   Faith,  which  was  the  acceptance  of 


7o4  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  terms  on  which — on  the  basis  of  Christ's  Satisfaction 
— God  could  forgive  Man  and  restore  him  to  the  society 
of  the  redeemed.  The  classical  books  of  the  school  in 
which  Dale  was  educated  were  full  of  this  theory,  and  one 
of  its  most  capable  and  cogent  exponents  was  Henry 
Rogers. 

But  while  Dale's  mind  was  still  in  the  forming,  a 
spirit  which  was  destined  to  exercise  over  him  no  little 
influence  was  being  born  within  the  bosom  of  this,  partly, 
Puritan  and,  partly,  Evangelical  theology.  It  may  be 
described  as  a  spirit  less  legal  and  more  personal,  less 
concerned  with  the  abstract  ideas  of  law  and  justice,  and 
more  concerned  with  the  concrete  ideas  of  fatherhood  and 
forgiveness.  Its  earliest  exponents  had  been  men  of 
Presbyterian  birth  and  creed,  notably  Erskine  of  Linlathen 
and  Campbell  of  Row.  They  had  attempted  to  conceive 
the  process  of  reconciliation  through  personal  relations 
rather  than  through  forensic  ideas  ;  and  had  substituted 
for  the  right  of  the  absolute  Sovereign  to  do  as  He 
pleased,  or  the  obligation  of  the  limited  Sovereign  to  do 
as  law  or  justice  required  of  Him,  the  idea  of  the  Eternal 
God  who  did  as  became  His  inherent  graciousness.  But 
the  controversy,  though  really  occupied  with  a  single 
principle,  took  a  wide  range,  and  concerned  now  the 
idea  of  forgiveness,  now  the  extent  of  the  Atonement, 
now  its  nature,  now  the  idea  and  condition  of  Justifica- 
tion. But  in  all  its  forms  it  may  be  described  as  more  a 
theology  of  Fatherhood  than  of  Sovereignty.  Later,  the 
tendency  was  enormously  increased  and  the  principles  it 
involved  enlarged  by  two  of  the  most  potent  English 
divines  of  our  century — Frederick  Denison  Maurice  and 
Frederick  William  Robertson  of  Brighton.  Maurice  had 
the  more  philosophical  mind  and  translated  the  ideas  and 
principles  of  Erskine  and  Campbell  into  what  might  be 
described  as  Christian  Neo-Platonism.  For  him  the  great 
idea  in  theology  was  the  Person  of  Christ ;  but  that  Per- 
son construed  more  as  a  transcendental  idea  than  as 
a  historical  reality.  Christ  represented  to  him  the 
idealism    of   the    universe,    the    medium    through    which 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  705 

man  knew  God,  the  medium  through  which  God  knew  and 
reached  man.  So  conceived,  the  Person  was  by  its  very 
nature  and  function  mediatorial  ;  but  in  the  very  degree 
that  mediation  belonged  to  nature,  it  ceased  to  be  a 
matter  of  covenant ;  in  the  very  measure  that  reconcilia- 
tion sprang  out  of  Person  and  Function,  it  ceased  to  be 
the  product  of  economy  and  arrangement.  This  involved 
a  change  in  the  notion  of  sacrifice  as  well  as  in  that  of 
redemption,  and  before  it  the  juridical  categories  in  which 
Evangelical  divines  had  loved  to  state  their  cardinal  doc- 
trine simply  melted  away.  Robertson,  with  less  specu- 
lative genius  and  less  philosophical  insight,  but  much 
more  moral  passion  and  imaginative  sympathy  with  the 
difficulties  and  problems  of  the  religious  mind,  dealt 
harder  blows  at  the  expediencies  and  substitutionary 
theories  of  the  forensic  scheme.  The  very  incomplete- 
ness of  his  work  was  the  secret  of  his  power.  He  said 
what  many  had  been  feeling,  but  he  did  not  help  the 
many  to  translate  their  feelings  into  a  rational  substitute 
for  what  he  so  vigorously  swept  away.  The  two  together 
raised  issues  which  made  it  impossible  for  the  Evangelical 
theologian  to  stand  by  his  old  juridical  map  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  to  commend  in  the  old  terms  the  forensic 
scheme  which  he  had  made  into  the  very  God  of  God. 

This  was  a  deeper  question  than  had  been  raised  in  the 
Socinian  controversy.  It  was  an  assault  upon  the  Evan- 
gelical position  from  within  rather  than  from  without.  It 
did  not  object  to  the  idea  of  Atonement  as  such  ;  it  pro- 
posed a  new  reading  of  the  old  idea  because  of  a  sweeter 
and  worthier  conception  at  once  of  Him  who  made  it  and 
of  Him  who  ordained  it.  It  was  not  associated  with  a 
mean  and  negative  doctrine  as  to  the  Person  of  Christ ; 
but  with  one  that  was  even  higher  and,  as  it  were,  more 
absolute  than  that  which  had  become  traditional  in  Evan- 
gelical theology.  There  the  doctrine  of  the  work  had 
been  primary,  of  the  Person  secondary,  a  corollary  or  con- 
dition needed  to  secure  the  dignity  or  value  or  sufficiency 
of  the  work.  Now  the  doctrine  of  the  Person  took 
precedence,  that  of  the  work  became  the  corollary  from 


706  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  Person  ;  and  this  could  not  but  seem  to  many  the 
higher  and  more  logical  position. 

These,  then,  were  the  tendencies  which  set  the  problem 
that  Dale  as  a  young  theologian  had  to  attempt  to  solve. 
The  manner  in  which  he  faced  it  was  characteristic,  and 
sprang  from  the  independence  and  vigour  of  his  mind. 
Neander  has  said,  Pectus  est  quod  facit  theologum  ; 
but  it  is  not  simply  the  heart,  it  is  the  whole  man  that 
makes  the  theologian  ;  his  theology  is  something  to  which 
schools  and  tendencies  contribute  less  than  the  nature 
embodied  in  the  man  himself.  Experience,  which  Dale 
conceived  to  be  the  wisest  interpreter  in  theology,  gives 
insight  in  proportion  to  the  character  and  quality  of  the 
man  whose  experience  it  is.  And  Dale's  nature  was 
large  and  rich.  He  was,  as  we  have  said,  strongly  intel- 
lectual, with  a  reason  that  was  more  ratiocinative  than 
speculative  ;  but  he  was  in  an  equal  measure  mystical, 
with  the  mystic's  passion  for  union  with  God,  and  the 
awful  sense  of  being  too  unworthy  to  be  united  with  Him. 
And,  what  is  a  very  rare  thing  in  a  man  with  a  high 
mystical  strain,  he  had  a  robust  ethical  conscience  ;  and 
so  the  truths  his  reason  conceived  and  his  heart  loved 
became  laws  his  conscience  commanded  him  to  obey. 
And  this  meant  that  he  never  could  regard  a  doctrine  as 
a  dogma  which  he  was  bound  to  believe  because  the 
Church  had  formulated  it.  Doctrine,  while  a  factor  of 
experience,  was  also  verified  by  the  experience  it  governed  ; 
and  hence  he  could  never  feel  as  if  a  doctrine  stood  with- 
out or  apart  from  him  ;  it  lived  within  him,  represented 
to  him  the  divine  life,  ruled  over  him  with  divine  authority  ; 
through  it  he  stood  related  to  God,  and  lived  under  the 
God  to  whom  it  related  him.  And  so  he  saw  involved 
in  it  all  his  relations  to  life,  and  by  its  dialectical  exposi- 
tion all  life's  relations  to  him  were  unfolded. 

His  theological  method  was  at  once  biblical  and  con- 
structive. He  thought  himself  into  the  mind  of  the  sacred 
writers,  reading  their  experience  through  his  own,  feeling 
in  his  own  experience  a  verification  of  their  mind.  Of 
the  sacred  writers  two — Paul  and  John — exercised  over 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  707 

him  what  may  be  described  as  a  sovereign  influence.  We 
may  at  once  represent  and  distinguish  their  respective 
influences  by  saying  that  he  took  his  first  principle  from 
John,  but  he  worked  it  into  a  theology  by  means  of  terms 
and  processes  he  derived  from  Paul.  Or,  to  use  the 
language  of  his  own  day,  we  may  say  that  he  entered  into 
the  consciousness  which  Maurice  had  so  voluminously 
expressed  as  to  the  primary  place  and  normative  influence 
of  the  Person  of  Christ,  but  he  elaborated  this  idea  in 
language  and  on  lines  which  he  owed  to  his  Evangelical 
inheritance  and  the  theology  it  had  made. 

If  now  we  attempt  to  represent  the  action  of  these 
various  forces,  outer  and  inner,  in  the  making  of  Dale's 
theology,  we  may  describe  it  thus — he  ceased  to  be  a 
Calvinist  without  becoming  an  Arminian  ;  and  he  so 
incorporated  the  fundamental  idea  or  governing  thought 
of  the  new  liberal  theology  as  to  modify,  without  sur- 
rendering, the  old  Evangelical  doctrines.  This  gave  him 
in  an  equal  measure  the  appearance  of  a  polemical  attitude 
against  both  the  older  orthodoxy  and  the  new  liberalism. 
In  his  Discourses  on  Special  Occasions  his  criticism  of 
certain  Calvinistic  doctrines  was  frank  and  severe  ;  as  for 
example  the  ideas  of  a  limited  Atonement,  of  innate 
depravity,  of  the  natural  evil  which  had  been  held  to 
vitiate  the  very  virtues  of  the  unregenerate  man.  But 
he  had  too  deep  and  too  real  a  sense  of  sin  and,  as 
a  consequence,  of  the  need  of  the  efficacious  action 
of  God,  ever  to  lose  hold  of  the  more  distinctive 
doctrines  of  Grace.  He  believed  as  completely  as 
Calvin  himself  in  the  sovereignty  of  God,  but  he  also 
believed  as  thoroughly  as  Arminius  in  the  freedom  of 
Man.  He  believed  as  strongly  as  Maurice  in  what  may 
be  termed  the  Christ  immanent  in  man,  or  the  creation 
and  constitution  of  all  things  in  Him  ;  but  as  sincerely 
as  the  most  orthodox  of  Evangelical  theologians  in  the 
Atonement  as  the  only  ground  of  Man's  reconciliation 
with  God.  How  these  ideas  took  shape  and  stood  related 
to  each  other  in  his  mind  we  must  now  attempt  to  show. 

It  became  him  as  a  son  at  once  of  Puritan  theology 


7o8  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

and  of  the  Evangelical  Revival  to  have  a  strong  sense  of 
sin.  He  needed  to  be  known  intimately  before  the  degree 
in  which  he  possessed  it  or  it  possessed  him  could  be 
really  understood  ;  and  one  who  only  saw  him  on  the 
platform  or  heard  him  only  in  the  pulpit  could  never 
have  guessed  the  undertone  of  sadness  that,  however 
subdued,  made  the  distinctive  note  of  his  deeper  life.  Two 
great  ideas  filled  him  and  were  the  poles  between  which 
his  thought  ever  moved — the  awful  majesty  and  attractive- 
ness of  God  and  his  own  unworthiness  of  the  God  who 
so  irresistibly  attracted  him.  Sin  was  to  him  no  mere 
mischance  or  accidental  lapse  or  occasional  indiscretion, 
but  it  was  a  malignant  evil  which  God  could  not  tolerate 
in  man  because  it  made  man  intolerant  of  God.  I  well 
remember  how  his  feeling  in  this  matter  once  found  ex- 
pression in  one  of  our  many  conversational  discussions. 
We  had  been  speaking  concerning  the  character  and  work 
of  a  great  Anglican  scholar,  and  I  had  said  some  severe 
things  as  to  the  mere  love  of  the  morbid  which  had  often 
in  him  done  duty  for  the  sense  of  sin  ;  but  Dale  protested 
that  what  seemed  and  what  even  might  be  morbid,  was 
yet  in  this  case  not  without  ethical  character ;  and  that 
a  man  who  knew  sin  might  well  cultivate  what  was  to 
him  sensuously  disagreeable  as  a  means  both  of  mortifying 
the  flesh  and  of  expressing  his  own  judgment  upon  him- 
self, i.e.  the  estimate  in  which  he  thought  God  ought  to 
hold  him. 

This  feeling  as  to  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin 
explains  the  emphasis  he  laid  on  forgiveness.  He  could 
not  conceive  God  as  other  than  moral,  and  the  more  moral 
He  was  the  more  seriously  would  He  take  sin.  What  to 
himself  was  so  darkly  grave  he  could  not  imagine  God 
putting  lightly  away.  Sin  was  to  him  no  single  act ; 
there  was  something  permanent  in  it,  and,  so  far  as  we 
were  concerned,  irremediable,  and  so  he  says  : — 

The  sins  once  committed  remain  a  part  of  our  moral  history 
for  ever.  What  is  done  cannot  be  undone  \  and  the  continuity 
of  our  moral  life  cannot  be  dissolved.  Conscience,  which  is  the 
representative  of  the  Divine  authority,  the  witness  to  the  Divine 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  709 

law,  holds  us  responsible  for  all  our  sins  and  refuses  to  release 
us  from  our  guilt.  You  may  commit  a  sin  to-morrow ;  it  will  be 
your  sin,  if  you  are  still  alive,  thirty,  forty,  fifty  years  hence, — 
yours  when  you  are  seventy,  though  you  committed  it  when  you 
were  five-and-twenty.  You  cannot  escape  from  it.  The  malignant 
lie,  the  act  of  cruelty,  the  deliberate  dishonesty  will  cling  to  you, 
year  after  year,  and  you  will  not  by  any  moral  effort  be  able  to 
throw  it  off.  .  .  .  Conscience  has  no  authority  to  pardon  sin,  to 
cancel  your  responsibility  for  it,  to  treat  you  as  though  you  were 
not  guilty  of  it.1 

And  this  permanence  was  worked  into  character, 
and  so  became  a  thing  of  nature. 

There  are  elements  of  good  and  of  evil  in  the  very  life  of  a 
man.  What  he  says  and  what  he  does  disclose  what  he  is. 
He  is  a  bad  man — not  only  because  he  voluntarily  says  and 
does  many  wicked  things,  but  because  he  himself  is  wicked ;  his 
very  life  is  corrupt.2  .  .  .  There  is  sin  and  there  is  righteous- 
ness in  what  we  are,  as  well  as  in  what  we  do.3 

And  this  permanent  and  native  sin  was  hereditary. 

There  is  what  may  be  described  as  a  community  of  moral 
life  between  those  who  are  descended  from  the  same  ancestors ; 
for  good  as  well  as  for  evil  they  are  one.  And  so  we  say  that 
certain  vices  or  certain  virtues  run  in  the  blood  of  certain 
families.  In  other  words,  qualities — whether  good  or  evil — 
which  belong  to  the  very  life  of  a  man,  are  derived,  in  part  at 
least,  from  his  parents;  they  are  not  wholly  the  result  of  his 
own  volitions.4 

And  it  went  beyond  the  family,  it  took  in  the  race. 

There  is  a  mysterious  community  of  moral  life  between  men 
of  all  countries  and  all  ages.  Individual  men  cannot  stand 
absolutely  alone  and  apart — isolated  from  the  life  of  the  rest  of 
mankind.  Within  limits  every  man  is  morally  free,  but  we  are 
members  one  of  another ;  and  in  the  life  which  is  shared  by  the 
whole  race,  whatever  other  and  nobler  elements  there  may 
be — and  there  are  many — there  is  a  power  which  makes  for 
unrighteousness. 

This  is  what  theologians  mean  when  they  speak  of  the  race 

1   The  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  pp.  62-63. 
2  Christian  Doctrine,  p.  202.  3  Ibid.  p.  203.  i  Ibid.  p.  205. 


J  JO  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

as  a  fallen  race.     The  race  itself  has  fallen — not  merely  indi- 
vidual men  ;  and  from  this  fall  the  race  needs  redemption.1 

There  are  times  when  I  cannot  think  of  the  sins,  even  of  the 
grossest  sins,  of  other  men,  as  though  I  were  wholly  free  from 
the  guilt  of  them ;  for,  as  I  have  said,  we  share  a  common  life  ; 
there  is  a  solidarity  of  the  race  in  sin ;  and  when  I  condemn 
other  men,  there  are  times  when  I  feel  that  I  am  condemning 
myself;  for  we  are  all  members  one  of  another.2 

While  he  so  strongly  stated  his  idea  of  sin,  he  was 
yet  never  betrayed  into  unguarded  words  as  to  human 
depravity.  He  had  even  in  the  earliest  days  of  his 
ministry  strongly  censured  the  view  of  Augustine  that 
the  virtues  of  the  heathen  are  splendid  vices.  And  from 
this  point  he  never  departed  ;  but  the  more  he  emphasised 
the  guilt  of  sin,  the  more  he  magnified  the  need  of  for- 
giveness and  the  place  it  filled  both  in  Christian  experi- 
ence and  in  Christian  theology. 

There  was  to  him  no  miracle  so  remarkable  as  the 
Grace  that  forgave. 

To  those  who  have  known  the  power  of  the  Divine  forgiveness 
to  cancel  the  guilt  of  sin,  the  act  is  as  clearly  supernatural  as 
any  of  the  miracles  recorded  in  the  Gospels,  and  it  is  more 
wonderful,  for  it  reveals  the  ascendency  of  the  Divine  Will  in  a 
region  of  life  far  nobler  than  that  in  which  the  physical  miracles 
of  the  Gospels  were  wrought.3 

And  there  was  nothing  that  so  filled  him  with  alarm 
as  the  ease  with  which  men  allowed  themselves  to  think 
of  God  as  making  light  of  sin. 

For  myself,  I  stand  by  the  ancient  faith,  and  believe  that 
the  indifference  with  which  the  Forgiveness  of  sins  is  regarded 
in  these  times  is  no  evidence  of  the  development  and  progress 
of  religious  thought,  but  a  result  of  the  decline  of  faith  in  the 
Living  God.4 

His  conception  of  sin  helped  to  determine  the  place 
and  the  function  he  assigned  to  the  Atonement.  He 
found  it  the  chief  article  of  the  Creed  in  which  he  had 

1  Christian  Doctrine,  p.  213.  2  Ibid.  p.  216. 

3  Epkesians,  p.  66.  4  Evangelical  Revival,  p.  157. 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  711 

been  trained,  for  it  had  been  the  article  of  a  standing  or 
falling  Church  to  the  men  of  the  Evangelical  Revival 
much  more  exclusively  than  it  had  ever  been  to  the 
Puritans.  In  other  words,  it  was  the  sum  and  essence 
of  the  Evangelical  as  it  had  not  been  of  the  Puritan 
theology.  But  the  place  it  received  corresponded  exactly 
to  the  function  it  had  fulfilled  in  Dale's  own  mind  and 
experience.  Since  sin  was  to  him  so  exceeding  sinful,  he 
felt  as  if  he  could  not  dare  to  venture  into  the  presence 
of  God  unless  he  was  enriched  by  the  merit  and  clothed 
in  the  Grace  of  his  Saviour.  But  in  his  mode  of  con- 
ceiving the  Atonement  he  showed  how  the  varied  elements 
which  he  had  inherited  had  been  worked  into  a  unity 
that  was  all  his  own.  He  distinguished  in  a  very  charac- 
teristic English  way  the  fact  of  the  Atonement  from  \ 
theories  concerning  it.  The  fact  was  to  him  the  relation  ' 
between  the  death  of  Christ  and  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 
This  relation  was  to  him  clearly  stated  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  was  a  fact  of  his  own  experience  which  appeared 
verified  by  the  uniform  experience  of  the  Church.  In 
this  name  forgiveness  had  been  preached,  received  and 
enjoyed  by  all  saints.  The  fact  was  independent  of 
theory ;  men  who  were  without  a  theory  as  to  the  Atone- 
ment, or  as  to  how  it  made  forgiveness  possible,  and  how 
secured  it,  or  who  had  a  theory  demonstrably  false  or 
grossly  inadequate,  had  yet  been  as  sure  as  the  men  who 
had  formulated  the  worthiest  and  most  exalted  doctrine 
that  the  death  of  Christ  was  the  ground  of  their  pardon. 

But  though  the  theory  was  in  no  degree  necessary  to 
the  practical  enjoyment  of  the  benefits  of  Christ's  death, 
yet  thought  was  bound  to  seek  the  reason  why  it  became 
Him  to  die  upon  the  Cross.  The  intellect  therefore  ] 
made  theory  necessary  to  faith,  and  a  means  of  piety  i 
especially  in  a  critical  and  rational  age.  The  distinction 
between  fact  and  theory  may  seem  so  obvious  as  to  be 
hardly  worth  making,  but  it  was  a  distinction  which  had 
been  largely  forgotten  in  the  period  just  preceding  Dale's. 
The  prevailing  conception  of  the  Atonement  had  been 
practically   assumed   to   be   identical    with   belief   in    the 


7i2  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

efficacy  of  the  Death  to  secure  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 
Clearly  to  draw  the  distinction  was  thus  a  step  towards 
not  only  truth  but  charity ;  it  made  room  for  a  more 
reasonably  tolerant  attitude  of  mind  in  those  things  held 
to  be  fundamental  in  theology.  But  this  distinction  was 
not  made  in  the  interest  of  an  agnosticism  or  in  order  to 
save  the  man  who  made  it  from  the  labour  of  constructive 
thinking  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  proceeded  to  build  up  a 
theory  which  seemed  more  adequately  to  interpret  the 
facts  of  the  case.  His  insistence  upon  the  fact  reposed 
upon  a  philosophy  which  affirmed  the  Death  to  be 
necessary  to  forgiveness. 

But  even  to  speak  of  necessity  was  to  be  compelled 
to  ask  for  its  reason.  Why  was  the  death  of  Christ 
necessary  to  the  forgiveness  of  sin  ?  He  began  his  answer 
by  a  careful  analysis  of  the  New  Testament  teaching  on 
the  subject,  and  he  here  showed  himself  a  true  biblical 
theologian.  He  did  not,  in  the  manner  of  the  older 
dogmatic,  make  a  collection  of  proof-texts,  classifying 
them  under  special  heads,  marshalling  them,  as  it  were, 
in  battalions  and  under  a  discipline  which  he  himself  had 
enforced  ;  but  he  carefully  took  the  writers  in  detail,  and 
attempted  to  interpret  their  mind  in  its  concrete  expres- 
sion. He  followed  the  evolution  of  thought  in  each  case 
from  point  to  point,  and  alike  in  the  case  of  Jesus  and 
the  Apostles  showed  that  the  connection  between  the 
Death  and  forgiveness  had  been  uniformly  affirmed.  The 
exegesis  was  skilful ;  admirable  alike  for  its  historical 
sense  and  its  dialectical  power.  But  his  evidences  were 
collected  and  co-ordinated  only  that  he  might  the  better 
attempt  to  find  the  reason  for  the  connection,  the  theory 
of  the  relation  which  had  been  stated  so  invariably.  The 
result  was  the  constructive  doctrine  of  the  Atonement, 
which  may  be  described  as  his  most  reasoned  contribution 
to  the  theology  of  his  time.  Its  distinctive  elements  may 
be  stated  thus  : — 

He  dispensed  with  the  old  and  irrelevant  distinctions 
in  the  categories  of  law :  the  distinction  between  natural 
and    positive   law   disappears    in    favour  of  a  single  and 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  713 

homogeneous  idea — law  ethical,  impersonated  implicitly 
in  man,  absolutely  in  God — the  law  of  righteousness.  '■} 
The  distinctions  between  the  various  kinds  of  justice — 
vindictive,  distributive,  retributive,  commutative,  public — 
also  disappeared.  The  distinction  between  the  Sovereign 
and  the  Father,  between  the  public  and  the  private 
character  of  God,  between  the  person  and  the  governor, 
lost  its  old  scholastic  severity,  since  law  was  conceived  as 
identified  with  God,  as  neither  above  Him  nor  below  Him, 
but  embodied  in  Him,  one  with  His  exercised  life  and  being.1 
Law  thus  became  the  nature  of  God  in  action.  It  was, 
as  it  were,  His  articulated  and  externalised  character. 
Hence  Dale  was  able  to  speak  of  God  in  the  most  con- 
crete, ethical  terms,  and  to  transfer  to  Him  the  attributes 
and  functions  which  the  old  theology  had  restricted  to 
law.  It  ceased  to  be  abstract,  but  the  Person  in  whom  it 
lived  became  acutely  real  and  moral.  His  judgments 
were  not  simply  judicial,  they  were  personal  ;  but  the 
personality  they  expressed  was  the  impersonated  law. 
Hence,  instead  of  exonerating  God  by  charging  the 
responsibility  of  punishment  upon  abstract  law,  he  makes 
penal  action  in  regard  to  sin  a  matter  which  became  a 
Being  of  absolute  righteousness.  He  could  not  see  it 
without  resentment.  The  anger  of  God  was  not  only  an  ] 
explicable  but  an  inevitable  thing ;  and,  since  it  was 
impossible  for  a  concrete  being  to  feel  anger  at  an 
abstraction,  resentment  against  sin  had  no  sense  unless 
it  meant  against  the  sinner.  And  so  he  boldly  and  in 
many  forms  stated  the  position  : — 

Resentment  against  sin  is  an  element  of  the  very  life  of  \ 
God.  It  can  no  more  be  separated  from  God  than  heat  from  I 
fire.2 

A  God  without  moral  resentment  against  sin  would  be  a 
God  not  worth  keeping ;  it  is  also  true  that  such  a  God  will 
never  long  retain  a  place  in  the  heart  and  thought  of  mankind.3 

Those  who  have  made  conscience  the  supreme  authority 
cannot   be  agitated    by  any  dread   of  the   Divine   resentment 

1  Atonement,  p.  372  (3rd  Ed.) 
2  Evangelical  Revival,  p.  159.  3  Ibid.  p.  168. 


7i4  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

against  sin,  and  cannot  be  anxious  for  the  Divine  Forgiveness  ; 
it  is  the  condemnation  of  conscience  which  they  fear.  They 
may  appeal  to  God;  but  it  is  for  redemption  from  the  moral 
and  spiritual  evil  which  conscience  condemns.  Nor  does  the 
idea  of  Forgiveness  in  any  form  enter  as  a  real  and  efficient  factor 
into  their  moral  life.  Conscience  is  their  ruler,  not  God,  and 
conscience  never  forgives.1 

This  resentment  meant,  of  course,  obligation  to  punish. 
God  was  bound  by  the  same  indefeasible  authority  which 
compels  conscience  to  be  our  judge  and  visit  upon  the 
sinner  the  penalty  he  deserved.  But  what  is  the  function 
and  the  purpose  of  penalty  ?  It  cannot  be  remedial  or 
reformatory,  for  then  "  the  severity  of  punishment  would 
have  to  be  measured,  not  by  the  magnitude  of  the  sin  for 
which  it  is  inflicted,  but  by  the  difficulty  of  inducing  the 
sinner  to  amend."  2  And  again,  "  Society  has  no  right  to 
send  a  man  to  gaol,  to  feed  him  on  bread  and  water,  and 
to  make  him  pick  hemp,  or  work  the  treadmill,  merely 
because  society  thinks  that  a  discipline  of  this  kind  would 
do  him  good." 3  Nor  is  punishment  "  an  expedient  for 
strengthening  the  authority  of  the  law  by  creating  a  new 
motive  for  obedience."  4  The  exemplary  theory  of  penalty 
"  originated  with  jurists  and  statesmen  "  ;  but  the  theory 
is,  whether  applied  to  Divine  government  or  human  law, 
fatally  defective,  " '  The  suffering  of  a  criminal,'  it  has 
been  well  said,  •  benefits  the  public  because  it  is  deserved  ; 
it  is  not  deserved  because  it  benefits  the  public'  " 5  Nor 
is  penalty  a  mere  expression  of  "  personal  resentment 
against  those  who  have  offered  an  insult  to  God's  personal 
dignity."  6  This  theory  is  defective  because  "  God  cannot 
release  His  creatures  from  the  obligation  to  reverence 
and  obey  Him."  T 

In  contradistinction  to  these  theories  punishment  was 
held  to  be  "  pain  and  loss  inflicted  for  the  violation  of  a 
law."  s  "  God  cannot  be  separated,  even  in  idea,  from  the 
Law    which  has   been    violated,   and   which    affirms    the 

1  Evangelical  Revival,  p.  164.  2  Atonement,  p.  374. 

3  Ibid.  p.  375.  4  Ibid.  p.  376.  5  Ibid.  p.  377. 

6  Ibid.  p.  379.  '  Hid.  p.  381.  8  Ibid.  p.  383. 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  715 

principle  that  sin  deserves  to  be  punished." 1  "  God 
would  cease  to  be  God  if  His  Will  were  not  a  complete 
expression  of  all  the  contents  of  the  Eternal  Law  of 
Righteousness."2  But  since  it  is  the  Supreme  Moral 
Being  that  inflicts  the  penalty,  the  penalty  must  have  a 
moral  value,  which  is  a  thing  infinitely  higher  than  any 
mere  vindication  of  Law,  or  maintenance  of  a  legal  sanc- 
tion, for  "  Whatever  moral  element  there  is  in  punishment 
itself — as  punishment — is  derived  from  the  person  or 
power  that  inflicts  it."  3  There  is  thus  an  immeasurably 
higher  moral  significance  in  punishment  conceived  as  the 
u  immediate  or  remote  effect  of  a  Divine  volition"  than  in 
"  the  punishment  inflicted  by  self-acting  spiritual  laws. " 4 
And  so  Dale  argues  that  "  the  whole  Law — the  authority 
of  its  precepts,  the  justice  of  its  penalties — must  be 
asserted  in  the  Divine  acts,  or  else  the  Divine  Will  can- 
not be  perfectly  identified  with  the  Eternal  Law  of 
Righteousness."  5 

Now  the  Christian  Atonement  was  conceived  as  the 
fulfilment  of  this  necessity  to  punish  sin.  In  the  Death 
of  Christ  "  the  penalties  are  not  simply  held  back  by  the 
strong  hand  of  infinite  love."  ..."  He  Himself,  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  laid  aside  His  Eternal  Glory,  assumed  our 
nature,  was  forsaken  of  God,  died  on  the  cross,  that  the 
sins  of  men  might  be  remitted.  It  belonged  to  Him  to 
assert,  by  His  own  act,  that  suffering  is  the  just  result  of 
sin.  He  asserts  it,  not  by  inflicting  suffering  upon  the 
sinner,  but  by  enduring  suffering  Himself."  6  But  this  is 
not  all.  "  If  God's  love  for  His  creatures  invests  the 
Divine  act  which  punishes  them  with  its  highest  moral 
value,  the  love  of  the  Eternal  Father  for  the  Son  invests 
with  infinite  moral  sublimity  the  Divine  act  which 
surrendered  Him  to  desertion  and  to  death,  that  the 
justice  of  the  penalties  of  sin  might  be  affirmed  before 
the  penalties  were  remitted.  The  mysterious  unity  of  the 
Father  and  the  Son  rendered  it  possible  for  God  at  once 
to  endure  and  to  inflict  penal  suffering,  and  to  do  both 

1  Atonement,  p.  384.  2  Ibid.  p.  385.  3  Ibid.  p.  386. 

4  Ibid.  p.  387.  6  Ibid.  p.  391.  6  ^J}*/.  p.  392. 


716  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

under  conditions  which  constitute  the  infliction  and  the 
endurance  the  grandest  moment  in  the  moral  history  of 
God."  T 

But  here  a  new  question  emerged  —  How  did  it 
happen  that  He  was  both  able  to  bear  man's  punishment 
and  make  it  possible  for  God  to  forgive  sin  ?  The  answer 
to  this  question  carried  Dale  into  what  we  may  describe 
as  the  ultimate  basis  of  his  speculative  thought.  This 
concerned,  not  so  much  the  relation  of  the  natures  in  the 
historical  Person  of  Christ  as  the  place  which  His  Person 
occupied  and  the  functions  He  fulfilled  in  relation  to  God, 
to  the  universe  as  a  whole,  and  to  man  in  particular.  It 
was  here  that  the  newer  theology  exercised  over  him  its 
most  potently  modifying  influence.  He  conceived  the 
Son  as  in  all  things  the  Supreme  Mediator.  God  saw  the 
universe  in  Him  ;  in  Him  the  universe  saw  God.  They 
met,  therefore,  each  looking,  as  it  were,  at  the  opposite 
side  of  the  shield  ;  in  Him  the  universe  was  objectively 
realised  to  the  Father  ;  in  Him  the  Father  was  objectively 
manifested  to  the  universe.  The  thought  that  was  here 
determinative  was  Johannine :  Christ  was  the  Logos,  the 
Creator  of  all  things,  the  Light  of  the  World,  the  Life  of 
the  World  ;  in  Paul's  phrase,  "  He  was  the  image  of  the 
invisible  God,"  the  constitutive  idea  and  constituent  Will 
of  creation.  In  Him  all  things  stood  together.  Since  the 
Son  was  in  the  eye  of  the  Father  identified  with  the 
creation  and  in  the  eye  of  man  with  God,  the  Incarnation 
was  only,  as  it  were,  the  visible  form  under  which  this 
identity  was  expressed.  He  was  to  the  Father  man 
without  ceasing  to  be  God  ;  He  was  to  us  God  without 
ceasing  to  be  man.  He  summed  up  in  Himself  all  things, 
both  created  and  uncreated  ;  He  carried  all  things  in  His 
mind  and  in  His  heart.  This  ideal  relation  on  His  side 
had  its  counterpart  on  man's.  The  more  the  Apostles 
entered  into  the  spirit  of  Christ,  the  better  they  knew 
what  it  was  to  live  unto  Him,  and  to  have  Him  for  their 
Lord.  Because  of  this  mystical  union  of  Christ  with 
man,  He  became  in  a  sense  collective  mankind  :   His  act 

1  Atonement,  p.  393. 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  717 

had  a  universal  significance  ;  what  He  did,  man  did  ; 
His  own  soul  was  so  fused  with  man's,  that  He  suffered 
for  man's  sin,  tasted  its  last  penalty  by  feeling  in  the 
very  bitterness  of  death  forsaken  of  God.  But  because  of 
their  mystical  union  with  Christ  men  had  a  correlative 
experience,  found  themselves  through  Him  made  sons  of 
God,  taken  up  into  His  spirit,  filled  with  His  life,  born  into 
the  Eternal  and  possessed  of  Eternity.  This  inter-relation 
— the  Godward  and  the  manward — explained  how  it  was 
possible  for  Christ  to  feel  as  if  He  were  collective  man 
before  God,  and  how  it  was  possible  for  God  to  see  col- 
lective man  in  Him  ;  but  it  also  explained  how  man  could 
see  in  His  sufferings  the  judgment  upon  his  sin.  And  so 
Dale  says — "  The  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Moral  Ruler  of 
the  human  race,  instead  of  inflicting  the  penalties,  has 
submitted  to  them  ;  He  has  '  died,  the  Just  for  the  unjust,' 
and  has  been  '  made  a  curse  for  us.'  This  supreme  act 
becomes  ours — not  by  formal  imputation — but  through 
the  law  which  constitutes   His  life  the  original  spring  of 


He  did  not  merely  confess  our  sin ;  He  did  not  merely 
acknowledge  that  we  deserved  to  suffer. 

He  endured  the  penalties  of  sin,  and  so  made  an  actual  sub- 
mission to  the  authority  and  righteousness  of  the  principle  which 
those  penalties  express.  What  we  had  no  force  to  do,  He  has 
done ;  and  through  our  union  with  Him,  His  submission  renders 
our  submission  possible.2 

Dale  held,  therefore,  that  the  Death  of  Christ  is  the 
objective  ground  on  which  the  sins  of  man  were  remitted, 
first,  because  "  His  submission  is  the  expression  of  ours, 
and  carries  ours  with  it";3  secondly,  because  "it  rendered 
possible  the  retention  or  the  recovery  of  our  original  and 
ideal  relation  to  God  through  Christ,  which  sin  had  dis- 
solved "  ; 4  thirdly,  because  "  it  involved  the  actual  destruc- 
tion of  sin  in  all  those  who  through  faith  recover  their 
union  with  Him";5  fourthly,  because  in  His  submission 
"  He  endured  the  penalty  instead  of  inflicting  it."  6 

1  Atonement,  p.  422.  2  Ibid.  p.  423.  3  Ibid.  p.  430. 

4  Ibid.  p.  431.  5  Ibid.  p.  431.  6  Ibid.  p.  432. 


718  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

From  this  fundamental  position  as  to  the  place  and 
function  of  Christ,  Dale's  whole  theology  ought  to  be  con- 
strued. To  him  the  Supreme  Moral  Authority  of  our 
race  was  also  its  only  Redeemer.  The  very  act  of 
Redemption  was  a  vindication  of  the  authority  ;  in  all  He 
did  and  suffered  His  authority  was  implicit  and  active. 
For  he  believed  that  mankind  had  been  created  in 
Christ,  and  redeemed  through  Christ,  and  lived  only  in 
Christ.  This  was  the  ground  of  his  never  obtruded,  but 
cautiously  expressed  and  clearly  held  conviction  that 
Immortality  was  possible  only  to  those  who  were  in  Him  ; 
and  that  to  be  out  of  Him  was  to  be  in  a  state  which  had 
so  much  of  the  essence  of  death  within  it  as  to  be  incom- 
patible with  continued  being.  He  was  too  clear  a  thinker 
and  too  sober-minded  a  man  to  allow  a  subordinate  infer- 
ence to  appear  as  if  it  were  the  regulative  principle  of  his 
thought.  But  we  should  not  be  accurately  expressing  his 
whole  mind  if  we  did  not  bring  out  the  fact  that  his 
attitude  on  what  is  known  as  Conditional  Immortality 
was  due  to  his  belief  that  as  man  had  been  created  in 
Christ  and  redeemed  by  Him,  he  had  no  life  save  in  Him, 
and  it  was  not  worthy  either  of  the  justice  or  of  the  mercy 
of  God  to  tolerate  to  all  eternity  a  dead  universe  or  a  dead 
limb  in  a  universe  which  He  had  expressly  redeemed  from 
death. 

From  the  same  high  principle  came  his  conception  of  the 
Church.  It  was  the  body  of  Christ,  filled  by  His  fulness  ; 
its  life  was  His  life,  and  in  it  whatsoever  was  not  of  Him 
was  of  sin.  The  Church  was  to  him  the  great  organ  for 
the  extension  of  Christ's  life,  for  the  cultivation  of  the 
virtues  that  pleased  Him,  and  for  the  realisation  of  the 
ideals  that  formed  His  ultimate  ends.  He  thus  believed 
intensely  in  the  independence  of  the  Church  from  the 
State  ;  this  followed  directly  from  his  conception  of  the 
Headship.  The  Redeemer  was  so  sovereign  in  His  own 
house  that  His  Will  must  be  supreme,  conditioned  and 
over-ridden  by  no  one  without,  while  honoured  and  obeyed 
by  all  who  were  within.  He  disliked  the  control  of  the 
State  because  it  was  the  control  of  a  body  mixed  alike  as 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  719 

regards  the  citizens  or  units  composing  it,  the  means  it 
used,  the  laws  it  enforced,  and  its  mode  of  enforcing  them, 
exercising  authority  often  by  unspiritual  instruments, 
tempting  by  secular  rewards,  and  appealing  to  motives 
that  could  not  be  described  as  religious.  He  believed 
that  the  Church  could  best  serve  the  State  by  being  free, 
able  to  speak  with  the  voice  of  its  Master,  to  command 
with  His  authority,  and  to  seek  nothing  but  the  realisation 
of  His  ideals.  He  distinguished  indeed  clearly  between  his 
rights  as  a  citizen  and  his  duties  as  a  churchman.  He 
believed  that  to  be  a  Christian  was  to  be  bound  by  the 
holiest  of  all  obligations  to  fulfil  effectually  and  diligently 
all  the  duties  he  owed  to  the  society  in  which  he  lived. 
He  held  that  to  serve  the  State  in  which  he  dwelt  was  to 
honour  the  King  of  Kings.  And  he  thought  that  the 
saving  of  society  was  to  come  from  its  religious  men 
obeying  in  time  the  Will  that  governed  Eternity.  He 
thus  believed  that  the  sovereignty  of  Christ  over  him  as 
man  and  citizen  equally  required  that  the  means  and  the 
methods  of  the  State  should  not  invade  the  conscience  or 
the  province  where  Christ  reigned.  The  provinces  were  so 
far  coincident,  but  the  coincidence  never  became  identity 
or  co-extension  ;  the  religious  realm  was  conceived  as  that 
which  ought  to  penetrate  and  organise  the  State,  but 
the  State  was  not  conceived  as  the  realm  which  could 
penetrate  the  religious  and  legislate  for  it,  because  it  could 
not  do  this  without  turning  the  Church  into  one  of  its  own 
sections  or  departments.  In  no  respect,  therefore,  was 
he  more  zealously  carrying  out  his  high  belief  in  the 
sovereignty  of  the  Son  of  God  than  when  he  pleaded  for 
the  supremacy  of  the  Church  within  its  own  sphere.  That 
sphere,  so  far  from  being  curtailed,  was  immensely 
enlarged  by  his  doctrine  of  the  Church's  independence, 
for  to  him  the  independence  from  the  State  meant 
the  reign  of  the  absolute  law  impersonated  in  Christ 
over  the  whole  intellectual  and  social,  civil  and  moral 
life  of  man. 

But  just  because  he  thus  conceived  Christ's  supremacy 
he  also  believed  that  He  had  endowed  His  Church  with  all 


720  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

the  agencies  and  all  the  means  necessary  to  fulfil  its 
mission  in  the  world.  Its  great  need  was  growth  in 
Grace,  the  progressive  incorporation  of  His  mind  and 
spirit.  As  a  means  to  this  end  he  conceived  the  Sacra- 
ments. Baptism  was  the  assertion  of  His  claim  upon  the 
child,  and  the  recognition  of  the  claim  by  both  the  family 
and  the  Church.  The  Lord's  Supper  was  the  perpetual 
memorial  of  His  death  ;  it  was  a  kind  of  perennial  endow- 
ment of  the  Church  with  His  presence — a  spiritual 
presence,  indeed,  but  therefore  all  the  more  real.  Men 
were  to  come  to  it  not  that  they  might  give,  but  that 
they  might  receive.  Through  its  symbols  the  Saviour 
gave  Himself.  He  who  received  entered  into  a  richer 
fellowship  with  Him,  realised  His  presence  in  the  symbols 
and  in  the  society  by  which  they  were  at  once  preserved 
and  administered.  And  as  with  the  Sacraments  so  with 
the  Ministry.  He  was  most  jealous  of  its  spiritual  character. 
He  feared  the  materialism  that  lay  in  theories  of  official 
succession.  He  believed  in  the  inward  vocation  to  the 
Ministry ;  the  man  was  called  by  a  living  voice  which 
came  direct  from  the  invisible,  and  was  God's  command  to 
him  who  stood  in  His  secret  to  speak  in  His  Name. 
And  as  the  Ministry  stood  thus  related  to  God  it  implied 
a  relation  of  equal  intimacy  to  His  people.  It  was  through 
the  people  that  the  outward  call  came  ;  it  was  in  their 
bosom  that  the  minister  lived  ;  their  common  function 
was  to  make  the  Church  change,  discipline  and  save  the 
world. 

Since  he  thus  conceived  Christ  and  the  Church,  he  also 
believed  that  the  whole  field  of  morals  came  within  their 
province.  He  had  in  this  respect  the  real  soul  of  the 
Puritan  in  him.  There  was  no  danger  of  his  magnifying  a 
cloistered  and  fugitive  piety,  unexercised  and  unbreathed  ; 
he  was  indeed  possessed  by  a  passion  for  conduct.  Moral 
integrity  was  the  very  note  of  his  life,  but  his  morality  was 
no  love  of  the  expedient,  or  conformity  with  the  conven- 
tional ;  it  was  the  reign  of  an  absolute  ethical  will  over 
the  whole  man,  the  whole  Church,  the  whole  State,  and 
the  whole  of  life.      His    practical    sermons   have   in    this 


DALE  AS  A  THEOLOGIAN  721 

respect  an  extraordinary  strength  and  dignity  in  them. 
His  moral  teaching  has  all  the  passion  and  cogency  of  his 
evangelical.  His  book  on  The  Ten  Commandments ;  his 
Commentary  on  James,  his  lectures  and  his  sermons  all 
show  the  same  intense  ethical  sense,  which  yet  was 
altogether  religious  ;  they  express  and  enforce  the  ideal  of 
a  life  that  was  godly  in  proportion  as  it  was  beneficently 
human. 

And  in  the  same  way  we  have  to  interpret  his 
apologetic  thought.  His  argument  from  experience  was 
no  mere  transient  and  unrelated  individualism  ;  it  was  the 
experience  not  simply  of  a  single  man,  but  of  the  collective 
Church  through  all  the  Christian  centuries  of  its  existence. 
What  Jesus  was  to  him,  He  had  been  to  all  saints,  and 
this  was  a  fact  which  no  criticism  could  dissolve  and  no 
rationalism  evaporate. 

Dale  had  the  mind  of  the  thinker  more  than  of  the 
historian,  and  so  his  contributions  were  to  thought  rather 
than  to  criticism,  more  to  theology  than  to  history.  But 
he  had  the  most  living  interest  in  critical  and  historical 
questions,  and  when  he  looked  at  them  through  his 
central  principle — the  being  of  all  things  in  Christ  and 
consequently  of  life  only  in  Him — he  could  be  as  brave 
as  he  was  cautious.  He  felt  that  the  whole  life  of  man 
illustrated  and  verified  the  continued  life  of  the  Redeemer, 
and  from  the  security  afforded  by  this  Rock  he  was  pre- 
pared to  look  with  a  clear  and  undisturbed  eye  on  those 
critical  movements  that  had  created  in  the  more  timid 
dismay,  and  in  the  less  stable  exhilaration  and  anticipation 
of  revolution. 

On  the  whole,  when  we  survey  Dale's  work  as  a  theo- 
logian, we  are  forced  to  say  that  our  generation  has  had  no 
abler  interpreter  of  Evangelical  thought.  His  conspicuous 
merit  was  a  depth  that  was  never  narrow  and  a  breadth 
that  was  never  shallow.  He  was  manysided,  rich  in  his 
interests,  vivid  in  his  speech,  clear  and  compact  in  his 
thought,  masterly  in  his  collective  influence.  Were  we  to 
select  a  word  to  express  his  most  distinctive  quality, 
we  should  say  he  was  massive;  but  his  massive  - 
3  A 


fw*l 


722  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

ness  was  homogeneous,  expressing  a  rare  unity  and 
integrity  of  nature,  and  representing  in  its  outward 
being  the  character  and  the  convictions  of  as  honest 
a  man  and  as  distinctive  a  thinker  as  these  later  times 
have  known. 


£Ur  /a 


/  4/<i 


CHAPTER    XXVIII 

REMINISCENCES    OF    DR.    DALE 

By  Dr.  Guinness  Rogers 

It  is  close  upon  forty  years  ago  since  my  intimacy  with 
Robert  William  Dale,  which  I  have  always  regarded  as  the 
great  friendship  of  my  life,  commenced.  Our  fellowship 
has  been  very  intimate,  very  close,  and  I  can  truly  say 
was  never,  during  the  long  period  over  which  it  extended, 
shadowed  by  a  solitary  cloud  of  distrust.  That  does  not 
mean  that  we  never  differed  in  opinion.  Our  differences 
were  many — indeed  I  have  often  said  to  him  that  I 
thought  they  were  more  numerous  than  our  agreements. 
He  would  never  assent  to  this,  but  there  was  more  truth 
in  it  than  he  was  at  all  disposed  to  admit.  He  loved  to 
dwell  on  our  unity,  and  so  did  I  ;  but  the  great  charm  of 
our  friendship  was  that  it  was  unity  in  variety.  I  well 
remember  a  brief  talk  on  the  point  on  the  evening  of  the 
loving  welcome  which  was  given  him  on  his  return  from 
Australia.  I  had  said  what  I  have  written.  Looking 
very  serious  as  we  were  enjoying  a  smoke  together  in 
the  quiet  of  his  study,  he  said,  "  What  are  the  points  on 
which  we  do  not  agree  except  Home  Rule  and  to 
some  extent  politics  generally?"  That  was  itself  a  very 
serious  exception  considering  how  keen  was  the  feeling  on 
both  sides  at  the  time,  but,  as  I  shall  have  occasion  to 
show  afterwards,  it  never  disturbed  our  personal  relations. 
But  I  soon  satisfied  him  there  were  other  subjects  on 
which   our    opinions   were   divergent.       They   did    not    at 


724  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

any  time  cause  more  than  a  momentary  ripple  on  the 
even  flow  of  our  intercourse.  That  they  could  produce 
any  real  difference  in  our  sentiments  towards  each  other 
was  impossible.  The  simple  fact  was  :  each  had  absolute 
trust  in  the  other,  and  so  amid  all  diversities  we  retained 
a  love  which  made  our  friendship  closer  even  than  a 
brotherhood. 

The  circumstances  under  which  this  intimacy  com- 
menced were  peculiar.  Once  on  talking  them  over  with 
him  he  reminded  me  that  even  before  the  point  at  which 
our  friendship  began  we  had  been  not  only  acquaintances 
but  allies.  Our  first  meeting  was  in  the  Broad  Street 
Chapel,  at  the  Assembly  of  the  Union,  when  one  moved 
and  the  other  seconded  a  motion  against  what  had  been, 
up  to  the  time,  the  official  policy  of  treating  the  affairs  of 
the  Home  Missionary  Society  as  part  of  the  business  of 
the  Union  and  discussing  them  at  the  General  Assembly. 
The  practice  had  not  helped  the  Home  Missionary 
Society,  and  at  the  time  it  was  seriously  interfering  both 
with  the  peace  and  efficiency  of  the  Union  itself.  The 
evil  had  reached  an  acute  stage,  and  it  seemed  to  us, 
perhaps  growing  now  possibly  too  confident  in  our  own 
judgment  after  the  fashion  of  our  kind,  that  there  was 
only  one  remedy,  Ense  reddendum  est.  We  suggested 
that  it  was  time  to  end  the  connection,  and  carried  the 
Assembly  with  us.  No  doubt  we  earned  the  criticism 
passed  then  as  now  upon  presumptuous  youths  ;  but  we 
did  what  we  believed  to  be  right  and  were  justified  by 
the  result. 

I  have  not  myself  a  very  vivid  recollection  of  the 
circumstances,  but  my  friend  liked  to  refer  to  them  as 
being  our  introduction  to  each  other.  I  have  a  more 
abiding  remembrance  of  the  meeting  to  which  I  trace  the 
unbroken  friendship  of  after  years.  I  was  living  at  the 
time  at  Ashton-under-Lyne,  and  was  preparing  for  bed, 
when  I  was  unexpectedly  called  to  the  front  door.  I  am 
not  clear  whether  the  first  summons  was  not  given  by 
means  of  gravel  thrown  at  the  window.  I  at  once  obeyed 
the  call,  and  to  my  surprise,  but  still  more  to  my  pleasure, 


REMINISCENCES  725 

found  Dale  standing  at  the  door.  He  was  going  to  an 
ordination  at  Hyde,  but  found  himself  stranded  at  Guide 
Bridge,  apparently  without  any  prospect  of  finding  a 
resting-place  for  the  night.  It  was  an  awkward  predica- 
ment, but  he  proved  quite  equal  to  it.  It  struck 
him  that  my  house  was  not  very  far  off.  He  at  once 
"  made  tracks "  for  it.  The  incident  is  worth  relating, 
because  it  illustrates  the  absolutely  sincere  and  unconven- 
tional character  of  the  man,  and  still  more  because  it 
shows  how  strong  was  the  attraction  to  each  other  even 
at  that  period. 

Our  early  intercourse  could  not  well  be  very  close. 
We  met  at  Union  meetings,  occasionally  we  might  inter- 
change a  visit,  but  communication  between  Birmingham 
and  Ashton  was  not  frequent,  and  it  was  not  until  after 
my  removal  to  London  in  1865  that  we  were  thrown 
much  together.  The  Education  controversy  of  1870 
brought  us  into  closer  and  more  frequent  intercourse. 
We  were,  from  the  outset,  in  full  agreement  on  points  of 
principle,  and  from  that  principle  neither  of  us  ever 
swerved.  We  might  not  always  agree  as  to  the  applica- 
tion of  it  to  questions  of  detail,  which  of  course  have 
always  been  arising,  but  from  the  first  we  based  our  con- 
tention on  the  impossibility  of  the  State  giving  religious 
instruction  without  doing  injustice  to  some  sections  of 
the  community.  I  am  not  sure  that  Dale  would  not 
have  been  more  "  irreconcilable "  than  I  am  myself  in 
the  practical  enforcement  of  this  view.  At  all  events,  I 
can  safely  say  that  he  would  never  have  acquiesced  in 
any  "  compromise "  as  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the 
difficulty. 

In  that  practical  wisdom  which  suggests  a  modus 
operandi  in  such  difficulties,  Dale  was  never  lacking, 
but  he  never  allowed  a  desire  for  the  settlement  of  a 
pressing  difficulty  to  betray  him  into  even  a  momentary 
disloyalty  to  principle.  He  believed,  and  therefore  spoke 
and  acted  without  anxious  care  as  to  the  consequences 
of  speech  and  action.  I  remember  a  light  and  yet 
significant  play  of  argument  between    him    and   his   old 


726  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

fellow-student  and  friend  Eustace  Conder,  in  which  each 
was  anxious  to  vindicate  the  logic  of  his  position.  On 
both  sides  there  was  something  to  be  said,  and  in  truth 
the  verdict  might  well  have  been  claimed  by  either,  pro- 
vided his  own  premisses  had  been  conceded.  Experience, 
however,  has  since  abundantly  demonstrated  that  Dale 
was  right,  and  that  the  Free  Churches  of  the  country 
have  been  seriously  hindered  in  their  work,  while  the 
progress  of  education  itself  has  been  retarded  in  conse- 
quence of  the  "  halting  between  two  opinions  "  which  was 
the  characteristic  of  Mr.  Forster's  policy. 

The  lapse  of  time  induces  a  more  kindly  judgment  on 
old  opponents  and  the  controversies  in  which  we  were 
their  antagonists.  It  is  possible  that  unwise  words  were 
spoken  and  hasty  charges  brought  against  Mr.  Forster  at 
that  time  by  those  who  were  intensely  disappointed  in  a 
measure  from  which,  as  coming  from  a  professed  Radical, 
something  so  different  had  been  expected.  But  so  far  as 
Dale  and  myself  were  concerned  I  do  not  believe  that 
we  had  anything  to  regret  in  the  spirit  and  mode  of  our 
advocacy.  At  the  Education  Conference  in  Manchester, 
indeed,  I,  with  his  full  sympathy,  emphatically  declared 
that  Nonconformists  would  never  be  satisfied  while  Mr. 
Forster  remained  Minister  of  Education.  The  scene  that 
followed  was  a  remarkable  demonstration  of  the  intensity 
of  Nonconformal  feeling  on  the  subject.  The  excited 
assembly  rose  en  masse,  and  made  it  abundantly  manifest 
that  in  its  view  Mr.  Forster  and  his  policy  must,  at  all 
costs,  be  resisted. 

I  am  so  far  from  being  penitent  that  I  would  advocate 
the  same  course  and  do  it  with  more  emphasis  to-day 
than  I  did  then.  I  did  not  believe  then  that  Mr.  Forster 
was  influenced  by  any  unworthy  motive.  But,  in  common 
with  my  friend,  I  held  that  the  measure  was  contrary  to 
true  Liberal  principles,  and  would  be  unfriendly  to  the 
development  of  a  national  system  worthy  of  the  name. 
Beyond  this  we  objected  to  the  violation  of  the  rights  of 
conscience  involved  in  any  scheme  of  religious  instruction, 
supported    out   of  the  public   Exchequer,  over  which  the 


REMINISCENCES  727 

State  exercised  a  certain  control  and  for  which,  to  that 
extent,  it  necessarily  accepted  responsibility.  With  this 
view  Mr.  Forster  had  no  sympathy,  and  it  was  probably 
the  surprise  of  finding  one  who  had  been  regarded  as  the 
representative  of  Radicalism  in  the  Cabinet  so  decided  a 
supporter  of  an  Erastian  policy  in  education  that  provoked 
such  keen  indignation. 

At  all  events,  Mr.  Forster  and  we  were  distinctly 
opposed  on  this  crucial  question,  and  it  must  be  said  that 
he  was  not  at  all  given  to  conciliate  his  critics.  There 
was  a  plain,  out-spoken,  Yorkshire  bluntness  about  him 
which  could  very  easily  become  extremely  offensive.  It  was 
easy  for  those  in  sympathy  with  him  to  commend  him  as 
a  straightforward  antagonist ;  but  when  this  meant  an 
indifference  to  the  courtesies  which  even  so  exalted  a 
person  as  the  Vice-President  of  the  Council  might  be 
expected  to  show  to  men  who,  though  they  were  members 
of  a  deputation,  were  in  every  other  respect  fully  his 
equals,  it  was  apt  to  become  irritating.  It  was  not 
possible  that  the  vital  differences  of  principle  could  have 
been  bridged  over  by  any  grace  of  manner,  but  it  is 
certain  that  the  tone  which  the  Minister  adopted  made 
his  own  task  more  difficult  and  infused  a  needless  bitter- 
ness into  the  discussion.  We  were  dealt  with  as  though 
we  had  been  the  determined  enemies  of  a  Ministry  which 
owed  its  existence  to  our  disinterested  support.  It  has 
often  been  the  lot  of  Nonconformists.  The  Liberal  leaders 
have  had  no  more  steady  adherents,  and  we  have  received 
the  treatment  only  too  often  accorded  in  political  contests 
to  tried  friends  whose  unfaltering  loyalty  renders  it  un- 
necessary to  study  their  wishes  and  secure  their  support 
by  attention  to  them.  Mr.  Forster  was  largely  responsible 
for  the  disaster  which  overtook  the  party  in  1874,  and 
which  would  have  been  even  more  complete  had  not  strong 
Liberal  sentiment  overcome  the  strong  resentment  felt  by 
numbers,  and,  I  must  also  add,  had  not  personal  devotion 
to  the  great  chief  made  them  pass  over  the  faults  of  his 
subordinate. 

An   incident  in   my  own  experience  will  illustrate  this. 


728  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

I  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  personally  I  threw  myself 
into  the  contest  of  1874  as  earnestly  as  though  I  had 
never  fretted  against  the  reactionary  and  clerical  tendency  of 
Mr.  Forster's  Bill.  I  happened  to  be  out  of  health  at  the 
time  of  the  Dissolution  ;  but  when  one  of  my  former  Dis- 
senting opponents  came  and  solicited  my  help,  I  shook  off 
my  weakness  and  threw  myself  into  the  fray.  In  the 
course  of  it  I  was  waited  upon  by  a  gentleman  —  an 
earnest  Dissenter — who  though  a  zealous  member  of  the 
Tabernacle,  did  not  share  Mr.  Spurgeon's  opinions  on  the 
subject.  He  told  me  that  he  represented  a  number  of 
City  electors,  who  were  hesitating  whether  they  should 
mark  their  disapproval  of  Mr.  Forster  and  his  measure  by 
voting  against  Mr.  Goschen  in  the  City,  and  who  were 
anxious  to  have  my  views  on  the  subject.  My  reply  was 
prompt.  I  had  not  even  at  that  date  any  belief  in  Mr. 
Goschen's  Liberalism  ;  but  he  was  the  champion  of  the 
party  to  which  I  belonged,  and  I  could  not  allow  difference 
of  view  on  a  particular  measure  to  make  me  desert  the 
old  leader  and  the  old  flag.  As  with  me,  so  doubtless 
with  numbers  of  others.  The  returns  were  enough  to 
show  how  much  had  been  lost  by  the  chilling  of  Noncon- 
formist zeal  ;  but  they  would  have  been  even  worse  if,  at 
the  last  hour,  the  old  feeling  had  not  reasserted  itself,  and 
many  who  had  been  sufficiently  pronounced  in  the  "  Non- 
conformist revolt "  had  not  buried  their  grievances  and 
rallied  to  their  illustrious  chief,  under  whom  they  had 
marched  to  victory  in  the  past  and  were  destined  to  do 
so  in  the  future. 

It  is  necessary  to  revive  these  memories,  because  the 
history  of  our  own  times  is  so  little  known  that  the  most 
extraordinary  fictions  are  continually  accepted  as  true. 
Thus  it  is  generally  supposed  that  we  were  parties  to  a 
compromise,  and  this  notion  has  been  improved  on  of 
late  by  a  confident  assertion  that  this  compromise 
was  practically  the  establishment  of  the  Nonconformist 
creed.  Of  course  it  is  nothing  of  the  kind.  Needless 
to  say  it  leaves  a  School  Board  free  to  have  no  reli- 
gious teaching  at  all.      All  that  it  provides  is  that  if  it  be 


REMINISCENCES  729 

given,  it  shall  be  kept  free  from  sectarian  elements.  To 
put  it  in  a  sentence :  it  allowed  a  Board  to  adopt  the 
old  system  of  the  British  and  Foreign  School  Society,  and 
as  it  had  been  largely  supported  by  Dissenters,  it  was 
assumed  to  embody  the  Nonconformist  creed.  The  fallacy 
lay  in  the  implied  idea  that  we  were  determined  to  insist 
on  the  teaching  of  our  own  distinctive  views  in  the  school, 
and,  in  truth,  were  only  waging  a  battle  for  sectarian 
interests.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  contrary  to 
fact.  Our  one  desire  (I  am  speaking  now  of  those  who 
were  in  sympathy  with  Dale  and  myself)  was  to  exclude 
sectarianism  altogether,  and  to  secure  the  establishment  of 
a  really  national  system  of  education.  For  this  we  were 
at  the  time  accused  of  all  kinds  of  offences  against  religion, 
and  now  we  are  supposed  to  have  been  parties  to  a  com- 
promise by  which  a  Nonconformist  creed  is  to  have  the 
sanction  and  support  of  law. 

The  arrangement,  however,  was  carried  without  our 
vote  and  in  opposition  to  our  persistent  resistance.  On 
this  point  my  friend  never  altered  the  attitude  he  took  at 
first.  He  was  not  even  prepared  to  go  as  far  as  I  have 
done,  that  is,  to  treat  the  controversy  as  a  chose  juge'e,  and 
to  do  battle  for  it  rather  than  let  some  worse  thing  come 
upon  us.  That  this  must  be  the  result  of  creating  a 
diversion  by  the  advocacy  of  an  abstract  principle  which 
the  vast  majority  of  the  people  have  never  been  able  fully 
to  understand  I  could  not  doubt,  and  I  have  been  willing 
therefore  to  resist  changes  in  the  existing  system.  But 
Dale  did  not  agree  with  what  he  possibly  regarded  as  an 
Opportunist  policy.  In  one  of  the  last  talks  I  had 
with  him  on  the  subject  I  found  him  as  unwilling  to 
make  a  solitary  concession  as  at  first.  His  education 
policy  was  the  logical  outcome  of  his  definite  and 
decided  convictions  as  to  the  relation  of  the  State  to 
religion.  It  would  not  have  been  easy  to  find  a  man 
who  had  more  thoroughly  grasped  the  great  principle 
embodied  in  the  text  of  John  Robinson's  celebrated  sermon, 
"  I  was  ashamed  to  ask  of  the  king  a  guard  of  soldiers  and 
horsemen."     Those  who  might  be  disposed  to  regard  some 


730  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

of  its  applications  as  extreme  were  bound  to  respect  the 
consistency  with  which  it  was  always  maintained,  even 
though  some  of  the  consequences  might  be  practically  in- 
convenient. If  there  was  any  difference  of  views  between 
us  on  the  subject  it  was  simply  this.  The  interference  of 
Government  with  the  affairs  of  a  Church  I  should  regard 
as  an  outrage  on  conscience,  in  which  there  must  not  even 
be  silent  acquiescence.  A  public  endowment  of  religious 
teaching  I  should  oppose  alike  on  political  and  religious 
grounds  ;  but  if  left  in  a  minority  should  at  all  events 
endeavour  to  make  the  teaching  as  broad  and  catholic  as 
possible.  Dr.  Dale  was  not  disposed  to  make  even  this 
concession. 

This  pronounced  attitude  on  ecclesiastical  questions 
makes  his  action  in  our  Disestablishment  campaigns  easily 
intelligible.  The  idea  of  the  movement  was  struck  out  in 
a  walk  on  the  Hastings  promenade.  We  had  arranged  to 
spend  two  or  three  days  in  retreat  at  that  beautiful  spot. 
As  it  happened,  I  was  detained  for  a  night  in  town  by  a 
meeting  of  the  Liberation  Society,  and  not  unnaturally 
one  of  our  early  conversations  turned  on  its  work  and 
prospects.  I  am  not  sure  from  whom  the  suggestion  of 
a  series  of  meetings  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  public 
attention  to  the  subject  emanated  ;  but  if  I  remember 
right  the  original  thought  was  mine,  and  gradually  it  was 
beaten  out  into  a  proposal  we  made  to  the  Society,  and 
which  it  heartily  welcomed.  It  is  only  fair  here  to  say 
that  nothing  could  exceed  the  energy  and  tact  with  which 
the  arrangements  were  carried  out.  We  placed  our 
services  at  the  disposal  of  the  Committee,  leaving  with 
them  to  fix  the  towns  we  were  to  visit,  and  in  general  to 
attend  to  the  details  of  the  meetings.  That  part  of  the 
work  was  done  with  singular  efficiency. 

Looking  back  upon  the  campaign  I  cannot  wonder  if 
some  regarded  it  as  of  a  Quixotic  character.  Perhaps 
this  was  so,  to  some  extent,  and  perhaps,  also,  that  was 
one  of  the  secrets  of  such  success  as  it  achieved.  For 
ourselves  we  thought  of  it,  I  can  honestly  say,  as  a  propa- 
ganda  mission   and   nothing    more ;    and   the  widespread 


REMINISCENCES  731 

interest  which  it  awakened  greatly  astonished  ourselves. 
Possibly  some  outsiders,  and  especially  those  in  the  opposite 
camp,  regarded  it  as  a  part  of  some  deep-laid  design  in 
which  probably  some  political  party  was  interested.  It 
certainly  would  not  have  been  unreasonable  to  suppose 
that  the  Liberation  Society  had  resolved  on  some  decided 
move,  and  that  this  was  the  preparation  for  it.  Whatever 
conjectures  of  the  kind  there  were,  were  beside  the  mark. 
There  was  really  no  design  at  all.  The  whole  history  and 
natural  history  of  our  movement  is  told  by  the  Apostle 
in  the  simple  record  of  his  own  missionary  work, 
"  We  believed,  therefore  have  we  spoken."  We  went 
forth  sowing  seed,  not  knowing  which  should  prosper, 
whether  this  or  that,  or  whether  both  should  be  alike 
good. 

Our  motive  was,  at  all  events,  honest,  and  our  action  was 
quite  consistent  with  the  highest  possible  esteem  for  those 
from  whom  we  differed.  We  were  assailants  of  a  system, 
not  of  the  men  who  were  identified  with  it,  and  I  venture 
to  think  that  our  attack  was  defective  rather  than  excessive 
in  its  severity.  This,  indeed,  was  the  opinion  expressed 
by  an  eminent  clergyman  at  dinner  at  my  own  house 
on  an  evening  preceding  one  of  our  meetings  :  "  Had  I 
undertaken  the  work,"  he  said,  "  my  criticism  would  have 
been  much  more  trenchant."  That  opinion  has  often  been 
recalled  to  my  mind  while  reading  the  letters  and  speeches 
called  forth  by  the  recent  Ritualist  controversy.  I  find 
one  of  the  writers,  who  describes  himself  as  "  a  Church- 
man "  par  excellence,  saying :  "  The  Church  of  England 
has  been  revelling  in  lawlessness  of  one  sort  or  another 
from  the  days  of  the  Reformation."  I  doubt  whether 
either  of  us  ever  said  anything  quite  so  sweeping.  Indeed, 
with  the  eminent  examples  which  have  been  furnished  of 
late,  we  might  probably  have  produced  a  more  effective 
indictment  than  we  did.  We,  as  Dissenters,  have  been  so 
accustomed  to  grievances  that  we  may  be  more  patient  in 
endurance  than  the  members  of  the  Establishment,  the 
different  parties  in  which  are  keenly  sensitive  to  any  real 
or  supposed  wrong  inflicted  upon  themselves,  while  utterly 


732  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

insensible  to  the  gross  injustice  which  the  system  inflicts 
upon  the  whole  body  of  Nonconformists. 

There  was  no  special  reason  why  we  should  undertake 
this  work.  We  had  no  personal  grievances  to  be  redressed 
nor  selfish  ambitions  to  be  gratified.  We  should  have 
been  short-sighted  indeed  had  we  not  foreseen  the  antag- 
onism we  were  sure  to  excite  and  the  manner  in  which  it 
was  likely  to  affect  us.  I  doubt,  however,  whether  either 
of  us  took  this  into  account.  For  my  comrade  I  can 
confidently  say  that  his  service  to  truth  was  conceived  in 
a  spirit  so  absolutely  self-forgetful  that  it  never  stopped 
to  forecast  possible  consequences.  In  all  our  conversations 
on  the  subject  this  was  a  point  which  was  never  even 
broached.  We  thought  that  there  was  need  for  a  distinct 
deliverance  on  the  Nonconformist  side,  and  though  it  was 
sure  to  involve  sacrifice  and  opprobrium  we  did  not  hesitate 
to  undertake  it. 

It  must  in  fairness  be  added  that  we  were  not  ani- 
mated by  any  bitter  antagonism  to  the  Anglican  Church 
or  its  clergy.  We  had  our  own  theological  and  ecclesi- 
astical attachments,  and  we  were  prepared  to  give  all 
possible  service  to  the  churches  we  loved.  But  neither 
inclination  nor  a  sense  of  duty  would  have  led  us  to 
engage  in  an  attack  upon  another  Christian  community 
in  the  hope  that  we  might  thus  advance  the  interests  of 
the  Church.  The  matter  of  our  several  addresses  has, 
of  course,  long  since  passed  out  of  my  recollection  ;  but 
I  think  I  can  safely  say  that  we  dealt  exclusively  with 
the  faults  belonging  to  an  Establishment  whatever  its 
special  constitution  or  teaching.  No  doubt  this  necessarily 
led  us  sometimes  on  to  theological  ground,  but  it  was 
simply  to  refute  the  pleas  which  have  been  urged  on 
behalf  of  the  institution.  We  heard  more  in  those  days 
than  we  do  now  of  the  State  Church  as  the  great  bulwark 
of  Protestantism  ;  and  while  denying  that  that  would  be 
any  justification  for  its  continued  existence,  and  contend- 
ing that  the  Protestantism  which  could  only  be  preserved 
by  Acts  of  Parliament  was  not  worth  preserving,  we 
traversed  the  plea  altogether,  and  in  doing  so,  of  course, 


REMINISCENCES  733 

had  to  deal  with  some  sectarian  questions.  But  this  was 
only  in  the  natural  course  of  argument.  Neither  of  us 
would  have  been  tempted  away  from  other  pursuits,  from 
churches  we  loved,  and  from  studies  in  which  we  could 
have  found  far  more  interest  than  in  long  railway  journeys 
or  exciting  public  meetings  for  the  gratification  of 
sectarian  passion.  On  one  point  our  efforts  were  con- 
centrated, and  that  was  the  independence  of  the  Church 
of  all  political  authority. 

Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  quotes  a  story  of  Charles  Buller 
from  Jowett's  biography,  that  on  one  occasion,  when 
talking  on  the  subject  of  Disestablishment,  he  said, 
"  Destroy  the  Church  of  England  !  You  must  be  mad  ; 
why,  it  is  the  only  thing  between  us  and  real  religion"  ;  and 
adds,  "  Free  the  Church,  that  is,  from  the  fetters  of  Parlia- 
ment and  lay  jurisdiction,  and  you  will  lay  it  open  to  the 
fanatics."  There  is  doubtless  much  truth  in  the  epigram, 
and  if  for  "real  religion"  we  read  "fanaticism,"  Jowett  might 
have  accepted  the  saying.  Here  is  sufficient  justification 
for  our  action.  Of  course,  it  is  the  Establishment  of  which 
Buller  was  speaking.  The  Church  in  it  is  not  to  be 
destroyed,  and  certainly  ours  would  not  have  been  the 
hands  to  take  part  in  sacrilegious  work  of  the  kind.  In 
all  the  spiritual  movements  within  the  Anglican  Church 
both  of  us  took  a  deep  interest,  and  we  had  a  clearer 
insight  into  the  views  of  the  Tractarian  school,  and  more 
of  sympathy  with  whatever  elements  of  good  were  in  its 
representatives,  than  the  majority  of  New  Evangelical 
brethren.  I  have  no  wish  to  claim  credit  for  more 
liberality  than  we  possessed,  still  less  to  seem  insensible  to 
the  mischievous  drift  of  a  school  which,  despite  all  its 
protests,  is  distinctly  Romish  in  character  ;  least  of  all  to 
affect  a  latitudinarian  tone.  But  I  am  desirous  to  clear 
ourselves  of  any  suspicion  of  odium  tJieologicum  or 
ccclesiasticum.  We  had  a  very  strong  and  fixed  convic- 
tion that  the  Establishment  was  hostile  to  the  interests 
which  should  be  most  dear  and  sacred  to  all  Christians. 
What  Mr.  Buller,  or  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  as  his  interpreter, 
might  regard  as  fanaticism  we  held  to  be  in   many  cases 


734  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

vital  religion,  and  we  firmly  believed  that  the  influence  of 
the  Establishment  was  unfavourable  to  its  growth.  This 
was  the  secret  of  our  action.  It  was  in  no  sense  a 
crusade  for  a  sect ;  it  was  an  earnest  endeavour  for  the 
emancipation  of  religion  from  the  trammels  of  human 
law,  the  true  character  of  which  was  concealed  by  the 
gilding  of  wealth  and  power. 

Those  expeditions,  followed  as  they  were  by  others 
with  more  purely  denominational  ends  in  view,  remain 
among  the  most  cherished  memories  of  my  life.  They 
were  the  periods  of  closest  and  most  intimate  intercourse 
between  us,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  think  that  there  is  not  a 
single  cloud  that  darkens  the  retrospect.  I  have  often 
wondered  how  we  came  to  be  so  closely  allied,  for  there 
were  many  diversities  both  in  opinion  and  in  temperament, 
albeit  we  at  times  used  to  come  across  points  of  agree- 
ment where  perhaps  it  was  least  to  be  expected.  Certain 
it  is  that  the  hearts  of  David  and  Jonathan  were  not  more 
knit  to  each  other.  These  expeditions  were  among  the 
chief  instruments  in  welding  our  friendship  into  so  close 
a  bond.  When  it  was  at  all  possible  we  used  to  travel 
together,  and  for  the  most  part  arranged  to  stay  at  an 
hotel,  so  that  we  might  have  the  freest  opportunities  of 
fellowship.  By  degrees  we  came  to  such  a  thorough 
mutual  understanding  that  we  learned  almost  by  intuition 
when  was  the  time  to  speak  and  when  the  time  to  keep 
silence.  I  remember  occasions  when  we  travelled  or  sat 
together  for  hours  with  hardly  the  interchange  of  a  word, 
and  then  the  interval  of  quiet  would  be  followed  by  long 
and  earnest  talk  on  some  matter  of  mutual  interest. 
They  were  happy  and  also  profitable  times — red-letter 
days  in  the  records  of  life. 

Of  course  we  had  some  amusing  incidents,  though 
hardly  so  many  as  might  have  been  anticipated.  On  the 
whole  we  had  not  much  reason  to  complain  of  the 
defenders  of  the  Establishment,  who,  with  some  notable 
exceptions,  left  us  severely  alone.  Unfortunately  any 
opposition  we  had  to  encounter  was  of  the  rowdy  type. 
Had  some  ecclesiastic  invited  us  to  a  formal  discussion,  we 


REMINISCENCES  735 

should,  I  think,  have  been  inclined  to  welcome  the 
challenge.  But  all  that  we  had  to  encounter  was  noisy 
interruption,  sometimes  becoming  of  a  violent  character. 
I  remember  at  Leicester  a  knot  of  youths  immediately  in 
front  of  the  platform  keeping  up  an  incessant  fire  of 
senseless  remarks,  until,  after  having  stood  it  for  some 
time,  I  said  quietly  that  in  my  younger  days  there  were 
dame  schools  at  which  twopence  extra  was  charged  for 
manners,  but  it  was  clear  that  in  the  case  of  these 
disturbers  the  fee  could  not  have  been  paid.  The 
audience  responded  very  heartily,  and  the  noise  ceased. 
At  Liverpool  we  had  to  face  a  much  more  persistent  and 
riotous  opposition.  I  have  before  me  a  picture  of  Mr. 
Caine,  our  chairman,  who  was  trying  to  quell  the  storm, 
suddenly  pausing  and  taking  off  his  coat,  which  he  pro- 
ceeded to  hang  up.  The  action  was  so  unusual  that  I 
looked  somewhat  uneasily  for  the  next  step,  fully  expecting 
that  he  was  going  to  lay  the  strong  hand  upon  one  of  the 
offenders.  It  was  a  relief  to  find  that  he  was  only 
changing  his  coat,  which  had  been  defiled  by  a  rotten 
egg  thrown  by  one  of  the  audience.  At  Bristol,  however, 
our  chairman  did  actually  undertake  to  eject  one  who 
would  not  obey  his  ruling,  but  persisted  in  disturbing  the 
meeting. 

But  I  would  rather  dwell  on  some  of  the  pleasanter 
aspects  of  the  service.  It  had  its  own  trials  and  diffi- 
culties, but  among  its  compensations  were  the  troops  of 
friends  whom  we  found  everywhere.  I  suppose  it  would 
not  be  easy  to  make  those  who  do  not  share  our  strong 
feelings  on  the  subject  understand  how  thoroughly  we  felt 
the  mission  to  be  a  religious  service.  I  have  heard  it 
spoken  of  indeed  by  sympathisers  as  though  it  were  a 
kind  of  triumphal  progress  to  which  we  had  been  called 
as  to  some  special  honour.  Nothing  could  be  further 
from  the  truth.  It  was  undertaken  as  a  "  burden  of  the 
Lord  "  laid  upon  us.  We  believed,  as  I  believe  still,  that 
the  union  of  Church  and  State  is  a  hindrance  both  to 
religious  truth  and  political  liberty,  and  we  were  moved  to 
set  these  views  before  our  fellow-countrymen.      That  is  the 


736  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

whole  account  of  it.  Call  it  fanaticism,  presumption,  what 
you  will.  It  was  at  least  an  act  of  loyalty  to  conscience 
—  the  submission  to  a  necessity  we  felt  to  be  laid 
upon  us. 

Events  prevented  the  gathering  in  of  the  harvest  for 
which  we  had  been  sowing.  Neither  of  us  was  so  short- 
sighted, so  ignorant  of  the  strength  of  the  institution  which 
we  assailed,  so  unable  to  estimate  the  indisposition  of  the 
English  people  to  adopt  extreme  policies,  as  to  expect 
speedy  victory.  We  knew  that  the  seed  we  were  scatter- 
ing, as  others  had  scattered  before  us,  could  not  be 
expected  to  bear  immediate  fruit,  possibly  not  to  bear 
much  visible  fruit  in  our  generation.  We  did  not  pre- 
tend to  do  more  than  make  some  small  contribution 
to  the  forces  which  were  at  work  to  secure  the  end  we  had 
in  view.  But  we  were  hindered  in  the  attainment  of  such 
results  as  we  might  have  hoped  for  by  the  diversion  of 
public  attention  to  foreign  politics,  in  consequence  of  the 
Bulgarian  atrocities.  It  is  not  the  only  occasion  on  which 
the  Nonconformist  cause  has  suffered  from  a  similar  cause. 
In  1885  the  Liberal  party,  recruited  largely  by  rural 
representatives,  seemed  to  be  ready  for  some  distinct 
advance  in  the  direction  of  Religious  Equality,  when  the 
intrusion  of  Home  Rule  not  only  blighted  Nonconformist 
hopes,  but  wrecked  the  party.  There  is  something  more 
than  mere  coincidence  in  this.  The  subject  of  Disestab- 
lishment is  so  vast,  so  complicated,  so  interwoven  with  all 
kinds  of  political  and  social  problems,  that  no  statesman 
is  likely  to  undertake  it  except  under  the  pressure  either 
of  strong  personal  conviction  or  overmastering  public 
opinion.  All  that  we  can  do  is  to  work  constantly  on 
the  creation  and  wise  training  of  that  opinion.  If  we 
succeeded  in  helping  on  that  work  we  did  not  labour 
altogether  in  vain. 

On  the  subject  of  Home  Rule  my  old  comrade  and  I 
did  not  agree  in  opinion,  though  the  difference  never 
affected  our  mutual  affection.  When  Mr.  Gladstone's 
proposals  were  first  started,  I  personally  hesitated  as  to 
the  position  I  should  take.      I  did  not  question  the  neces- 


REMINISCENCES  737 

sity  for  Home  Rule,  but  I  shrank  from  any  action 
which  threatened  the  unity  of  the  Liberal  party.  The 
position  was  surely  a  reasonable  one,  but  it  was  one  for 
which  at  the  time  there  was  little  toleration  on  either  side. 
The  whole  discussion  was  to  me  inexpressibly  painful.  I 
do  not  profess  to  have  foreseen  all  the  evils  which  have 
followed,  from  a  schism  which  separated  men  who  had 
hitherto  been  so  closely  united,  and  had  done  such  noble 
service  in  the  cause  of  progress  and  humanity,  but  the 
anxiety  with  which  I  anticipated  the  rupture  has  been 
more  than  justified  by  the  event.  To  some  extent  the 
division  was  inevitable.  The  Liberal  party  had  reached 
a  point  where  there  was  sure  to  be  a  "  parting  of  the 
ways."  In  its  ranks  were  those  whose  reforming  tend- 
encies had  for  the  time  been  fully  satisfied.  This  had 
been  abundantly  manifest  in  the  Cabinet  of  1880,  and  it 
is  tolerably  certain  that  in  whatever  direction  advance  had 
been  proposed,  there  were  some  who  would  have  fallen 
away  from  the  host.  It  happened  that  Home  Rule  was 
the  reform  to  which  Mr.  Gladstone  gave  precedence,  and 
on  it  the  division  took  place.  Personally  I  viewed  the 
prospect  of  schism  with  anxiety  and  alarm,  and  did  my 
utmost  to  avert  what  I  felt  must  be  a  serious  evil. 

I  remember  with  pleasure  that,  though  I  stood  alone,  I 
raised  my  voice  in  opposition  to  the  decisive  resolution 
of  the  National  Liberal  Federation,  which  forced  Mr. 
Chamberlain  and  his  friends  into  revolt.  I  was  as 
strongly  convinced  as  any  member  of  the  Federation  that 
the  Liberal  party  must  follow  the  lead  of  its  illustrious 
chief.  What  I  failed  to  see  was  how  it  could  hope  for 
success  in  a  measure  of  extreme  difficulty  if  its  first  step 
was  to  divide  its  own  force  into  two  hostile  sections.  I 
will  not,  indeed  I  do  not  know  that  I  could,  exactly  say 
to  what  extent  this  feeling  was  strengthened  by  my 
shrinking  from  the  idea  of  separation  from  my  old  friend. 
We  had  come  together  to  the  meeting,  and  though  I  must 
say  that  I  saw  little  hope  of  restoring  the  broken  concord 
in  the  party,  I  resolved  to  make  the  attempt.  But  it  was 
futile.  Feeling  had  been  aroused  which  it  was  impossible 
3  B 


738  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

to  allay,  and  the  die  was  irrevocably  cast.  I  have  often 
wondered  since  whether  those  who  were  so  eager  to  force 
on  the  division  have  been  perfectly  satisfied  with  their 
own  handiwork. 

But  I  am  writing  not  of  the  Home  Rule  movement 
but  only  of  its  influence  upon  our  mutual  relations.  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  very  strongly  affected  by  Dale's  irrecon- 
cilable attitude  on  the  question,  and  more  than  once 
referred  to  it  in  conversation.  He  had  a  very  high 
opinion  of  my  friend's  ability  and  soundness  of  judgment, 
and,  I  am  satisfied,  was  much  more  concerned  at  the 
opposition  of  men  of  his  calibre  to  his  Irish  policy  than 
at  that  of  those  in  the  thick  of  the  political  fight.  To 
those  who  have  had  personal  knowledge  of  him,  Mr. 
Smalley's  assertions  as  to  the  feeling  with  which  he 
regarded  Nonconformists  are  simply  ludicrous.  It  is 
quite  possible  that  they  were  a  mystery,  for  it  is  certain 
that  he  did  not  regard  their  Dissent  with  favour,  perhaps 
not  even  with  tolerance.  However  that  may  be,  he  was 
not  slow  to  recognise  the  merit  of  individual  men,  among 
whom  Dr.  Dale  was  conspicuous.  He  had  been  impressed 
and  touched  by  the  earnestness  with  which  we  had  thrown 
ourselves  into  the  crusade  against  Turkish  tyranny,  and 
had  come  to  think  of  the  "  Nonconformist  conscience  "  as, 
at  least,  a  witness  for  national  righteousness.  Hence  he 
was  both  surprised  and  disappointed  when  he  did  not 
meet  with  the  same  sympathy  in  his  Home  Rule  policy. 
If  ever  a  politician  was  possessed  with  a  passion  it  was 
Mr.  Gladstone  in  his  righteous  indignation  against  the 
wrongs  which  had  been  inflicted  on  Ireland  by  the  Act  of 
Union.  He  simply  was  unable  to  understand  how  those 
who  were  not  affected  by  the  prejudice  of  the  ruling  classes 
in  this  country  could  hesitate  as  to  supporting  a  measure 
of  redress. 

However  the  feeling  be  explained,  of  its  existence 
there  can  be  no  doubt.  The  defection  of  some  Noncon- 
formists deeply  affected  him.  He  never  breathed  a 
disparaging  thought  in  relation  to  them,  but  more  than 
once  he  expressed  his  keen  regret.      In  one  of  his  con- 


REMINISCENCES  739 

versations  there  was  a  reference  which  had  in  it  a  touch 
of  pathos.  "  Tell  me,"  he  said, "  does  your  difference  from 
Dr.  Dale  on  Home  Rule  affect  your  old  friendship  ? " 
"  Not  in  the  least,"  was  my  reply  ;  "  it  has  never  caused  a 
shade  of  misunderstanding  between  us."  I  at  once  saw 
how  moved  he  was.  "  I  am  delighted,"  he  replied,  "  to 
hear  it.  It  is  not  so  with  me.  Of  all  my  former 
colleagues  who  have  left  me,  there  is  only  one  with  whom 
I  remain  on  the  old  terms,  and  it  will  perhaps  be  a  sur- 
prise to  you  to  learn  who  that  is.  There  is  not  a  stouter 
Unionist  among  them  all,  but  we  continue  friends.  It  is 
the  Duke  of  Argyll."  Perhaps  the  exception  is  not  so 
difficult  to  understand.  It  is  the  men  of  strong  and  deep 
convictions  who  are  most  able  to  respect  those  who  hold 
opposite  views  as  firmly,  as  intelligently,  and  as  tenaciously 
as  they  cling  to  their  own. 

Among  all  the  evils  which  the  Home  Rule  controversy 
has  inflicted  on  Congregationalism  there  was  none  which 
came  home  so  closely  to  myself  as  the  position  in  which 
it  placed  Dr.  Dale.  That  it  did  not  affect  his  standing 
in  the  churches  cela  va  sans  dire.  To  the  end  he  was 
admired,  trusted,  loved — I  may  truly  say  revered  by  all 
his  brethren.  The  difference  in  political  opinion,  indeed, 
was  taken  much  more  seriously  by  him  than  by  them. 
They  simply  looked  upon  it  as  a  not  unnatural  diver- 
gence which  they  deeply  regretted,  and  there  was  an 
end  of  it.  To  him  it  was  a  much  graver  matter.  To 
begin  with,  I  am  bound  to  say  that  his  opposition  to 
Home  Rule  was  more  deeply  rooted  than  their  support. 
Its  friends  had  not  only  to  maintain  the  wisdom  and 
justice  of  the  measure  itself,  but  also  to  vindicate  the 
expediency  of  the  time  and  methods  of  its  introduction, 
and  many  who  were  convinced  on  the  former  had  serious 
misgivings  as  to  the  latter.  On  his  side  Dr.  Dale  was 
a  root-and-branch  opponent  who  felt  very  deeply  on  the 
subject. 

I  well  remember  his  breaking  out  in  the  most  un- 
expected way  at  a  fraternal  gathering  to  which  he  had 
been  invited  as  an  honoured  guest.     A  small  ministerial 


74Q  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

society  had  invited  him  and  one  or  two  other  brethren 
who  were  in  town  for  the  May  anniversaries  to  a  social 
gathering.  There  was  nothing  political  in  the  meeting. 
The  large  majority  of  those  present  were  Home  Rulers, 
but  the  subject  had  never  been  mentioned.  Of  course  it 
was  in  the  air  ;  it  always  was  in  the  air  in  those  days  ; 
but  we  were  all  surprised  when  Dr.  Dale,  in  acknowledg- 
ing the  toast  of  his  health,  referred  to  it  in  a  very 
emphatic  way.  No  one  complained.  Indeed  we  all  were 
too  glad  to  hear  the  loved  voice,  even  though  it  was 
eloquent  in  its  denunciation  of  views  which  were  dear 
to  us.  The  discussion  was  keen  and  eager,  especially 
when  the  dinner  was  over  and  the  conversation  became 
more  informal.  Hannay  (who  was  the  most  ardent  and 
uncompromising  champion  of  the  Gladstone  policy)  and 
Dale  were  the  protagonists.  How  gladly  would  one  have 
those  old  controversies  again  if  only  we  could  have  the  old 
combatants  back  !  The  keen  antagonism  of  opinion,  how- 
ever, did  not  produce  alienation  of  feeling.  All  parted  as 
we  had  met — staunch  friends  who  trusted  and  loved  one 
another. 

A  proof  of  this  was  given  in  the  election  of  Dr.  Dale 
as  President  of  the  International  Council.  The  Home 
Rule  struggle  was  at  its  height  at  the  time,  but  that  did 
not  interfere  with  our  rendering  the  honour  to  which  we 
all  felt  he  was  so  fully  entitled.  But  Dr.  Hannay  was 
afraid  lest  he  would  refuse  to  accept  the  nomination,  and 
he  therefore  requested  me  to  support  his  appeal.  Nothing 
could  have  pleased  me  more,  and  happily  we  found  the 
task  more  easy  than  was  at  first  anticipated.  The  only 
reason  for  any  doubt  on  the  subject  was  that  Dr.  Dale 
had  not  been  present  at  the  annual  gatherings  of  the 
Congregational  Union,  where  he  had  long  been  a  con- 
spicuous and  honoured  figure.  It  is  not  necessary  that  I 
go  over  again  the  incident  at  the  Autumnal  Assembly  in 
Nottingham  which  had  led  to  the  temporary  withdrawal. 
I  thought  it  unwise,  and  pleaded  with  him  to  reconsider 
his  decision.  It  is  fair  to  him  that  I  give  his  answer :  "  I 
am  liable  "  (he  said),  "  if  I  go  to  Congregational  meetings, 


REMINISCENCES  741 

to  hear  my  Unionist  friends  attacked,  and  on  the  other 
hand,  if  I  go  to  Unionist  meetings,  to  hear  you  and  those 
who  think  with  you  attacked.  I  think  the  wisest  course 
is  for  me  to  absent  myself  from  both."  I  did  not  agree 
in  the  conclusion,  but  I  respect  the  feeling,  and  I  quote 
the  remark  in  order  to  remove  the  impression  that  his 
action  might  be  due  to  some  less  honourable  cause. 

As  illustrating  the  extent  to  which  his  consideration 
went  and  the  chivalry  which  was  behind  it,  I  will  refer  to 
a  slight  personal  incident.  We  were  both  guests  at  a 
lunch  which  our  old  friend  Mr.  Henry  Wright  was  accus- 
tomed to  give  after  the  annual  meeting  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society.  At  our  side  was  an  Evangelical 
clergyman  who,  with  remarkably  good  taste,  began  an 
attack  on  us  as  Congregationalists  because  of  our  sup- 
port of  Mr.  Gladstone.  I  was  not  indisposed  for  the  fray, 
albeit  I  thought  the  arena  was  not  a  very  fitting  one  ; 
but  before  I  could  speak  Dale  was  down  on  our  critic. 
I  cannot  say  he  handled  him  very  gingerly.  I  had  only 
to  sit  still  and  listen  to  the  trenchant  and  eloquent 
defence  of  my  venerated  leader  as  well  as  of  my  fellow- 
workers  and  myself.  As  we  walked  away  I  said  to  him, 
"  My  dear  fellow,  that  certainly  was  an  unexpected  treat. 
I  would  gladly  stand  another  attack  in  order  to  have 
such  a  defence.  I  never  heard  you  champion  Gladstone 
in  such  style  before."  "  Ah,"  he  said,  "  do  you  think  I 
could  hear  you  attacked  and  be  silent?"  There  spoke 
his  own  true  self.  He  was  the  most  trusty  comrade  man 
could  ever  have.  The  story  helps  us  to  understand  the 
resolution  to  which  I  have  referred.  He  was  in  an 
awkward  position,  and  as  he  could  not  sit  silently  by  when 
friends  were  attacked,  and  of  course  did  not  want  to  be 
perpetually  in  squabbles,  he  remained  apart. 

But  it  would  be  folly  to  deny  that  it  hung  as  a  cloud 
over  some  years  of  his  life,  as  no  one  outside  his  own 
family  could  understand  quite  as  well  as  I  did.  I  confess 
I  wonder  how  even  we  were  able  to  avoid  misunderstand- 
ing, for  he  was,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  morbidly  sensitive 
for  his  friends.      The  nearest  approach  to  any  difference 


742  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

between  us  was  caused  by  a  remark  of  mine  relative  to  a 
speech  of  Mr.  Chamberlain's,  in  which  he  compared  the 
Liberal  party  to  the  men  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  who  shouted 
that  Herod  was  a  god.  In  that  case  it  appeared  to  me 
that  Mr.  Gladstone  must  be  regarded  as  playing  Herod's 
part,  and  I  wrote  accordingly.  My  friend  was  annoyed 
— as  I  thought  somewhat  unreasonably.  But  it  was  not 
even  a  passing  breeze — at  the  worst,  a  mere  breath,  which 
was  over  at  once. 

Even  the  expression  of  it,  however,  may  serve  to  show 
how  deeply  he  was  affected  by  a  controversy  which  placed . 
him  in  relations  to  his  brethren  which  were  abhorrent  to 
his  whole  nature.  For  he  was  a  very  strong  Congrega- 
tionalist,  and  one  who  had  very  broad  and  enlarged 
conceptions  of  what  was  possible  to  Congregational 
churches,  and  was  intensely  anxious  to  realise  them.  To 
find  himself  shut  out  from  active  participation  in  their 
councils  and  their  work  by  no  act  of  his  own,  but  simply 
by  force  of  events  over  which  he  had  no  control,  was  an 
extremely  painful  experience.  He  was  not  so  isolated  as 
in  morbid  moods  he  fancied  himself.  His  opinion  was 
always  taken  on  important  movements,  and  the  one  eager 
desire  on  every  side  was  to  sweep  away  all  misunderstand- 
ings by  manifestations  of  love  and  honour  which  should 
show  him  beyond  possibility  of  mistake  that  he  lived  in 
the  hearts  of  the  churches  and  their  pastors.  It  has 
fallen  to  my  lot  to  have  some  part  in  the  arrangements  of 
our  committees  for  great  public  demonstrations.  I  doubt 
whether  there  was  one  for  many  years  at  which  the  first 
point  mooted  was  not  the  possibility  of  inducing  Dr.  Dale 
to  return.  I  think  if  he  could  only  have  known  all  that 
his  brethren  felt  towards  him  it  would  have  been  a  re- 
freshment to  his  own  soul  in  the  many  hours  of  weariness, 
solitude,  and  pain  through  which  he  had  to  pass. 

For  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  during  the  years 
of  which  I  am  speaking  disease  was  slowly  but  surely 
making  its  inroads  on  his  system  and  colouring  his  views 
to  an  extent  of  which  he  was  probably  unconscious  him- 
self.     He    was    never    so    robust   as  those  who   saw  his 


REMINISCENCES  743 

stalwart  form  and  heard  his  clear  and  penetrating  voice,  but 
were  not  with  him  in  a  time  of  weariness  after  one  of  the 
speeches  which  had  in  them  the  ring  of  a  giant's  strength, 
were  disposed  to  think.  As  I  became  intimate  with  him 
I  learned  to  understand  these  elements,  and  when  the 
actual  collapse  came  was  not  so  surprised  as  distressed. 

The  first  time  I  was  impressed  with  the  gravity  of  his 
condition  was  on  the  Saturday  previous  to  the  Interna- 
tional Council.  I  was  preaching  at  the  opening  of  a 
Baptist  Chapel  at  Birmingham — the  only  occasion  on 
which  I  ever  knew  a  Saturday  selected  for  such  a  service 
— and  of  course  I  went  to  lunch  with  him.  It  was  a 
great  distress,  especially  with  the  important  engagements 
of  the  coming  week  in  prospect,  to  find  him  suffering 
from  a  serious  attack  of  illness.  He,  as  was  his  wont 
until  extreme  weakness  compelled  the  adoption  of  a 
different  tone,  took  a  cheerful  view  of  his  own  condition, 
was  sure  that  he  was  past  the  worst,  and  refused  to  enter- 
tain any  idea  of  help  in  the  engagements  of  the  Council. 
This  was  not  wonderful.  In  some  respects  it  was  a  red- 
letter  week  in  his  life,  and  the  tribute  of  respect  and  love 
paid  to  him  in  his  election  to  the  position  was  all  the 
more  welcome  because  of  the  sense  of  partial  isolation 
which  had  brooded  over  him.  But  his  whole  appearance 
made  me  anxious,  and  my  worst  forebodings  were  more 
than  confirmed  by  his  subsequent  illness.  It  was  a  cause 
for  regret  with  his  friends  that  he  did  not  spare  himself 
more  during  that  memorable  week,  but  it  was  impossible 
to  persuade  him.  Some  of  the  public  duties  he  felt  him- 
self compelled  to  devolve  upon  others,  and  this  he  did 
with  the  more  ease  because  he  was  surrounded  by  a  little 
company  of  Vice-Presidents  who  were  expected  to  take 
part  of  the  service.  But  the  constraint  of  his  affection 
for  friends  led  him  to  be  present  at  some  of  the  functions 
when  it  would  have  been  wiser  for  him  to  have  sought 
quiet  and  retirement. 

During  the  long  period  of  declining  strength  which 
followed  I  had  several  opportunities  of  intimate  fellowship, 
the  memory  of  which  is  very  sweet  though  very  sad.      I 


744  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

remember  him  once,  when  he  was  able,  as  he  had  been  wont, 
to  meet  me  at  the  Birmingham  station,  and  his  cheery 
words  of  greeting,  with  all  the  ring  of  his  old  heartiness  in 
them,  seem  to  sound  in  my  ears  now.  It  was  one  of  the 
brighter  intervals  when  there  was  a  flickering  of  life  and 
vigour  which  deceived  himself  and  made  even  his  anxious 
friends  more  hopeful.  How  bright  he  was,  talking  quite 
confidently  of  what  he  expected  to  do.  "  Why,"  he  said, 
"  I  have  become  quite  a  visitor  in  these  times,"  and  he  began 
to  tell  with  great  glee  of  what  he  had  been  able  to  accom- 
plish in  the  way  of  pastoral  visitation.  The  subject  was  one 
on  which  he  was  rather  fond  of  chaffing  me.  "  Well,  Rogers," 
he  would  say,  "  have  you  got  to  the  end  of  that  intermin- 
able Wandsworth  Road  yet  ?  "  He  had  been  with  me  one 
Sunday  and  heard  the  announcement  that  I  would  visit 
in  the  Wandsworth  Road  district  during  the  ensuing  week, 
and  he  loved  to  twit  me  upon  it.  I  happened  at  the 
particular  time  to  be  in  one  of  those  fits  of  pastoral  virtue 
which  used  to  come  upon  me  occasionally,  but  the  exact 
value  of  which  he  rightly  gauged.  I  have  long  come  to 
feel  that  the  work  is  impossible  for  any  man  who  has  to 
fill  a  pulpit  in  London,  with  all  that  gathers  round  it  in 
the  way  of  public  duty.  It  is  told  of  Mr.  Binney  that, 
having  been  criticised  for  lack  of  pastoral  visitation,  he 
devoted  an  entire  week  to  the  work,  then  told  his  congre- 
gation on  the  next  Sunday  morning  that  he  was  without  a 
sermon.  It  is  said  that  they  complained  no  more.  But 
the  distraction  and  cares  of  a  minister  in  Mr.  Binney's 
position  are  multiplied  indefinitely  since  that  time.  The 
remedy  seems  to  be  that  a  church  should  have  two 
pastors.  But  that  is  not  to  be  discussed  now.  I  have 
been  led  into  this  digression  by  Dr.  Dale's  passing 
reference  to  his  visitation.  It  was  very  pleasant  to 
hear  him  talk  of  it,  and  of  the  joy  he  had  felt  in  it. 
It  is  interesting  altogether  to  refresh  my  recollection 
of  his  bright  and  hopeful  views  of  himself  and  his  work 
on  that  occasion. 

In  the  midst  of  his  family  he  ever  sought  to  be  cheer- 
ful,   interesting    himself  in    the    passing  incidents   of  the 


REMINISCENCES  745 

hour.  The  most  certain  sign  of  his  decline,  and  one 
which  used  to  impress  me  very  painfully,  was  his  growing- 
tendency  to  leave  our  happy  group  at  an  earlier  hour.  It 
was  a  sign  of  an  increasing  weakness  which  he  was  very 
desirous  to  conceal,  but  which  the  anxious  care  of  friends 
could  not  fail  to  detect.  It  was  pathetic  to  note  the  joy 
with  which  he  hailed  the  slightest  sign  of  renewed  vigour, 
and  attributed  to  it  a  significance  which,  alas  !  it  did  not 
possess.  One  evening  a  few  months  before  the  end,  we 
went  out  together  for  a  drive,  and  he  was  so  full  of  spirit 
and  life  that  as  I  listened  to  his  cheery  and  sparkling  talk  I 
could  almost  have  believed  in  the  possibility  of  recovery. 
We  prolonged  our  drive  and  arrived  home  later  than  had 
been  expected.  I  at  once  saw  that  Mrs.  Dale  did  not 
share  my  optimistic  views,  and  the  next  day  proved  that 
she  was  right.  His  was  a  long  and  gallant  struggle — 
hopeless,  I  fear,  from  the  first — against  an  insidious  disease 
which  was  steadily  advancing. 

The  experience,  especially  to  a  man  of  his  tempera- 
ment, must  have  been  very  trying,  but  I  never  heard  a 
murmur  or  note  of  repining  from  his  lips.  He  always 
took  a  keen  interest  in  the  life  of  the  day,  and  was  ready 
to  discuss  any  of  its  burning  questions.  Especially  was  he 
interested  in  all  the  work  of  the  churches  and  in  the  affairs 
of  his  old  friends.  But  there  were  times  when  his  conversa- 
tion took  a  more  personal  turn,  and  when  he  gave  his 
most  sacred  confidences  with  remarkable  freedom  and 
fulness.  If  it  had  been  possible  that  my  estimate  of 
his  spiritual  character  could  be  enhanced,  that  would  have 
been  the  effect  of  those  self-revelations.  The  transparent 
simplicity,  the  unfeigned  humility,  the  strong  faith,  the 
generous  estimate  of  other  men,  the  intense  anxiety  to  be 
loyal  to  truth  and  right,  the  glowing  warmth  of  heart — 
all  spoke  a  man  who  had  been  much  with  Christ  and 
learned  of  Him.  Nothing  impressed  me  more  than  the 
extreme  conscientiousness  with  which  he  tested  himself 
and  his  life-work. 

His  physical  weakness  sometimes  gave  a  pessimistic 
colour  to  this  review.      I  have  heard  the  opinions  which 


746  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

he  expressed  in  these  periods  of  gloomy  retrospect  quoted 
as  his  deliberate  judgment,  but  nothing  could  well  be  more 
unfair.  In  hours  of  weakness  and  solitude  he  was  inclined 
to  pass  an  adverse  verdict  on  what  he  had  been  and  done. 
Possibly  all  right-minded  men  might  suffer  from  a  similar 
tendency.  It  is  simply  the  self-dissatisfaction  which  is  the 
result  of  a  lofty  idealism  combined  with  a  painful  and 
exaggerated  sense  of  failure  to  reach  its  high  aims.  At 
such  times  Dr.  Dale  greatly  underrated  the  extent  of  his 
work  and  influence,  and  was  sometimes  haunted  by  the 
thought  that  had  he  pursued  another  line  of  action,  he 
could  have  done  more  for  the  Master.  These  questionings, 
be  it  remembered,  had  reference  entirely  to  his  own 
conduct.  About  the  "  greatest  things,"  as  he  used  to  call 
them,  there  was  no  uncertainty  or  dimness  of  faith.  But 
he  was  given  to  close  and  severe  introspection,  and  owing 
partly  to  physical  weakness,  and  partly  to  circumstances 
to  which  I  have  already  referred,  he  was  prone  to  self- 
depreciation. 

My  last  visit  to  him  is  one  to  be  remembered.  The 
Free  Church  Council  of  Birmingham  had  asked  me  to  a 
public  reception,  and  he  had  promised  to  take  part  in  it. 
He  had  not  taken  an  active  part  in  the  work  of  the 
Federation,  and  for  a  time  had  looked  on  it  somewhat 
dubiously,  but  when  he  was  asked  to  join  in  honouring  his 
old  friend,  he  responded  heartily  and  anticipated  the  gather- 
ing with  the  characteristic  eagerness  of  his  affectionate  heart. 
The  occasion  was  looked  forward  to  with  much  interest. 
Our  friendship  was  known,  and  our  meeting  under  such 
conditions  was  an  incident.  The  cards  which  were 
issued  bore  on  them  our  photographs,  and  a  large  repre- 
sentative assembly  of  Birmingham  Nonconformity  was 
gathered.  But,  alas  !  he  was  not  there,  and  though  we 
struggled  against  any  feeling  of  depression,  the  absence 
of  one  who  was  to  have  filled  so  conspicuous  a  place  was 
a  serious  drawback  from  the  pleasure  of  the  evening. 
What  was  possible  for  him  to  do  he  did  in  fullest  measure. 
The  letter  which  was  the  substitute  for  the  address  he 
would    have    delivered   was    one   of  those  outpourings  of 


REMINISCENCES  747 

brotherly  affection  which  were  very  pleasant  at  the  time, 
and  which  are  doubly  precious  now  that  he  is  gone. 

I  will  not  linger  over  that  visit,  though  all  its  details 
are  vividly  present  to  me.  There  was  nothing  to  indicate 
that  the  end  was  so  near,  for  though  the  signs  of  increasing 
feebleness  were  many,  there  was  so  much  of  life  and  bright- 
ness in  his  conversation  that  sanguine  friends  might  hope 
that  there  was  still  some  period  of  service  before  him. 
He  was  himself  conscious  that  it  could  not  be  long,  and 
yet  he  evidently  looked  forward  to  work  still  to  be  done. 
His  wife,  intensely  anxious  about  every  point  that  could 
affect  his  health,  was  expressing  her  regret  that  he 
exhausted  himself  so  much  in  preaching.  "  Yes,"  he 
said,  "  that  is  true,  but  then  I  have  so  much  to  say  and 
so  few  opportunities  for  saying  it."  The  blade  was 
really  as  keen  as  ever,  but  it  was  rapidly  wearing  out  the 
scabbard. 

It  is  not  for  me  to  draw  a  full-length  portrait  of  a 
friend  who,  I  could  truly  say,  "  more  than  a  brother  was 
to  me."  In  him  was  a  rare  combination  of  qualities, 
both  intellectual  and  moral.  Look  at  him  on  one  side 
and  he  might  be  a  mystic,  take  him  on  another,  and  he 
was  a  keen,  practical  man  of  business.  Hear  him  in  one 
of  his  carefully  prepared  doctrinal  sermons,  and  you 
recognise  the  subtle  theologian  who  notes  every  subtlety 
of  thought  and  shade  of  expression,  and  whose  danger 
seems  to  be  an  over-refinement,  possibly  an  excessive 
ingenuity  which  finds  out  differences  where  they  were  not 
intended.  But  listen  to  him  in  one  of  his  great  popular 
addresses  on  the  platform  when  his  soul  is  stirred  to  its 
depths  and  all  his  force  employed  to  convince  or  persuade 
his  audience,  and  you  recognise  an  entirely  different  force. 
The  chastened  but  impressive  and  finished  rhetoric,  the 
arguments  forcibly  presented  and  piled  up  with  exquisite 
skill  so  as  to  produce  the  desired  effect,  the  tremendous 
strength  of  appeal  for  which  logic  and  illustration  had 
prepared  the  way,  marked  him  out  as  a  great  orator. 
But  meet  him  in  the  committee  room  and  you  were  at 
once  struck   not  only  with  the  breadth  of  his  sympathy 


748  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

and  the  sagacity  of  his  general  judgments,  but  also  with 
his  remarkable  skill  in  the  mastery  of  detail.  Like  all 
men  of  administrative  ability  he  had  a  great  power  for 
getting  at  the  heart  of  things,  and  was  as  sound  in 
counsel  as  he  was  brilliant  in  exposition  and  forceful  in 
appeal. 

One  of  his  marked  characteristics  which  was  to  be 
seen  in  everything  that  he  did  was  his  thoroughness,  and 
that,  in  its  turn,  was  due  to  the  supremacy  which  con- 
science exerted  over  him  in  every  department  of  his  life 
and  work.  This  gave  immense  power  to  his  oratory, 
whether  in  pulpit  or  on  platform.  He  gave,  and  rightly 
gave,  an  impression  of  whole-hearted  sincerity.  And  that 
impression  was  confirmed  by  all  that  he  said  and  did. 
He  was  incapable  of  intrigue  or  of  playing  with  great 
principles,  and  what  he  did,  he  did  with  both  hands 
earnestly.  As  a  student  he  went  to  the  foundation  of 
every  subject  he  touched,  and  examined  it  on  every 
side,  and  carefully  as  his  opinions  were  formed,  he  would 
on  the  slightest  provocation  revise  them  again.  Needless 
to  say  he  was  an  independent  thinker,  and  on  some  points 
reached  conclusions  in  which  he  met  but  little  sympathy 
from  those  most  attached  to  him. 

But  I  must  not  enlarge  here,  and  I  am  not  prepared 
to  express  all  that  I  feel  in  relation  to  those  higher 
spiritual  qualities  in  which  he  was  so  pre-eminent.  He 
was  a  rare — indeed,  so  far  as  my  personal  experience  goes, 
unique — example  of  the  union  of  the  saintly  temperament 
with  the  practical  judgment.  He  might  have  been  a 
mystic,  finding  his  proper  home  in  the  cloister,  but  for 
the  saving  elements  of  common  sense  and  strong  affections 
which  were  such  potent  factors  in  his  development.  It 
may  sound  like  a  paradox,  but  it  would  be  no  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  he  was  an  unworldly  man  of  the 
world  —  that  is,  he  understood  the  world  and  its 
tendencies,  and  was  able  to  play  a  distinguished  part  in 
its  great  movements,  but  I  never  met  a  man  more  free 
from  the  taint  of  its  spirit.  He  was  a  very  Paladin  of 
truth  and  righteousness — gallant,  chivalrous,  stainless,  and 


REMINISCENCES  749 

fearless.  I  do  not  try  to  say  how  I  loved  him,  how  I 
love  him,  and  yet  how  I  feel  that  with  all  my  affection  I 
failed  to  do  complete  justice  to  the  childlike  simplicity  of 
his  spirit,  the  purity  of  his  aims  and  motives,  and,  most  of 
all,  the  depth  of  his  loyalty  and  affection  as  a  friend. 


APPENDIX 

The  following  list  of  Dr.  Dale's  publications  does  not  profess  to 
be  complete.  It  does  not  include,  for  instance,  the  numerous 
sermons  published  with  or  without  revision  in  the  British  Weekly, 
the  Christian  World  Pulpit,  and  elsewhere,  or  the  short  political 
articles  in  the  Congregationalist.  But  it  contains  all  his  most 
important  work,  so  far  as  it  can  be  traced.  Posthumous  publi- 
cations are  distinguished  by  an  asterisk. 

BOOKS 

1846  The  Talents.     Aylott  &  Jones. 

1 86 1    Life  and  Letters  of  J.  A.  James.      Nisbet. 

1865  The  Jewish  Temple  and  the  Christian  Church.      Hodder  & 

Stoughton. 

1866  Discourses    delivered    on     Special    Occasions.       Hodder    & 

Stoughton. 

1867  Week-Day  Sermons.      Strahan  ;  Hodder  &  Stoughton. 
1872   The  Ten  Commandments.      Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1875   The  Atonement.1     Hodder  &  Stoughton  ;  The  Congregational 

Union  of  England  and  Wales. 
1877   Nine  Lectures  on  Preaching.      Hodder  &  Stoughton. 
1880  The  Evangelical  Revival.      Hodder  &  Stoughton. 
1882   The  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians.      Hodder  &  Stoughton. 
1884   Laws  of  Christ  for  Common  Life.      Hodder  &  Stoughton. 
1884   Manual  of  Congregational  Principles.      Congregational  Union 

of  England  and  Wales.2 

1889  Impressions  of  Australia.      Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1890  The    Living    Christ    and    the    Four    Gospels.3       Hodder   & 

Stoughton. 

1 891  Fellowship  with  Christ.      Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1894  Christian  Doctrine.      Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1895  *The  Epistle   of  James   and   other   Discourses.       Hodder  & 

Stoughton. 
1895   *Christ  and  the  Future  Life.      Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1  Translated  into  French  and  German. 

2  Books  I.  II.  published  separately  as  Congregaticmal  Church  Polity  (1885). 

3  The  first  five  lectures  are  translated  into  Japanese. 


752  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

PAMPHLETS,  ADDRESSES,   SERMONS,  ETC. 
PUBLISHED  SEPARATELY 

1854  The  Pilgrim  Fathers:  a  Lecture  delivered  in  CaiVs  Lane 
Chapel.      Hamilton,  Adams  &  Co.  ;  Hudson,  Birmingham. 

1858  Hope  in  Death  :  a  Sermon  preached  on  occasion  of  the  death 
of  Rev.  E.  G.  Glanville,  of  Warwick.     Judd. 

1858  The  Stipends  of  Nonconformist  Ministers,  reprinted  from   the 

Eclectic  Review.     Ward  &  Co. 

1859  The   Funeral   Services  for  John  Angell  James  (Oration  and 

Sermon).      Hamilton,  Adams  &  Co.  ;  Hudson,  Birmingham. 
1862   Churchmen  and  Dissenters:  a  Lecture  delivered  in  the  Town 

Hall,    Birmingham.       Hamilton,   Adams    &    Co.  ;     Hudson, 

Birmingham. 
1862   Nonconformity  in   1662  and   1862:    a  Lecture  delivered    in 

Willis's  Rooms,  London.1     W.  Kent  &  Co. 
1864  Genius  the  Gift  of  God:  a  Sermon  delivered  at  Stratford-on- 

Avon    in    connection  with    the    Shakespeare  Tercentenary.2 

Hudson,  Birmingham. 
1864  The  Living  God  the  Saviour  of  all  men  :  a  Sermon  delivered 

in  Surrey  Chapel,  on  behalf  of  the  London  Missionary  Society.2 

Jackson,  Walford,  and  Hodder. 

1864  From  Doubt    to  Faith:    a   Lecture  delivered    in   the    Music 

Hall,  Birmingham,  and  in  Exeter  Hall,  London,  for  the 
Y.M.C.A.3     Nisbet. 

1865  Physical    Science  and  Religious   Faith:    a  Sermon  delivered 

in  Carr's  Lane  during  the  visit  to  Birmingham  of  the  British 
Association.2     Hudson  &  Son,  Birmingham. 

1867  The  Politics  of  the  Future:  a  Lecture  delivered  in  the  Town 
Hall,  Birmingham.      Hudson  &  Son,  Birmingham. 

1869  Christ  and  the  Controversies  of  Christendom:  an  Address 
delivered  from  the  Chair  of  the  Congregational  Union  of 
England  and  Wales.4     Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1869  The  Holy  Spirit  in  relation  to  the  Ministry,  the  Worship,  and 
the  Work  of  the  Church :  an  Address  ibid.  Hodder  & 
Stoughton. 

1 87 1  Payment  out  of  the  Rates  of  Fees  of  Children  attending 
Denominational  Schools :  Speech  delivered  at  the  Birmingham 
School  Board.      Hudson  &  Son,  Birmingham. 

1  Also  published  in  a  volume  of  Lectures  by  various  Lecturers  on   the   Bi- 
centenary of  1662. 

2  Also  published  in  Discourses  on  Special  Occasions. 

3  Also  published  by  the  Y.M.C.A.,  in  the  yearly  volume  of  Lectures  by  various 
Lecturers. 

4  Translated  into  Welsh,  and  republished  in  America. 


APPENDIX  753 

1 87 1  The  Communion  of  Saints:  a  Sermon  delivered  at  Swansea 
before  the  Congregational  Union  of  England  and  Wales. 
Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1871  The  Idea  of  theChurch  in  relation  to  Modern  Congregationalism.1 
Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

187 1  The  Politics  of  Nonconformity:  a  Lecture   delivered   in  the 

Free  Trade  Hall,  Manchester.      Nonconformist  Association, 
Manchester. 

1872  The   Scotch  Education  Bill  :  a  Speech  delivered  in  Aberdeen. 

Hudson  &  Son,  Birmingham. 

1872  Religious  Teaching  by  School  Boards  perilous  to  the  life  and 

faith  of  the  Nation  :  a  Speech  delivered  in  the  Town  Hall, 
Birmingham.      Hudson  &  Son,  Birmingham. 

1873  The  Elementary  Education  Act  (1870)  Amendment   Bill  and 

the  political  policy  of  Nonconformists  :  a  Speech  delivered  in 
Birmingham.      Hudson  &  Son,  Birmingham. 

1874  Protestantism:  its  Ultimate  Principle:  a  Lecture  delivered  in 

Exeter  Hall,  before  the  Y.M.C.A.      Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1875  Mr.  Moody  and  Mr.  Sankey.2     Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1875  The  Day  of  Salvation  :  a  Reply  to  the  letter  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  on  Mr.  Moody  and  Mr.  Sankey.  Hodder  & 
Stoughton. 

1878  Liberalism  :  an  Address  delivered  as  President  of  the  Birming- 
ham Junior  Liberal  Association.  The  Birmingham  Junior 
Liberal  Association. 

18S0  Atheism  and  the  House  of  Commons  :  a  Sermon  delivered  in 
Carr's  Lane.      Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1 88 1  The   Town    Council   and    the    Sunday   Evening   Lectures:    a 

Sermon  delivered  in  Carr's  Lane.    Hudson  &  Son,  Birmingham. 

1882  Speech  on  the  Bradlaugh   Question:  delivered  at  a  Meeting 

of  the  "Eight  Hundred."     The  Birmingham  Junior  Liberal 
Association. 

1883  Oath  or  Affirmation?     a  Sermon   delivered   in   Carr's    Lane. 

Hodder  &  Stoughton. 
1885    Religious  Worship  and  Bible  Teaching  in   Board   Schools:    a 
Letter  to  the  "  Two  Thousand."    Hudson  &  Son,  Birmingham. 

1888  Birmingham  School   Board   Contest,  1888:    a  Letter  to   the 

Ratepayers.      Journal  Office,  Birmingham. 

1889  Nonconformist  Education  :  an  Address  delivered  at  Mill  Hill 

School.      Warren  Hall  and  Lovitt. 
1S89  The  Old  Evangelicalism  and  the  New:  a  Sermon  delivered  at 
Bath,  in  connection   with   the   Centenary  of  Argyle   Chapel. 
Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1890  The  Responsibilities  of  Wealth  :  an  Address  delivered  at  the 

Opening  of  the   Session  of  Mason  College.      Journal  Office, 
Birmingham. 

1  Also  published  in  Ecclesia  (second  series). 
2  Reprinted  from  the  Congrega/ionalist,  March  1875. 

3  c 


754  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

1890  General  Booth's  Scheme:  a  Sermon  delivered  in  Carr's  Lane. 

Cornish  Brothers,  Birmingham. 

LECTURES,  ESSAYS,  ETC. 
NOT  PUBLISHED  SEPARATELY 

1855  Sermon  on  occasion  of  the  Jubilee  of  J.  A.  James.  (Jubilee 
Services  of  J.  A.  James.)     Hudson  &  Son,  Birmingham. 

1865  On  the  importance  of  some  of  our  Students  entering  the 
Ministry  as  assistants  or  co-pastors.  (Minutes  of  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  College  Conference.)  Jackson,  Walford,  and 
Hodder. 

1870  Death  Abolished:  a  Sermon  delivered  at  Trinity  Chapel, 
Poplar.      (Funeral  Service  for  Rev.  George  Smith.) 

1870  The  Doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence  in  the  Lord's  Supper. 
(Ecclesia,  first  series.)     Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1872  Religious  Instruction  in  Board  Schools.  (Report  of  a  Debate 
at  the  Birmingham  School  Board.)     Cornish,  Birmingham. 

1874  Sermon  and  Address  in  connection  with  the  death  of  Rev.  C. 
Vince.      (In  Memoriam,  C.  Vince.)      Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1874  The   Nonconformists:    Christianity  in  Great  Britain.      (From 

the  Daily  Telegraph.')     Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

1875  Introduction  to  Petavel's  Struggle  for  Eternal  Life.    Translation. 

Kellaway  &  Co. 
1875   Free  Schools.     (Report  of  a  Debate  at  the  Birmingham  School 

Board.)     Cornish,  Birmingham. 
1875   Speeches  on  Disestablishment  delivered  at  Bradford,  Liverpool, 

Leeds,  Manchester,  Norwich,  and    Derby.      Society  for   the 

Liberation  of  Religion  from  State  Patronage  and  Control. 

1877  Speech  on    Disestablishment  at    Leicester.       Journal    Office, 

Leicester. 

1878  Sketch  of  John  Angell  James.     (Pulpit  Memorials.)     James 

Clarke  &  Co. 
1882  The  Early  Independents:  Jubilee  Lectures  in  connection  with 

the  Congregational  Union  of  England  and  Wales.      Hodder 

&  Stoughton. 
1885    Introductory    Essay.      (Schmidt's    Social    Results    of   Early 

Christianity.     Translated  by  Mrs.  Thorpe.)      Isbister  &  Co. 

1 89 1  Introduction  and  President's  Address.     (Report  of  the  Inter- 

national Congregational  Council.)     James  Clarke  &  Co. 
1893   Biographical  Sketch  of  Henry  Rogers.    (Superhuman  Origin  of 
the  Bible.     Eighth  Edition.)     Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

EDITED 

1872  Reuss:  History  of  Christian  Theology  in  the  Apostolic  Age. 
(Preface  and  Notes.)  Translated  by  Annie  Harwood. 
Hodder  &  Stoughton. 


APPENDIX  755 

1 872- 1 8 78    The  Congregationalist ;  a  Monthly  Magazine.    Hodder& 

Stoughton. 
1874  The  English  Hymn  Book.      Hudson  &  Son,  Birmingham. 

THE  BRITISH  QUARTERLY  REVIEW 

1866  Anglicanism  and  Romanism  (Apr.). 

1866  The  Moral  Theory  of  the  Atonement  (Oct.). 

1867  The  Expiatory  Theory  of  the  Atonement  (Oct.). 

1868  Nonconformists  and  National  Education  (Apr.). 

1870  National  Education  :  The  Union  versus  the  League  (Jan.). 
1 88 1    Congregationalism  (Jan.). 
1 88 1   Congregationalism  (Apr.). 

THE  CONTEMPORARY  REVIEW 

1868  Lacordaire — a  Study  (May). 

1870  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  and  the  Nonconformists  (July). 

1873  The    Nonconformists    and    the    Educational    Policy    of    the 

Government  (Sept.). 

1883  M.  Gambetta  :  Positivism  and  Christianity  (Apr.). 

1883  The  Leeds  Conference  (Nov.). 

1886  The    Exclusion    of    the    Irish    Members    from   the    Imperial 

Parliament  (June). 

1887  The  Liberal  Party  and  Home  Rule  (June). 

1889  Mr.  Bright  (May). 

1888-89   Impressions  of  Australia  (1888,  Nov.,  Dec;    1889,  Feb., 
March,  Apr.). 

1890  The  Seat  of  Authority  in  Religion  (Sept.). 

1 89 1  Constance  Naden  (Apr.). 

THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

1877  George  Dawson,  Politician,  Lecturer,  and  Preacher  (Aug.). 

1878  Impressions  of  America1  (March,  Apr.,  May,  July,  Oct.). 
1883   Cardinal  Manning's  demand  on  the  rates  (Jan.). 

1883  The  Cardinal  and  the  Schools  :  a  rejoinder  (March). 

THE  ECLECTIC  REVIEW 

1856  Whateley's  Edition  of  Bacon's  Essays  (Sept.).     Dred,  by  Mrs. 

Stowe  (Oct.).  The  Earnest  Minister :  a  Life  of  Benjamin 
Parsons  of  Ebley  (Nov.). 

1857  Dove's  Logic  of  the  Christian  Faith  (Jan.).    Harvey  Goodwin's 

Hulsean  Lecture  for  1856  (Feb.).  Kingsley's  Two  Years 
Ago  (May).  Christianity  and  Hinduism  (May).  Charlotte 
Bronte  (June).      Maurice  on  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  (July). 

1  Republished  in  America. 


756  LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 

Novels  of  the  Season  (July).  Stoughton's  Ages  of  Christendom 
(Aug.).  Josiah  Conder  (Sept.).  Greyson's  Correspondence 
(Sept.).      The  Indian  Mutiny  (Dec). 

1858  Monthly  Review  of  Public  Events  (Jan.-Dec.).      The  Positive 

Side  of  Modern  Deism  (March).  The  Future  Government 
of  India  (May).  Free  Church  Essays  (June).  The  Stipends 
of  Nonconformist  Ministers  (June). 

1859  Our  Theological  Colleges  (Jan.).      Stanley  on  the  Epistles  to 

the  Corinthians  (Feb.).  The  Debate  on  Reform  (Apr.). 
Ministerial  Stipends  (May). 

THE   FORTNIGHTLY  REVIEW 

1879  Liberal  Candidates  at  the  next  Election. 

THE   INTERNATIONAL  REVIEW 

1880  The   State   Support   of  Denominational    Schools  in   England 

(Dec). 

1 88 1  The   State   Support   of  Denominational   Schools   in   England 

(Jan.). 

THE  CONGREGATIONALIST 

1872  Congregationalism  (Jan.).      The  Solitude  of  the  Soul  (March). 

Some  Aspects  of  Modern  Preaching  :  Do  we  preach  Christ  ? 
(May).  The  modern  Conception  of  Christ  (June).  The 
New  Birth  (June).  Want  of  Urgency  (July).  The  avoidance 
of  Great  Truths  (Aug.).  The  Church  the  fulness  of  Christ 
(Aug.).  Curteis's  Bampton  Lectures  on  Dissent  (Aug.,  Sept., 
Oct.).      Have  we  forgotten  Christ?  (Dec). 

1873  Religious  Revivals  (Jan.,  Feb.,   March,  Apr.).      The  Bible  a 

Library  not  a  Book  (Jan.).  The  alleged  reaction  in  the 
Theology  of  Congregationalists  (Jan.).  Miracles  (Feb.). 
Religious  ideas  of  the  Old  Testament  (May).  The  Old 
Testament  and  the  New  (June).  A  forgotten  Ministerial 
Duty  :  Increase  Gladness  (Aug.).  The  relation  of  children 
to  the  Church  (Sept.,  Oct.,  Nov.,  Dec). 

1874  The    Editor    on    his    Travels,    1-12    (Jan.-Dec).       Prayer    in 

relation  to  revivals  (Jan.).  The  relation  of  children  to  the 
Church  (Feb.).  Why  I  ceased  to  use  the  title  "Rev." 
(Feb.). 

1875  The  Editor  on  his  Travels,  13-24  (Jan.-Dec).      The  Paraclete 

(Feb.).  Mr.  Moody  and  Mr.  Sankey  (March).  The  Re- 
vivalists and  the  Ministry  (Apr.).  Abbott's  Hulsean  Lectures 
on  Faith  and  Science  (Sept.). 

1876  The  Editor  on  his  Travels,  25-34  (Jan.-Oct.).     Parish  Churches 

— to  whom  do  they  belong  ?  (Jan.).      The    New  Testament 


APPENDIX  757 

theory  of  Sanctification,  i-ii  (Feb.-Dec).  Unitarian  Criti- 
cism on  the  Congregational  Lecture  for  1875,  The  Atonement 
(March,  Apr.,  May).  Wace's  Boyle  Lectures  on  Christianity 
and  Morality  (Apr.). 

1877  On  some  aspects  of  Theological  Thought  among  Congrega- 

tionalists  (Jan.).  Parker's  Priesthood  of  Christ  (Feb.). 
John  Angell  James  (Aug.). 

1878  The  necessity  of  an  Ethical  Revival  (Jan.).     The  Forgiveness 

of  Sins  (May). 

1879  1°  what  extent  have  Special  Missions  or  Revival  Services  been 

a  blessing  to  the  Christian  Church?  (Feb.). 

1880  The    New    Year   (Jan.).      The    organisation    of   the    Sunday- 

School  (Aug.). 

1 88 1  Thomas  Carlyle  (March,  Apr.). 

1882  Christian  men  God's  Workmanship  (Sept.). 

1883  The  New  Year  (Jan.).      Renan's  Recollections  (July,  Aug.). 

1884  The    Moral    Precepts   of   Christ1    (Feb.).       Obeying   Christ1 

(Aug.). 

1885  The  Christian  Sacraments  and  Christian  worship  (Jan.). 

1886  A  merry  heart  (Oct.). 

1887-  The  old  Antinomianism  and  the  New  (Jan.). 
1890  The  Parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  (Apr.). 


GOOD  WORDS 

1867  Anger3  (Feb.).  Cheerfulness3  (March).  The  Perils  and 
uses  of  Rich  Men3  (Apr.).  Amusements8  (May).  The 
Discipline  of  the  Body3  (June).  The  Kindly  Treatment  of 
other  Men's  Imperfections 3  (July).  Summer  Holidays 3 
(Aug.).  Unwholesome  Words3  (Sept.).  Peaceableness  and 
Peacemaking3  (Oct.). 

1882  Everyday  Business  a  Divine  Calling1  (Jan.).      The  Sacredness 

of  Property1  (March,  Apr.).  Christian  Worldliness  1  (May). 
Sowing  and  Reaping  1  (Aug.).  The  Grace  of  Christ  a  Law 
of  Conduct1  (Nov.).  Christmas  Day  and  Family  Life1 
(Dec). 

1883  Fault-finding:    the  Mote  and  the  Beam1  (Feb.).      The   For- 

giveness of  Injuries1  (Aug.). 

1884  Public    Duty*    (March).       The    Christian    Rule    of    Justice1 

(July), 
1891    On  Telling  the  Truth  (May). 

1893  At  Home  with  the  Lord  (May). 

1894  The  Seed  which  fell  by  the  Wayside  (Oct.). 

1  Reprinted  in  The  Laws  of  Christ  for  Common  Life. 

2  In  1887  the  Congregationalist  appeared  under  a  new  title  as  the  Congrega- 
tional Review. 

3  Reprinted  in  Week-day  Sermons. 


758  LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 


THE  SUNDAY  MAGAZINE 

1865  Tale-bearing1  (July).     Weights  and  Measures  (Nov.). 

1866  The  Use  of  the  Understanding  in  Keeping  God's  Law1  (Oct.). 

Christmas  Parties1  (Dec). 

1867  The  Character  and  Sin  cf  Judas  (Nov.). 

1 88 1  The  Temperance  Reformation:  a  Sermon  preached  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Temperance  Union,  in  Carr's  Lane  Chapel, 
Birmingham  (Feb.). 

1884  Sympathy  (Aug.). 

1890  On  Minding  Things  that  are  Lowly  (Sept.). 

1892   God's  Guidance  (June). 

1895  Friendship*  (June). 

THE  EXPOSITOR 

Second  Series 
1883   St.  James  on  Temptation  (vol.  v.  pp.  321-329;  426-434). 

Fourth  Series 

1892  Jonah  (vol.  vi.  pp.  1-18). 

1893  Sin  (vol.  viii.  pp.  161-175). 

Fifth  Series 

1896  The  Tower  of  Babel*  (vol.  iii.  pp.  1-14).      A  Spiritual  House* 

(vol.  iii.  pp.  127-136).  An  Elect  Race*  (vol.  iii.  pp.  191- 
199).  Christians  and  Social  Institutions*  (vol.  iii.  pp.  287- 
295).  Like-minded*  (vol.  iii.  pp.  349-357).  Abraham* 
(vol.  iii.  pp.  434-444).  The  Sacrifice  of  Isaac*  (vol.  iv.  pp. 
16-26).  The  Intercession  of  the  Spirit*  (vol.  iv.  pp.  186- 
I93)-  The  Place  of  Abraham  in  Religious  History*  (vol. 
iv.  pp.  338-350)- 

1897  The    Syro-Phcenician    Woman*    (vol.    v.    pp.    365-372).      A 

Voluntary  Humility*  (vol.  v.  pp.  464-472). 

1898  The    Fatherhood    of   God    (vol.    vii.    pp.    56-69;     150-160). 

Judgment  to  come*  (vol.  viii.  pp.  160-179). 

THE  EVANGELICAL  MAGAZINE 

1845   Channing's  Essay  on  Self-Culture  (June ;  Reprinted  in  April 

1895). 
1867  The  Lord's  Supper  (Jan. -Dec). 

1890  On  a  Misuse  of  the  Parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  (Apr.,  May). 

1 89 1  Our  Responsibility  for  our  Thoughts  (Apr.). 

1892  "Whosoever  denieth  the  Son,  the  same  hath  not  the  Father'' 

(a  Sermon  on  1  John  ii.  23).      (Apr.) 
1895   Fellowship  with  us  (Feb.). 

1  Reprinted  in  Week-day  Sermons. 


INDEX 


Abbott's  Ann,  18 

Abbott,  E.  A.,  247 

Aberdeen,  speech  at,  293-295 

Adams,   F. ,    "The   Elementary  School 

Contest,"  267 
Afghanistan,  war  in,  425  foil. 
Africa,  troubles  in  South,  438  foil. 
Alexander,  J.  F. ,  letter  to,  385,  386 
Alford,  H.    (Dean  of  Canterbury)   199, 

219 
Allies,  T.  W.,  2U,  553 
Aflon,  H. ,  letters  to,  201,  202,  219,  272, 

273  ;  202,  210,  236,  628 
America,    civil  war    in,    253 ;    visit  to, 

331    foil.;     schools    in,    333-335; 

politics,  334,  338,  339 
Andover,  14-17,  19,  20,  98 
"Anglicanism  and  Romanism,"  210  foil. 
Annihilation  of  the  wicked.     See  Life  in 

Christ 
Anthem,  in  service,  532,  533 
Anxious      Enquirer,      the,      16,      72  ; 

criticism  of,  151-155 
Argyll,  Duke  of,  739 
Arnold,  M.,  379 
Arthur,  W.,  346 
Atheism,  434,  435 
Atkinson,  J.,  559,  560 
Atonement,  the,  12,  no,  in,  216-219, 

323-329,  350,  523,  524,  536,  620, 

661,  662,  702  foil.,  710  foil. 
Augustine,  503,  711 
Australia,  invitation  to,  178  foil.  ;  visit 

to,    561    foil.;    "Impressions   of," 

562,   563;   religious  conditions   in, 

566,  567 .;  Bishops  in,  569 
Aylott  and  Jones,  27 

Bacon,  Lord,  689 

Badham,  C. ,  205 

Bagehot,  W.,  689 

Baines,  E. ,  163,  267,  274,  283 

Baldwin,  Councillor,  407,  409,  410 

Baptism,  362  foil.,  529,  530,  720 

Barber,    G.,    letters   to,   624-626,    626, 


627,  635,  636,  653,  679,  680;  ap- 
pointed assistant  minister  at  Carr's 
Lane,  624  foil. ,  682 ;  reminiscences, 
638  foil. 

Bardsley,  Joseph,  165,  186 

Barker,  P.  C. ,  44,  62 

Barker,  T.  R. ,  35,  40,  41,  95,  98,  128 

Barrett,    G.    S.,    letters    to,    306,    307, 

323;   355 
Beaumont,  W.,  letter  to,  181-183;   123 
Bedfordbury,  2 
Beecher,    Lyman,    lectureship   at  Yale, 

33L  332 

Belper,  64 

Benson,  Father,  635 

Berry,  C.  A.,  335,  647 

Berry,  S.,  208 

Bertrand,  on  Ritschl,  636 

Bicentenary  (of  1662),  celebration  and 
controversy,  165-177,  186 

Bindley,  S.  A.,  208 

Binney,  T.,  33,  49,  50,  54,  178,  180, 
267,  289,  561,  744 

Birmingham,  history  and  characteristics, 
135  - 140 ;  loyalty  of  people  to 
leaders,  254 ;  municipal  progress, 
401  foil.  ;  religious  life  in,  655  ; 
Education  Aid  Society,  269,  270  ; 
School  Board,  340,  475  foil.,  513  ; 
Liberal  Association,  264,  419,  424, 
433>  451'  452,  464 ;  Religious 
Education  Society,  480  foil.  ; 
Grammar  School  (King  Edward's 
School),  489  foil.  ;  Daily  Post, 
letter  to,  407,  408  ;  402,  414 

Bocking,  1,  2 

Bois,  Professor,  157 

Bonar,  A. ,  679,  680 

Boyle,  G.  D.  (Dean  of  Salisbury),  letter 
from,  206 ;  letter  to,  634,  635 ; 
139.  205 

Bradford,  295 

Bradford,  Amory,  642 

Bradlaugh,  C,  297,  429;  controversy, 
431  foil. 


-6o 


LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 


Braintree,  i 

Brethrenism,  241 

Brewer,  Jehoiada,  72 

Bright,  Jacob,  280 

Bright,  John,   letter  to,   437  ;   63,  132, 

138,  193,  249,  254,  264,  295,  298, 

299,    320,     351,    431,    436,    437  ; 

447.  45°.  464,  478,  S^-  5*4.  641 
Bright,   W.   (Canon  of  Christ   Church, 

Oxford),  letters  to,  328,  329,  423, 

424 
British    Quarterly    Review,    210-214, 

216-219,  272.  273,  349,  351,  352, 

755 
British  Weekly,  the,  614,  615,  659 
Brixton  Hill,  22 
Broadhurst,  H.,  447,  464 
Bromsgrove  school,  487 
Brontes,  the,  28 
Browne,  J.,  560 
Browne,  Robert,  101,  102 
Browne,  Sir  T. ,  47 
Bruce,  R. ,  559 
Bryce,  J.,  351,  462,  497 
Bubier,  G.  B.,  33 
Buchanan,  Dr.,  291 
Bunce,  J.  Thackray,  402,  634;  estimate 

of  Dale's  influence  in  Birmingham 

life,  413  foil. 
Bunting,    P.    W. ,    letters   to,    394-397, 

444.  470-472  ;  388.  443.  47o,  674 
Burke,  E.,  44,  419 
Burn,  R.,  514 
Bushnell,  H.,  216 
Butler's  Analogy,  14 

Cadesia,  Persian  defeat  at,  353 

Caine,  W.  S.,  735 

Caird,  J.,  514 

Cairns,  Sir  H.,  193 

Cairns,   J.,    letter  to,    291-293;    290, 

291 
Callaway,  W.    F. ,  203,   204,   205,  301, 

323 
Campbell,  Dr.  J.,  3,  9,  10,  11,  15,  16, 

20,  2i,  63 
Campbell,  J.  MacLeod,  704 
Canada,  scenery  of,  333 
Capel,  H.  M.,  269 
Cape  Town,  562 
Carisbrooke,  accident  at,  308 
Carlyle,  T. ,  25 
Carr's    Lane   Church,  letters    to,    124, 

147,  148,  183-185,  301,  302,  630, 

631  ;    early    history    of,    71,    72 ; 

Dale's  doubts  of  its  stability,  76,  yj  ; 

his  first  sermon  at,  57-59  ;  deacons 

of,    141  ;    offshoots    of,     141-143  ; 

questions  not  settled  by  majorities, 

365-366  ;     services     at,     532-534 ; 


columns  at,  597,  598  ;  reunion  of 
members,  668,  669  ;  50,  76,  80,  81, 
111-114,  117,  118,  119,  120-123, 
390,  391,  509,  526;  assistant 
minister  necessary,  182,  183,  185  ; 
assistant  appointed,  624  foil. 

Cash,  Miss  A.  M.,  32 

Cash,  Mrs.,  letters  to,  53,  61,  64,  65, 
67-69,  73-80  ;  35,  36 

Cavendish,  Lord  F. ,  450 

Chalmers,  Dr. ,  on  Church  and  State,  376 

Chamberlain,  J.,  letters  to,  432,  433, 
445,  446;  270,  273,  402,  420, 
421,  431,  438,  442,  446,  451,  452, 
454-  455.  456-  457.  459.  464.  465. 
466,  469,  472,  476,  483,  549,  579, 
581,  620,  634,  737,  742 

Chamberlain,  J.  H.,  634 

Chamberlain,  R. ,  492 

Champneys,  B. ,  498 

Channing,  W.  E. ,  "Self-culture,"  19, 
20,  28 

Character,  permanence  of  early,  540 

Charity  Commissioners,  497,  498 

Children,  classes  for,  147  ;  religious  life 
of,  147,  148 

Christ,  Life  in,  149,  310  foil.,  314, 
315,  316,  718;  presence  in  the 
Church,  245,  248,  718,  719;  and 
established  churches,  234,  235 ; 
humanity  of,  148, 149  ;  our  Brother, 
611,  622;  as  Mediator,  716,  717; 
Christ  and  the  State,  602,  650 ; 
' '  Christ  and  the  Controversies  of 
Christendom,"  231  foil.;  "The 
Living  Christ  and  the  Four  Gos- 
Pete."  593  foll.,  642-643 

Christian  Witness,  the,  9,  10 

Christian  World,  letter  to  the,  356 

Church,  R.  W.  (Dean  of  St.  Paul's), 
letters  from,  350,  351,  599  ;  635, 
642,  691,  692 

Church,  the  idea  of,  244  foil. ;  presence  of 
Christ  in,  245-248,  718,  719  ;  work 
of,  237  foil.  ;  and  State,  172,  173, 
234,  235,  370  foil.  ;  718,  719,  739 
foil.  ;  and  politics,  648-650  ; 
"public"  churches,  394  foil.; 
"  Church  militant,"  299 

Church  of  England,  103-105  ;  relations 
to  Nonconformists,  173,  174  ;  sub- 
scription in,  163,  164,  169,  170  ; 
Evangelicals  in,  171,  177  ;  Angli- 
canism and  Romanism,  210  foil.  ; 
Tractarian  movement,  212,  213, 
697  foil.  ;  Parliamentary  control 
of,  381-383  ;  property  of,  383  ;  as 
a  means  to  religious  unity,  388 
foil.  ;  reforms  in,  393,  394 ;  re- 
union with,  392,  393  ;  Congress  at 


INDEX 


761 


Birmingham  and  Nonconformist 
address,  660,  661 

Churchill,  Lord  R.,  447 

Citizenship,  Christian,  249,  250 

Clapton  Park,  invitation  to,  299  foil. 

Clark,  Sir  A.,  610,  612,  615,  617,  630, 
637 

Class  meeting,  Methodist,  346,  347 

Clatford,  first  sermon  at,  18 

Clifton  Street,  2,  5 

Close,  F.  (Dean  of  Carlisle),  480 

Clough,  R. ,  559 

Cobbe,  Miss  F.  P.,  letter  to,  528,  529 

Cobden,  R.,  62,  267 

Cocks,  Mr.,  90 

Coggeshall,  1 

Collings,  ].,  273,  426 

Collyer,  Dr.,  98 

Colman,  J.  J.,  579 

Colman,  Mrs.  J.  J.,  letter  to,  503 

Colman,  Miss.     See  Mrs.  Stuart 

Colman,  Miss  H.,  letter  to,  540 

Colonial  Missionary  Society,  175,  183 

Comet,  Donati's,  132 

"  Communion  of  Saints,"  the,  244  foil. 

Comte,  A.,  232,  233,  347 

Conder,  E.  R. ,  44,  283,  288,  289 

Congregationalism,  theory  of,  103,  104, 
564  ;  not  individualism,  243  ;  an 
ideal  polity,  606,  607  ;  established 
in  Connecticut,  335,  336  ;  lectures 
on  history  of,  351  foil.  ;  historical 
manual,  623,  659,  660  ;  Congre- 
gational Principles,  Manual  of, 
343.  344.  345.  354-356,  358,  360, 
361,  363  ;  Manual  of  Church 
Polity,  358  ;  addresses  on,  352 
foil.  ;  intellectual  work  of,  612 
foil.  ;  Congregational  Churches, 
unity  of,  390-392  ;  membership 
and  doctrine,  344,  345  ;  member- 
ship and  sacraments,  363  foil.  ; 
minor  suffrage  in,  527 

Congregational  Council,  International, 
600  foil.  ;  address  before,  603 
foil.  ;  Introduction  to  Proceedings 
of,  612  foil.,  740,  741,  743 

Congregational   Union,    73,    162,    164, 

229,  230 ;    Declaration  of   Faith, 

230,  342-344,  362  ;  Dale's  ad- 
dresses, as  Chairman,  231  foil.,  236 
foil.  ;  sermon,  243  foil.  ;  paper  on 
theological  thought,  311,  312  ;  edu- 
cation debate,  267  ;  jubilee  of,  351, 
352  ;  discussion  on  Irish  question, 
584;  Dale's  withdrawal  from,  583 
foil. ,  740,  741  ;  resolution  of  sym- 
pathy, 683,  724 

Congregationalists,  and  national  educa- 
tion, 266  foil.,  271,  272 


Congregationalist,   the,   305,   312,   317, 

3i8,  3i9-  330.  33L  34L  363,  383. 

756,  757 
Consecration,  entire,  330 
Contemporary  Review,    199,    219,    220, 

295.  379.  442.  443.  458  fo11-.  469. 

755 
Conversion,  sudden,  321 
Cotes,  C.  C,  281 
Cowper  Temple  clause  (Education  Act, 

1870),  277,  280 
Cox,  Dr.,  88 
Creak,  Miss  E.  E.  M.,  letter  from,  493, 

494 
Crime,  hereditary,  261,  262 
Criticism  and  the  Bible,  349,  350 
Cross,  Viscount,  550 
Crosskey,   H.  W.,  letters  to,  518,  519, 

537  ;     276,    401,    403,    404,    549, 

559 
Crossley,  E. ,  584,  586 
Cuthbertson,  W. ,  180 

Dale,  Alice  Mary  (daughter),  207,  208, 

621,  622 
Dale,  Claire  (daughter),  519  foil. 
Dale,  Elizabeth  (mother),  letter  to,  58, 

59;   2,  3,  4,  93 
Dale,  Elizabeth  (wife),   letters  to,  192, 

193,  194,  195,  195,  196,  207,  208, 

333.  335.  500.  5°2,  514,  5So;  98, 

346,  366,  367 
Dale,    Robert   (father),    letter  to,   202  ; 

1,  2,  3,  242,  243 

Dale,  Robert  William— 


1829-1847 

Family,  1,2;  father  and  mother,  2-4  ; 
schooldays  and  school-friends,  4-9  ; 
first  appearances  in  print,  9,  10  ;  Dr. 
Campbell's  influence,  11  ;  theological 
class  at  the  Tabernacle,  Moorfields, 
12  ;  leaves  school  and  becomes  usher 
at  Mr.  Willey's,  13  ;  usher  at  And- 
over,  14,  15  ;  religious  difficulties,  16  ; 
joins  Congregational  Church  at  And- 
over,  17 ;  begins  to  preach,  18  ; 
magazine  articles,  19,  20 ;  leaves 
Andover,  20  ;  disappointed  in  hope 
of  entering  the  ministry,  21  ;  usher  at 
Brixton  Hill,  22 ;  correspondence 
with  Mr.  Gillespie,  22-25  >  letter  to  a 
Roman  Catholic  bishop,  25,  26;  usher 
at  Leamington,  26  ;  village  preach- 
ing, 27  ;  publishes  the  Talents,  27- 
31  ;  friends  at  Leamington,  31,  32  ; 
applies  for  admission  to  Spring  Hill 
College,  35  ;  first  impressions  of  the 
college,  36,  37. 
3C2 


;(j2 


LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 


1847-1853 
Spring  Hill  College,  39,  40  ;  Mr.  Barker, 
40  ;  Mr.  Watts,  41  ;  Henry  Rogers 
and  his  influence,  41-44;  fellow- 
students,  44,  45  ;  Birmingham  life, 
45,  46  ;  difficulties  of  study,  47, 
48  ;  college  experiences,  48  -  50  ; 
Dawson's  influence,  50-53 ;  London 
University  Examinations,  53,  54 ; 
friendship  with  Edward  Glanville, 
55,  56;  college  debates,  56;  invited  to 
preach  at  Carr's  Lane,  57-59  ;  grow- 
ing intimacy  with  Mr.  James,  59 ; 
college  theological  society,  59,  60 ; 
spiritual  depression,  60,  61,  79,  80  ; 
conflict  with  college  regulations,  62  ; 
interest  in  public  affairs,  63  ;  vacation 
at  Belper  and  in  London,  64,  65  ; 
intellectual  difficulties,  65,  66 ;  accused 
of  not  preaching  the  gospel  :  his 
defence,  67,  69 ;  invited  to  a  church  at 
Hanley,  69, 70 ;  Mr.  James's  solicitude 
for  him,  75  ;  temporary  arrangement, 
76  ;  ^  suggestion  of  assistantship  at 
Carr's  Lane,  76  ;  preference  for  other 
work,  76-78;  growing  interest  in 
Carr's  Lane,  80 ;  gold-medallist  in 
London,  M.A.  Examination,  81,  82 

1853-1859 

Assistant  preacher  at  Carr's  Lane,  82- 
89;  co -pastor,  89-92;  mother's 
death,  93  ;  ordination,  94-98  ;  mar- 
riage, 98,  99,  105  ;  lecture  on  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  and  subsequent  con- 
troversy, 100-105  I  work  at  Carr's 
Lane,  106  ;  evangelistic  work  in  the 
town,  106,  107;  sermons  on  doctrine, 
107  -  109  ;  sermons  on  Romans  : 
alarm  in  the  church,  109-114;  Mr. 
James's  intervention,  114,  115;  de- 
spondency, 115-117;  growing  influ- 
ence, 117,  118;  invitation  to 
Manchester,  118-123  ;  the  decision 
left  with  Mr.  James,  123-125;  articles 
in  the  Eclectic  Review,  125-128  ; 
lectures  at  Spring  Hill,  128,  129  ; 
speech  for  the  Patriotic  Fund,  129, 
130;  public  activity,  131,  132;  be- 
comes sole  pastor  at  Mr.  James's 
death,  132 

1859-1868 

Position  at  Carr's  Lane,  140-141  ;  new 
churches  in  the  suburbs,  141-143  ; 
ethical  preaching,  143-146  ;  sermons 
to  young  people,  146 ;  children's 
classes,  147 ;  the  religious  life  of 
children,  147,  148  ;  overwork,  148  ; 
pulpit  work,   subjects  and   methods, 


148-150  ;  Mr.  James's  life,  150,  151  ; 
criticism  of  the  Anxious  Enquirer, 
I5i-i5S;     holiday    at    Montauban,' 
155-160  ;   French  theological  colleges, 
J58.     159  I      French     Protestantism, 
159,   160  ;   becomes  chairman  of  the 
Spring  Hill  Board  of  Education,  161 ; 
alarmed    for    his    health,    161,    162 ; 
declares  himself  in  favour  of  a  national 
system  of  education,  163,  267;  speech 
on   Essays  and  Reviews,    163,    164; 
the  bicentenary  controversy  of  1862  : 
lectures  in  reply  to  Dr.   Miller,  166- 
175 ;    attacks    the    position    of    the 
Evangelical  clergy,    171,    175,    177  ; 
letter  to    Sir   Culling    Eardley,    176, 
177  ;  other  lectures,  186  ;  trouble  in 
the  church,    178  ;   invitation  to  Mel- 
bourne,   178-185;    activity    in    the 
church,  188-189  ;  cultivation  of  sym- 
pathy, 189,  190;  the  Prince  of  Wales's 
wedding,    191,    192  ;    a   visit   to    the 
House  of  Commons,  192,  193  ;  holi- 
day   at    Heidelberg,     194-196 ;     the 
Jewish    Temple    and    the    Christian 
Church,       197,       198  ;       missionary 
sermon    at    Surrey    Chapel    ( ' '  The 
Living  God  the  Saviour  of  all  men  "), 
198,199;  Exeter  Hall  lecture  ( ' '  From 
Doubt  to  Faith"),  199,  200  ;  charac- 
teristics, 200,   201  ;    appearance  and 
habits,  202,  204;    "Quiet  days"  for 
ministers,   204,   205  ;  the  Graduates' 
Club,  205,  206  ;  death  of  a  daughter, 
207,  208  ;  Town  Hall  services,  208- 
210;    articles    on    Anglicanism   and 
Romanism,  210-215  '<  articles  on  the 
Lord's  Supper,  215,  216  ;  articles  on 
the    Atonement,    216-219;      "Dis- 
courses on  Special  Occasions,"  219, 
220 ;    article    on    Lacordaire,    220 ; 
Week-day   Sermons,    221,    222 ;    the 
English  Hymn-book,  222-228  ;   corre- 
spondence with  Mr.   T.    H.   Gill  on 
hymnology,  223  foil. 

1869-1872 
Chairman  of  the  Congregational  Union, 
230 ;  addresses  from  the  chair, 
Christ  and  the  Coniroi'ersies  of 
Christendom,  231  -  236  ;  The  Holy 
Spirit  in  relation  to  the  Ministry, 
the  Worship,  and  the  Work  of  the 
Church,  236-241  ;  discards  the  title 
"Rev.,"  242;  death  of  father,  242, 
243  ;  sermon  before  the  Congrega- 
tional Union  at  Swansea  {The 
Communion  of  Saints),  243;  "The 
Idea  of  the  Church,"  244-248; 
Christian   citizenship  and  its   duties, 


INDEX 


763 


249,  250;  politics  and  the  pulpit,  250, 
251  ;  political  sympathies,  251-254  ; 
the  struggle  for  reform,  254-256; 
lecture  to  the  new  electors  on  The 
Politics  of  the  Future,  256-262  ;  the 
Birmingham  election  of  1867,  and  the 
general  election  of  1868,  262-265  ; 
the  suspension  of  the  Birmingham 
Banking  Company,  265  ;  relations 
with  George  Dawson,  265 
Nonconformists  and  national  education, 
266  -  269  ;  Education  Aid  Society, 
269-271  ;  speaks  as  a  representative 
of  opinion  among  Congregationalists, 
271,  272  ;  articles  on  the  education 
question,  272,  273  ;  joins  the  National 
Education  League,  273,  274  ;  pro- 
tests against  the  Education  Bill  of 
1870,  274,  275  ;  joins  in  establishing 
theCentral  Nonconformist  Committee, 
275,  276  ;  agitation  against  the  Bill, 
276-281  ;  resistance  to  the  twenty- 
fifth  clause,  281-283  ;  the  Endowed 
Schools  controversy,  283-285  ;  lecture 
on  "  The  Politics  of  Nonconformity," 
285,  286  ;  the  Nonconformist  con- 
ference at  Manchester,  286-288; 
conflict  in  the  Congregational  Union  : 
the  "  Round  Robin  "  and  Dr.  Conder, 
288,  289  ;  the  Scotch  Education 
Bill,  289-293  ;  speech  at  Aberdeen, 
293-295  ;  urged  to  stand  for  Parlia- 
ment, 295-297  ;  letter  to  the  Times 
on  the  Liberal  leadership  (1875),  297< 
298  ;  Daily  Telegraph  article  on 
Nonconformity  in  Great  Britain,  279 ; 
"The  Church  militant,"  299;  invi- 
tation to  Clapton  Park  and  feeling  in 
Birmingham,  299-302 

1873-1886 

Edits  the  Congregationalist,  305-307  ; 
accident  at  Carisbrooke,  307,  308  ; 
visits  Egypt  and  the  Holy  Land,  308- 
310  ;  advocates  the  theory  of  Life  in 
Christ,  310-316;  anticipates  a 
religious  revival,  316,  317  ;  supports 
Moody  and  Sankey's  mission,  317- 
321  ;  attempts  mission  work,  321- 
323  ;  lectures  on  the  Atonement, 
323-329 ;  his  attitude  towards  the 
Higher  Life  movement,  329-331; 
appointed  Lyman  Beecher  lecturer  at 
Yale,  331,  332 ;  visits  the  United 
States,  332-336 ;  lecture  on  British 
politics  at  New  Haven,  337,  338  ; 
Lectures  on  Preaching,  339,  340 ; 
resigns  editorship  of  the  Congrega- 
tionalist  and  seat  on  School  Board, 
341  ;    the   Leicester   Conference  and 


the  Declaration    of  Faith,   341-343  , 
conditions   of    membership   in    Con- 
gregational churches,    343-345  ;    ad- 
dress at  the  Wesleyan  Conference  in 
Birmingham,    346-348;    sermon   on 
the    Evangelical    Revival,    348-351  ; 
lectures  on   the  history  of   Noncon- 
formity, 351  ;  campaign  for  Congre- 
gationalism,     352  -  354  ;      publishes 
Manual  of  Congregational  Principles, 
354  ;  attacked  for  Sacramental  teach- 
ing.   355-3S8  !  theory  of  the   Lord's 
Supper,  357-362;  theory  of  Baptism, 
362,    363  ;     Sacraments  and    church 
membership,    363-366  ;    a   Noncon- 
formist High  Churchman,  366  ;  con- 
fused   with   Mr.    Pelham   Dale,    366, 
367 
Church   and    State,    368    foil.  ;    Miall's 
influence,    368,    369 ;    differences   in 
conception,  369,  370  ;  relations  with 
the    Liberation    Society,    370,    377, 
378  ;  articles  on  theories  of  Church  and 
State  in  the  Patriot,  371  foil. ;  Hooker's 
theory,  370-373  ;  Gladstone's  theory, 
373-376  I   theories   of  Chalmers  and 
Paley,    376,    377 ;    undertakes   cam- 
paign for  the  Liberation  Society  with 
Dr.     Guinness    Rogers,     378,     379 ; 
speeches    on    disestablishment,    379- 
384  ;  reluctance  to  discuss  the  ques- 
tion, 384  ;  contrasted  with  Mr.  James, 
384,   385  ;   results  of  the  campaign, 
387  ;  letters  on  disestablishment  and 
kindred  subjects,  385,  386,  388-394  ; 
letter   on    Free    Church    Federation, 
394-397 
Political  and  municipal  service  a  Chris- 
tian   duty,    398-401,    418,    419  ;    his 
account    of    municipal    progress    in 
Birmingham,    401-403 ;    speeches    in 
the  wards,  404-406  ;  jealousy  for  the 
honour    of    public    men,    406  ;    the 
Town  Hall  and  the  Sunday  lectures  : 
resistance  to  a  monopoly,   406-413  ; 
Mr.  Bunce's  estimate  of  his  influence 
in    the    life    of    the    town,    413-417  ; 
political  activity,  418,  419  ;  the  elec- 
tion of  1874  :  Mr.  Chamberlain's  first 
election,     420,     421  ;     the     Eastern 
question,    421  ;    speech    at    Bingley 
Hall   during    Mr.    Gladstone's    visit, 
422  ;  his  part  in  the  movement,  423- 
425  ;  asserts  the  right  to  keep  order 
in   public  meetings,   425-427;  urges 
unity  at  the  election  of  1880,    427, 
428  ;  the  Bradlaugh  controversy,  431- 
436  ;  uneasy  about  Egypt,  436-438  ; 
asserts  our  obligation  to  protect  the 
native  races  in  South  Africa,  438-442  ; 


764 


LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 


the  extension  of  the  franchise  and 
London  government,  442-444  ;  the 
Russian  difficulty,  444-446  ;  the  elec- 
tions of  1885,  446,  447  ;  the  Irish 
question  :  his  attitude  before  the  Bill 
of  1885,  448-451  ;  speech  on  the  Bill, 
451-455  ;  reasons  for  the  retention  of 
the  Irish  members  at  Westminster, 
455-457/  attempts  at  compromise, 
457>  458  ;  article  in  the  Contemporary 
Review,  458,  459  ;  correspondence 
with  Archbishop  Walsh,  459-463  ; 
action  in  Birmingham,  463,  464 ; 
withdraws  from  the  Liberal  Associa- 
tion, 464  ;  letters  on  the  controversy, 
464-469,  470-472  ;  further  efforts  for 
peace,  469,  470  ;  political  isolation, 
472-474 

The  Birmingham  School  Board  :  one  of 
the  Liberal  minority,  476  ;  debates 
at  the  Bonrd,  476,  477  ;  accepts  the 
Bible  in  the  schools  as  a  classic,  477, 
478  ;  disbelief  in  undenominational 
religious  teaching,  478,  479  ;  in  a 
majority  at  the  second  Board,  479  ; 
founds  the  Religious  Education 
Society,  480  -  482  ;  opposes  com- 
promise on  the  religious  question, 
482,  483  ;  work  in  committee,  485, 
486 

The  Grammar  School  :  appointed  a 
governor,  486,  487,  489  ;  his  part  in 
reorganisation  of  the  schools,  499-502; 
elected  Bailiff  for  a  second  year,  492  ; 
his  services  to  the  Foundation,  492-494 

Mansfield  College,  Oxford,  494  foil.  ; 
services  to  Spring  Hill  College,  494, 

495  ;  earlier  views  on  the  unsuitability 
of  the  universities  for  training  students 
for  the  Nonconformist  ministry,  495, 
496 ;     Mr.    T.    H.    Green's    appeal, 

496  ;  first  idea  of  removing  Spring 
Hill  College  to  Oxford,  496,  497  ; 
negotiations  with  the  Charity  Com- 
mission, 497,  498  ;  letters  about  the 
doctrinal  clauses  in  the  trust  deed, 
500-502  ;  letters  about  buildings  and 
various  arrangements,  502-506 ;  letter 
resigning  office,  506,  507 

Management  of  the  church,  508,  509  ; 
the  pastoral  relation,  509,  510  ; 
removal  to  Winterslow  House,  510  ; 
methods  of  work,  510-512  ;  prepara- 
tion and  delivery  of  sermons,  512, 
513  ;  presentation  on  retirement  from 
the  School  Board,  513;  LL.  D. 
degree  at  Glasgow,  513-515;  death 
of  his  brother,  515-519  ;  death  of  a 
daughter,  519-521  ;  serious  illness, 
522,  523 


1886-1895 

Serves  on  the  Royal  Commission  on 
Elementary  Education,  547  foil.. 
575  foil.  ;  examination  of  witnesses, 
S52  ■  556  ;  the  religious  difficulty, 
556-559  ;  Nonconformist  grievances, 
559,  560  ;  objections  to  the  Act  of 
1870  and  the  system  of  the  Code, 
575-  576  ;  amendments  to  the  draft 
report,  577,  578  ;  the  minority 
report,  578,  579.  The  Free  Educa- 
tion Act  of  1891,  579-581  ;  defends 
his  position,  581-583.  Visits 
Australia,  561  foil.  ;  Impressions 
of:  Australia,  562,  563  ;  a  purely 
religious  mission,  563-565  ;  work  and 
illness,  565-570  ;  welcome  home,  571, 
572  ;  declines  a  theological  chair  at 
New  College,  572  -  575  ;  withdraws 
from  the  meetings  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Union,  583-588,  740  ;  life  at 
Llanbedr,  588  -  590  ;  consciousness 
of  defects  in  his  preaching,  590-593  ; 
The  Living  Christ  and  the  Four 
Gospels,  593-599  ;  presides  ever  the 
International  Council  of  Congrega- 
tionalists,  600-603  !  n's  presidential 
address  ("  The  Divine  Life  in  Man  "), 
603-609  ;  in  peril  of  death,  610,  611  ; 
gradual  recovery,  611,  612,  615,  616  ; 
protests  excited  by  his  Introduction 
to  the  Proceedings  of  the  Council, 
612-615  ;  return  to  work,  617-619  ; 
Mr.  Barber  appointed  his  assistant, 
624-627  ;  renewed  illness,  627-629  ; 
letters  in  retirement,  630-638  ;  speech 
on  Free  Church  Councils,  647-650  ; 
writes  the  Nonconformist  address  to 
the  Birmingham  Church  Congress, 
659-661  ;  reunion  of  old  members  at 
Carr's  Lane,  668,  669 ;  consolation 
in  depression,  683  ;  Discourses  on 
Christian  Doctrine,  683-685;  last 
illness  and  death,  692  ;  funernl 
services  and  memorials,  693,  694. 
Reminiscences  by  Mr.  Barber,  638- 
645.  Reminiscences  by  Dr.  J. 
Guinness  Rogers,  723-749.  Dale  as 
a  theologian,  by  Principal  Fairbairn, 
695-722 

Dale,  S. ,  1 

Dale,  Thomas  (brother),  letter  to,  516  ; 
3,  515  foil.,  612 

Dale,  T.  Pelham,  366,  367 

Davies,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  R.,  letters  to 
Mrs.  Davies,  619,  631-633,  637, 
638,  671,  672,  680  ;  681,  682, 
687,  690,  691  ;   589,  590 


INDEX 


765 


Da  vies,  Miss  A.  M. ,  letters  to,  665, 
666,  673,  674,  682,  688,  689,  690 

Dawson,  George,  50-53,  139,  265,  402, 
476,  478,  634 ;  article  on,  51, 
52 

"Day  of  Salvation,"  the,  320 

Deaconesses,  187 

Dean,  A.  R.,  628 

Degrees  in  Divinity,  514,  515 

Dillwyn,  L.  L.,  192 

"  Discourses  on  Special  Occasions," 
219,  220,  640,  707 

Disestablishment,  speeches  on,  379 
foil.  ;  at  election  of  1880,  428  ;  in 
Wales,  672,  676,  677  ;  campaign 
for,  730-736 

Disraeli,  B. ,  255 

Dissent,  political,  172 

"  Divine  Life  in  Man,"  the,  603 

Dixon,  G.,  letters  to,  271,  272,  522; 
263,  264,  270,  273,  476,  482, 
483.  484.  49° 

Dobney,  H.  H.,  311 

Doctrine,  sermons  on,  108,  109 ;  dis- 
courses on,  670,  679,  683  foil., 
687,  688,  709,  710 

Dowling,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  A.,  610,  612 

Dowling,  Elizabeth.  See  Elizabeth  Dale 
(wife) 

Dowling,  Giles,  98 

Dowling,  W. ,  98 

Drachenfels,  194 

Duff,  Grant,  193 

Dugdale,  J.  S.,  426 

Duncan,  J.,  558 

Dwight,  Principal  T.,  335 

Eardley,  Sir  Culling,  letter  to,  176, 
*77  I   175.  *76 

Earl  Street,  5,  21 

Eastern  Question,  420  foil. 

Ebbs,  G.,  31 

Ecce  Homo,  231 

Eclectic  Review,  125-128,  755,  756 

Ecclesia,  216,  244  foil.,  358,  360, 
362,  659 

Eclipse  of  Faith,  the,  43 

Edgbaston,  chapel  building  in,  80,  142 

Education,  local ;  Education  Aid  So- 
ciety, 269,  270  ;  Grammar  School, 
486  foil.  ;  Religious  Education 
Society,  480  foil.;    School  Board, 

475  fo11- 
Education,  national  ;  earlier  Non- 
conformist position,  163,  266, 
267  ;  advocacy  of  compulsory 
system,  235,  236,  258,  259,  268, 
271,  272,  274 ;  hostile  to  free 
system,  269  ;  National  Education 
League,  270,  273,  275,  477,  478, 


479  ;  British  Quarterly  articles  on. 
272,  273 
Education  Bill  [1870],  premature,  274  ; 
Nonconformist  protests,  274-276  ; 
agitation  in  the  country,  276,  277  ; 
amendments  introduced  in  House 
of  Commons,  277  ;  Nonconformist 
dissatisfaction  and  policy,  277-280  ; 
rupture  with  the  Government,  280  ; 
Nonconformist  revolt,  281  foil.  ; 
twenty -fifth  clause,  resistance  to, 
281-283  ;  Manchester  Conference, 
286-288,  726  ;  discussion  at  the 
Congregational  Union,  288,  289 ; 
Bright  on  the  Act,  295 ;  Forster 
and  the  Liberal  leadership,  297, 
298,  726 ;  efficiency  of  the  con- 
science clause,  552,  553 ;  the 
system  not  a  concession  to  Non- 
conformists, 553,  554,  728,  729  ; 
voluntary  schools  and  religious 
liberty,  258,  271,  554,  555; 
control  of  voluntary  schools,  580  ; 
religious  teaching  in  schools,  555- 
559>  579'  583  ;  Nonconformist 
grievances,  559,  560 ;  defects  of 
system,   576  ;  payment  by  results, 

576  ;  pupil  teachers,  577  ;  age 
limit  forexemption  from  attendance, 

577  ;  training  colleges,  577  ;  Dr. 
Guinness  Rogers's  Reminiscences  of 
the  controversy,  725-730 

Education  Bill  (Scotland),  289-295 

Education  Bill,  Free  (1891),  579  foil. 

Education,  Royal  Commission  on 
Elementary,  548  foil. ,  575  foil. , 
and  see  above 

Egypt,  309,  436,  437 

Eleventh  Commandment,  145 

Endowed  Schools,  283  foil.  ;  Commis- 
sion, 488  foil. 

Ephesians,  lectures  on  the  Epistle  to 
the,  325,  331,  363,  526,  637,  68i, 
683,  708,  709,  710 

Episcopacy  and  religious  unity,  388  foil. 

Epistles,  exposition  of,  150 

Erskine,  T.,  704 

Essays  and  Reviews,  163,  164,  169,  177 

Established  churches  and  Christ,  234,  235 

Ethical,  preaching,  143-146,  721,  722; 
articles,  221,  222 

Evangelical,  Alliance,  33,  34,  73;  clergy 
and  the  Prayer  Book,  171,  175- 
177;  Magazine,  19,  20,  215,  216, 
758  ;  Nonconformity,  lectures  on 
rise  of,  351  ;  Revival,  defects  of, 
548,  349,  701  foil.  ;  "The  Evan- 
gelical Revival,"  348,  350,  351, 
710,  713,  714 

Evans,  C,  205 


766 


LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 


Exeter    Hall,    lectures,    66,    199,    593, 

594 
Expositor,  articles  in,  758 

Faed's  "Conquered  but  not  subdued," 

256 
Fairbairn,   A.  M.,  letters  to,   500,  501, 

S03-50S.  506,  507.  688  ;  497,  499, 

506,  640,  657,  693,  694  ;  Dale  as 

a  theologian,  695  foil. 
Faith  and  Criticism,  658,  659  ;  faith, 

basis  of,  595  foil. 
Farrar,  F.  W.    (Dean  of  Canterbury), 

327 
Fatherhood,  the  Divine,  605,  606,  653- 

655 
Fawcett,  H. ,  273 
Felice,  Professor  de,  1 57 
Felloiuship  with  Christ,  536,  641 
Ferris,  Mrs.,  4 

Figgis,  J.  B.,  letters  to,  324,  331 
Findlay,  G.  G. ,  letter  to,  637 
Finlayson,   T.  C,  letters  to,  307,   344, 

345 

Fisher,  G.  P.,  letters  to,  473,  506,  521  ; 
335 

Five  Mile  Act,  138,  139 

Ford,  Onslow,  694 

Forster,  W.  E. ,  274,  275,  276,  279, 
281,  283,  284,  295,  297,  298,  299, 
428,  431,  440,  441,  726,  727,  728 

Forsyth,  P.  T.,  636,  659 

Fortnightly  Review,  427,  756 

Foster,  Sir  W. ,  692 

Fowler,  H.  H. ,  581 

Fowler,  T.  (President  of  Corpus  Christi 
College,  Oxford),  499 

Foxley,  J.,  392 

France,  politics  of,  127,  128  ;  theo- 
logical colleges  in,  158,  159  ; 
characteristics  of  unbelief  in,  159, 
160  ;  weakness  of  Protestantism  in, 

159 
Franchise,   a  democratic  right,    255  ;  a 

safeguard    against    violence,    255, 

256  ;  extension  in  counties,  442 
Free  Church  Councils,  speech  on,  647 

foil.  ;    federation,    388,    394    foil.  ; 

Congress,  674,  746 
Freedom,  Christ's  respect  for  personal, 

543 
Freeman  s  Journal,  the  459,  460 
Fremantle,   Canon,  plan  of  Church  re- 
form, 393,  394 
Friendship,  address  on,  688,  689 

"  Gaius,"  10 
Garibaldi,  252 
Garner,  Mrs.,  31 
Gibbon,  353 


Gill,  T.  H.,  letters  to,  223,  224,  225, 
226-228,  430  ;   223  foil. ,  536 

Gillespie,  W. ,  22-24 

Ginsburg,  Dr.,  197 

Gladstone,  W.  E. ,  letter  from,  455  ; 
letters  to,  336,  440-442,  455-457. 
458  ;  on  Church  and  State,  373- 
376,  377;  192,  193.  276,  278,  279, 
280,  282,  286,  297,  336,  377,  419, 
420,  421,  422,  423,  440,  442,  445, 
448,  451.  452.  455.  457.  458.  459. 
460,  461,  462,  463,  465,  466,  467, 
468,  469,  470,  471,  472,  473,  499, 
505.  633,  657,  737,  738,  739,  741, 
742 

Glanville,  E.G.,  letters  to,  60,  61,  65, 
81  ;  45.  55.  56. 

Glanville,  J.,  95 

Glasgow  University,  242,  513,  514 

Glass,  H.  A.,  32 

Glover,  Mrs.,  59 

Golden  Chain  of  Praise,  the,  223 

Good  Words,  221,  331,  757 

Gordon  Hall,  602 

Gore,  C,  693 

Gothic,  dissenting,  170 

Graduates'  Club,  205 

Grattan's  Parliament,  461 

Green,  T.,  44 

Green,  T.  H. ,  letter  from,  496  ;  488 

Greenfield,  T.,  121 

Gregory,  R.  (Dean  of  St.  Paul's),  550, 
578 

Guardian,  letter  to  the,  393,  394  ;  500, 
598 

Guest,  W.t  79 

Hackett,  Bishop,  632 

Hall,  Newman,  letter  to,  619,  620  ;  288 

Hall,  R.,  32,  33 

Halley,  R. ,  308,  327,  531 

Hanley,  invitation  to,  69,  70 

Hannay,  A.,  291,  354,  355,  357,  497, 
586,  740 

Happiness,  value  of,  541,  542 

Harcourt,  Sir  W. ,  467,  469 

Harper,  H.  D.  (Principal  of  Jesus  Col- 
lege, Oxford),  490 

Harris,  W.,  634 

Harrison,  J.  C,  letter  to,  677  ;   572 

Harrison,  Miss,  letter  to,  677,  678 

Harrowby,  Earl  of,  552,  578 

Harvard  and  Yale  compared,  336 

Harvest  festival  at  Montauban,  156, 
157 

Hatch,  E. ,  499,  506 

Haupt,  on  St.  John,  523 

Hawkesbury  Grove,  2 

Heathen,  destiny  of,  no 

Hebrews,  Expositions  of  the  Epistle  to 


INDEX 


767 


(  The  Jewish  Temple  and  the  Chris- 
tian Church),  197,  198 
Heidelberg,  192,  194  foil. 
Heller,  T.  E.,  548,  577 
Heslop,  T.  P.,  490 
Hewgill,  W. ,  letter  to,  464-466 
"  Hindoo,  that  poor,"  202 
Hofman,  Dr.,  194,  195 
Holder,    Mrs.,    letters    to,    538,    539; 

661,  662 
Holiness,  Christian,  330,  331 
Holy  Land,  307-309,  688,  689,  690 
Hoogdinke,  Bishop  of,  25 
Hooker,    R. ,     theory   of   Church    and 

State,  370-373,  381 
Home,  C.  S. ,  letter  to,  363-366 
Hort,  Dr.,  673 
Hotchkiss,  J.,  668 
Hume,  23 

Hutton,  R.  H.,  letter  to,  531,  532 
"Hymn-Book,  the  English,"  222,  226, 

228 
Hymns,    defects  of  modern,    222  foil.  ; 

editing,    224    foil.  ;     singing    and 

stress,  226 

Idleness  as  a  virtue,  201,  202 

Illingworth,  A.,  549 

Illingworth,  J.  R. ,  679 

Independent,  letters  to  the,  269,  580, 
581,  582,  583;   615,  659 

Independents,  the  early,  and  Established 
Church,  103 

India,  126,  131 

Ingall,  G. ,  241,  242 

Intellectual  life,  perils  of,  539,  540 

International  Review,  the,  756 

Ireland,  government  of,  448  foil.  ; 
Home  Rule  controversy,  451  foil., 
736  foil. 

Irish  members  and  the  Imperial  Parlia- 
ment, 452  foil.  ;  Irish  Church 
disestablishment,  192,  193,  263, 
264 

Irons,  Dr.,  173 

Jackson,  W.  W.  (Rector  of  Exeter 
College,  Oxford),  499 

James,  John  Angell,  letters  from,  90, 
91,  119;  letters  to,  83,  84,  85-87, 
88,  91,  92,  116,  117,  119-123 ; 
16,  36,  50,  54,  57-59,  62,  70,  71 
foil,  89,  90,  93,  95,  97,  100,  105, 
114,  115,  123,  124,  129,  132,  139, 
181,  204,  269,  384,  385,  528,  639, 
693,  697  ;  Life  of,  148,  150  foil. 

James,  Sir  H. ,  426 

James,  T.  S. ,  letters  to,  154,  155;  his 
pamphlet  on  his  father's  life,  153- 
155 


James,    the   Epistle   of,    30,    311,    611, 

668,  721 
Jardine,  Mr.,  23 

Jeeves,  Miss  C. ,  letter  to,  663,  664 
Jewish  Temple  and  the  Christian  Church, 

the,  197,  198 
Jones,  Mrs.  C,  letter  to,  106,  107 
Jowett,    B.   (Master  of  Balliol  College, 

Oxford),  497,  499,  593,  733 
Judgment,  future,  149,  150,  602 
Judhope,  Mr.,  562 
Jupe,  I.,  272 
Justification,    152,    153,    526,  529,  530, 

536,  666 

Keble  College,  Oxford,  499 

Keble,  J.,  515 

Kennedy,  J.,  letter  to,  573,  574  ;  572 

Kennion,   G.  W.   (Bishop  of  Adelaide, 

now   of    Bath    and    Wells),    letter 

from,  569,  570 
Kenrick,  W. ,  447,  490 
Key,  James,  4 
Kimball,  A.    R. ,   account  of  lecture  at 

New  Haven,  337,  338 
King,  C,  2 
Kossuth,  L.,  131 

Labour,  dignity  of,  259 

Lacordaire,  220 

Land  League,  449,  450 

Latham,  H.,  543 

Law,     importance    of,    448,    449 ;     of 

Righteousness,  217-219,  326,  713, 

7M.  7i5 
Lawrence,   E.  A.,  letters  to,  243,  514, 

515,  519,  525,  526,  658,  659,  680 
Laws  of  Christ  for  Common  Life,  331, 

398,  400 
Leach,  C. ,  letter  to,  527,  528  ;  407,  408 
League,  National  Education,  270,  273, 

27S.  477.  478,  479 
Leamington,  25,  26,  27,  34,  67 
Lee,  H.,  letters  to,  343,  344,  428,  429, 

430,  492 ;  307.  308-  309.  332 

Leicester  Conference,  341  foil. 
Letters,   anonymous ;    from,    361  ;    to, 

188,    537,    538,    542,    543,     544, 

633.  634.  652,  670,  671 
Liberal  Federation,  National,  422,  442, 

449.  737  ;   Leadership,  297-299 
Liberalism,  the  new,  418,  419 
Liberation  Society,  370,  377,  378  foil., 

386,  387,  534,  730,  731 
Liberty,  Christian  idea  of,  261,  262 
Liddon,  H.   P.   (Canon  of  St.   Paul's), 

325.  339.  653 
"Life  in  Christ,"   149,   310  foil.,  314- 

316,   718;    "Higher  Life"  move- 
ment, 329 


76S 


LIFE  OF  DR.   DALE 


Lightfoot,   J.    B.    (Bishop  of  Durham), 

524,  525 
Living  Christ  and  the   Four  Gospels, 

593  foil.,  642,  643 
Llanbedr,  588  foil.,  615,  616,  627,  628, 

632,  633 
Lloyd,  S.  S.,  263 
London,     government    of,     442    foil.  ; 

Missionary  Society,   73,  198,   199, 

520,   521  ;   university,   53,   54,  81, 

82,  489 
Lord's    Supper,    the,    212,    215,    216, 

234.  355  foll.,  361,  362,  363  foil., 

539.  720 
Lowe,  H.  D. ,  letter  from  shade  of,  203 
Lowe,  R.,  258,  259,  298 
Lozells,  church  at,  84-87 
Luther,  301,  529,  530 
Lyttelton,  Baron,  285 

McAll's  "  Unfaithful  Minister,"  204 
Macaulay  on  the  Puritans,  30 
MacCarthy,  E.  F.  M.,  559 
Macfadyen,  J.  A.,  322 
Mackennal,    A.    M. ,    letter  from,    674, 

675  ;    letters    to,    322,    323,    328, 

501,    502,    520,    521,    674,    675  ; 

497,  506,  520,  601,  602,  647 
Mackenzie,  J.,  438 
Maclaren,  A.,  339 

Maltby,  H.,  letters  to,  32,  33,  34;   54 
Manchester  Conference,  286-288,  726  ; 

invitation  to  Cavendish  Street,  118- 

125 
Mander,  E. ,  letter  to,  535  ;  509,  592 
Manning,    H.    E.  (Cardinal),   210  foil., 

460,  550 
Mansfield,  G.  S. ,  39 
Mansfield   College,    Oxford,    494   foil., 

doctrinal  clauses  in  trust-deed,  498, 

499.    5oi,    502  ;     opening,     499  ; 

correspondence    relating    to,     500 

foil.  ;     summer    school    at,     680  ; 

resignation  of  chairmanship,  682 
Manton,  H.,  482,  497 
March,  S.,  letter  to,  527 
Marris,    G.,  letters  to,   142,    143,    568, 

629,  652,  653 
Martin,  S. ,  95 

Martin,  Miss,  letters  to,  300,  532,  533 
Martineau,  J.,  23 
Matthews,  H.,  447 
Maud,  Tennyson's,  130 
Maurice,  F.  D. ,  206,  529,  541,  704,  707 
Melbourne,  invitation  to,  178  foil. 
Miall,  C.  S.,  letter  to,  623,  624 
Miall,  E.,  63,  140,  163,  267,  280,  284, 

296,  368,  369,  377 
Mill,  J.  S.,  217,  218 
Mill  Hill  School,  address  at,  7,  48 


Miller,  J.  C. ,  101, 130, 139, 140, 163, 165, 
166,    168,  170,  172,  175,   177,  488 

Mines,  A.,  128,  129 

Ministers,  bearded,  203  ;  stipends  of, 
126,  127 

Ministry,  the,  239,  240,  662,  663,  670, 
676,  720 

Missions  and  theories  of  Future  Punish- 
ment, 315,  316 

Montauban,  155-159 

Montenegro,  422,  423 

Moody,  D.  W. ,  317,  318-321,  322, 
334.  530 

Moor  Hall,  628,  632 

Morley,  J.,  letter  to,  457,  458;  438, 
461,  470,  471 

Morley,  S. ,  163,  267,  274 

Morris,  A.,  54 

Morse,  T.  D.  C,  549 

Moseley,  142,  161 

Moule,  H.  C.  G,  681,  682 

Moultrie,  G. ,  223 

Mtiller,  Mr.,  26,  34,  35 

Mundella,  293,  548 

Muntz,  P.  H. ,  264,  299 

Murphy,  W. ,  263 

Native  races  in  South  Africa,  protection 
of,  438  foil. 

New  College,  invitation  to,  572  foil. 

New  Haven  (Conn.),  335  foil.  ;  lecture 
at-  337.  338 

Newman,  F.  W. ,  699 

Newman,  J.  H.  (Cardinal),  letter  from, 
325;  169,  209,  2ii,  301,  532, 
642,  697,  698,  699 

Newth,  S. ,  572 

Nicoll,  W.  R.,  679 

Nineteenth  Century,  the,  755 

Nonconformist  {and  Independent),  letter 
to.  355;  63,  151,  328 

Nonconformist,  colleges  for  ministry 
contrasted  with  French,  157,  158  ; 
Central  Committee,  275,  276,  278, 
279,  281,  282,  283,  285  ;  Con- 
ference at  Manchester,  286-288, 
291,  479,  480,  726  ;  Noncon- 
formists of  1662  and  1862,  166, 
168 

Nonconformity,  lectures  on  the  rise  of 
Evangelical,  351  ;  justification  of, 
389  foil.  ;  "The  Politics  of,"  285, 
286 

North,  Lord,  453,  454 

Northrop,  President,  612 

Norton,  Baron,  letter  to,  557,  558 
550,  577 

Oakeley,  F. ,  211 

Oates,  J.,  letter  to,  621-623 


INDEX 


769 


Oath,     value    of    Parliamentary,     435, 

436 
O'Connor,  T.  P.,  462 
Offord,  Mr.,  letters  to,  25,    26,  36,  37, 

54  ;   8  ;   Mrs.,  letter  to,  180,  181 
Offord,  George  and  John,  7,  8,  180 
Offord,  Miss,  letter  to,  8,  9 
Oldknow,  Dr.,  139,  214 
Ordination  services,  93-98 
Original  sin,  111-113,  314 
Osborne,  B. ,  193 
O'Sullivan,  Canon,  399 

Paget,  F.  (Dean  of  Christ  Church,  Ox- 
ford),  letters    to,   621,    691,    692  ; 

642 
Palestine.      See  Holy  Land 
Paley,    Archdeacon,    on     Church    and 

State,  376,  377  ;  Evidences,  17 
Pall  Mall  Gazette,  letters  to,  439,  440  ; 

438  foil.,  445 
Palmer,  Sir  R.  (Lord  Selborne),  193 
Palmerston,  Lord,  251,  252 
Parnell,  C.  S. ,  588 
Parsons,  J.,  203 
Paton,  J.    B.,  letters  to,  278-280,  658, 

675,  676  ;  44,  56,  82,  125,  126 
Patriot,    articles    on    theories    of  State 

Churches  in  the,  370  foil. 
Patriotic  Fund,  speech  for,  129 
Patterdale,    shepherds  of,   and    church, 

248 
Pearsall,  J.  S. ,  15 
P£d£zert,  Professor,  157 
Penjdeh,  444  foil. 
Pensarn,  207,  208 
Perfectionism,  330 

Perkins,  J.  P.  letters  to,  464,  654,  655 
Perowne,  J.  J.  S.  (Bishop  of  Worcester), 

letter  to,  676,  677 
Philippe,  Louis,  49,  63 
Phipson,  Miss,  letters  to,  308,  533-535; 

Mr.,  90 
"Pike,  rifle,  and  barricade,"  256,  257 
"  Pilgrim  Fathers,"  lecture  on,  100-105 
Platten,  H.,  410 
Playfair,  Sir  Lyon,  505 
Plimsoll,  S. ,  403,  420 
Plumtre,  E.  H.  (Dean  of  Wells),  388 
Poland,  freedom  for,  252,  253 
Politics  of  the  Future,   the,    256    foil. ; 

politics    and    religion,    398    foil.  ; 

"  no  politics  in  heaven,"  399,  400 
Pope,  A.,  27,  34,  35 
Porter,  President,  N.,  335,  659 
Prayer,    liturgical,     239  ;      manual     of 

intercessory,   635  ;   Dale's  prayers, 

644 
Preaching,   lectures    on,   48,   336,    339, 

340.  415.   511.   512  ;    comforting, 


525;  ethical,    143-146,   721,   722; 

defects  in  Dale's,  590  foil. 
Presbyterians  under  the  Commonwealth, 

167,  168 
Pretoria,  convention  of,  438  foil. 
Printer's    breach    of   trust,   letter,    187, 

188 
Protestantism,   weakness  of,  in  France, 

159  ;    Ultimate  Principle  of,  593, 

594 
Psychical  research,  650  foil. 
Public  meetings,  preservation  of  order 

in,  425  foil. 
Pulpit  and  Parliament,  296  ;  and  politics, 

250,  251 
Punishment,   purpose  of,  715  ;    Future, 

see  Life  in  Christ 
Punshon,  W.  M.,  346 
Puritanism,   false  conceptions  of,   531  ; 

theology  of,  699  foil. 
Pusey,  E.  B.,  210  foil.,  666,  699 

Quiet  days  for  ministers,  204,  205 

Rainy,  Dr.,  290,  291 
Raleigh,  A,  291,  293 
Rawlinson,  H.,  report  on  condition  of 

Birmingham,  136,  137 
Ray,  J.,  1 
Rayleigh,  5 

Reading,  lectures  at,  351 
Real  Presence,  234 
Record,  the,  176,  325,  351 
Redford,  Dr.,  95 
Redford,  R.  A.,  82,  121 
Reform  Bill  (1866),  255,  256 
' '  Religious  Worship  and  Bible  Teaching 

in  Board  Schools,"  483 
Remusat,  382 
Renan,  E. ,  231 

Restoration,  universal,  311,  312 
Reunion,  schemes  of  religious,  393,  394 
"  Reverend,"  title  of,  242 
Revival,  religious,  316,  317 
Revolution  in  France  (1848),  49 
Reynolds,    H.    R. ,  letters  to,   327,  328, 

686,  687  ;  210,  323,  324,  327 
Richard,  H. ,  letters  to,  296,  549,  560, 

579  ;     277,    278,    279,    280,    548, 

55o.  578,  583 
Rigg,  J.  H.,  550 
Ripon,  Marquis  of,  282,  283 
Robertson,  F.  W. ,  704,  705 
Robinson,  J.,  729 
Rogers,  H.,  41-44,  54,  59,  82,128,  323, 

324,  646,  657,  688,  699,  704 
Rogers,  J.  G. ,  letters  to,  346,  354,  357, 

358,  385.  386,  387.  43L  466-468, 

469,  492,  514,  517,  518,  520,  586- 

588,    627,    662,    663  ;    287,   289, 


77o 


LIFE  OF  DR.  DALE 


293.  305.  3°7.  3S2.  378.  419.  465. 
534,    584,    651,    683,    684,    693; 
reminiscences,  723  foil. 
Romans,  sermons  on   Epistle  to,    109- 

115.  I23 
Rome,  Church  of,  293-295 
"  Round  Robin,"  Nonconformist,  288 
Rowland,  A.,  572 
"  Rupert,"  10 

Russell,  Sir  E.  R.,  letters  to,  350,  385 
Russell,  Lord  J. ,  269 
Russia  and  England,  444  foil. 
Rydal,  179,  180 
Ryland,  J.  E. ,  125 

Sabatier,  on  St.  Francis,  672 
Sanctification,  330,  331 
Sandon,  Lord,  283 
Sankey,  I.  D.     See  Moody,  D.  W. 
Sassiwn,  637 

Saturday  Revietv,  the,  150 
Saundby,  Dr.,  629,  692 
Savoy  Conference,  600 
Schnadhorst,  F. ,  276,  469 
Scholefield,  W. ,  63,  254,  262 
Schools,     denominational.     258,     271  ; 
American,  333-335.    See  Education 
Searle,  R. ,  letter  from,  567,  568;  561, 

563 

Selwyn  College,  Cambridge,  499 

Shaftesbury,  Earl  of,  163 

Shakespeare,  J.  H.,  letter  to,  655,  656 

Shalders,  E.  W.,  45,  56 

Sherman,  J.,  16 

Simon,  D.  W.,  494,  495 

Sin,  sense  of,  314,  315,  708  foil.  ;  ori- 
ginal, 111-113,  314 

Sinclair,  W.  M.  (Archdeacon  of  Lon- 
don), 693 

Smalley,  G.  W. ,  738 

Smith,  Miss  G.     See  Mrs.  Holder 

Smoking,  203,  204 

Snape,  T.,  559 

"Society"  meeting,  615,  616 

Spectator,  the,  531 

Spicer,  A.,  497,  561,  567,  568,  569,  570 

Spicer,  E. ,  615 

Spirit,  Holy,  236  foil.,  685 

Sprigg,  Sir  Gordon,  562 

Spring  Hill  College,  35-70 ;  arrange- 
ments of,  39,  40  ;  staff  of,  40-44  ; 
life  at,  45,  46  ;  theological  society, 
59,  60 ;  removal  from  Dudley  Road 
to  Moseley,  39  ;  removal  to  Oxford, 
496  foil. ;  lectures  at,  128,  494  ;  82, 
117,  122,  141,  161,  226,  272,  494 

Spurgeon,  C.  H.,  339 

Stallybrass,  W.  C,  67 

Stanley,  A.  P.  (Dean  of  Westminster), 
215,  291,  665,  666 


Stanley,  Lyulph,  548.  549,  577,  578, 
586 

Stead,  F.  H.,  letters  to,  526,  527,  664, 
665 

Stead,  W.  T.,  letters  to,  650,  651,  652 

Stewart,  D.  J. ,  552 

Stiff,  E. ,  letter  to,  392,  393 

Stokes,  Dr.,  610,  611 

Stoughton,  J.,  288,  289 

Stroud,  J.,  26 

Stroud,  W. ,  12 

Stuart,  Mrs.  J.,  letters  to,  473,  539,  540, 
541,  542,  543,  663 

Student,  the,  19 

Sturge,  J. ,  265 

Suffering,  Puritan  and  Catholic  concep- 
tions of,  531  ;  value  of,  535, 
542 

Sunday,  Magazine,  221,  222,  758  ;  lec- 
tures and  Town  Hall,  406  foil. 

Swansea,  Gladstone's  speech  at,  469 
foil. ;   Union  sermon  at,  243  foil. 

Sympathy,  a  duty,  189,  190 

Tabernacle  Church,  Moorfields,  2,  12,  30 

Tablet,  the,  687 

Talbot,  J.  G.,  548,  560,  577 

Talents,  the,  27-31 

Tasker,  W.,  15,  18 

Telegraph,  article  on  the  Nonconformists 

in  the  Daily,  299 
Temple,  F.  (Archbishop  of  Canterbury), 

269,  549,  578,  582 
Ten  Commandments,  the,  721 
Theological,  class,  12;  colleges  and  the 

churches,  127 
Theology,  decay  of  interest  in,  201,  573 
Thomas,  H.  A.,  letter  to,  535-537  ;  636 
Thomas,  Reuen,  667 
Thompson,  Sir  H. ,  522 
Thornton,  S.  (Bishop  of  Ballarat),  139, 

569 
Thorold,  A.  W.  (Bishop  of  Winchester), 

letter  from,  684 
Three-cornered  constituencies,  264 
Throne,  loyalty  to  the,  191,  192 
Tillett,  B.,  610 
Times,    letter    to    the,    297,    298  ;    on 

Liberation    campaign,    378  ;    480, 

481,  500 
Timmins,  S. ,  634 
Town  Hall,  Sunday  lectures,  406  foil.  ; 

services  in,  207,  208  foil. 
Tractarian  movement,  697 
Transvaal,  difficulties  in  the,  438  foil. 
Trent,  the,  253 

Trial  sermon  at  Spring  Hill,  38 
Tuck,  R.,  128 
Twenty -fifth    clause    (Education    Act, 

1870),  281-283,  295,  298,  477 


INDEX 


771 


Unbelief  in  France  and  England,  159, 

160 
Union,  National  Education,  273 
Unitarians    and    church    membership, 

344-  345 
Unity,  Christian,  214 
Universities  and  Nonconformist  ministry, 

495,  496 
Unworldliness,  692 

Vardy,  A.  R. ,  486 

Vaughan,  C.  J.  (Dean  of  Llandaff ),  169 
Vaughan,  R. ,  162,  163,  164,  168,  267 
Vince,  C. ,  139,  166,  203,  403,  634,  641 

Wace,    H.,    letters   to,    388-392,    422, 

529,  530  ;  387,  388,  395,  536 
Wales,  Prince  of,  wedding,  191 
Wallis,  C,  308,  310 
Walsh,  W.  J.    (Archbishop  of  Dublin), 

letter  from,  461-463  ;  letter  to,  460, 

461 ;  459 
Wanamaker,  Mr.,  334 
War,  righteous,  130,  253 
Warburton,  Bishop,  370,  377 
Ward,  R.  J.,  617 
Wasperton,  31,  119 
Watts,  Professor,  41,  43,  128 
Way,    S.    J.    (Chief  Justice   of    South 

Australia),    letters    to,     656,    657, 

669,  670 
Weekday  Sermons,  221,  222 
Wells,  A.,  308,  310 
Wesleyan    Methodism,    Conference    at 

Birmingham,  346  foil.  ;  contrasted 

with  Congregationalism,  352,  353  ; 

the  itineracy,  347,  348 
Westcott,    B.    F.    (Bishop  of  Durham), 

letters  to,  517,  523-525,  653,  654  ; 

543.  544-  643.  673-  683 
Whately,  Archbishop,  688,  689 


Wheeler,  E. ,  letters  to,  678,  679 

Whitby,  V. ,  692 

White,  E.,  311,  313 

White,  Eben. ,  14,  15 

White,  W. ,  400,  401 

Wilberforce,  S.  (Bishop  of  Winchester), 

380 
Wilby,  Mr.,  4,  5 
Wilkinson,  W. ,  634 
Wilks,  Washington,  131 
Willey,  J.  T.,  5,  6,  7,  13 
Williams,  C,  539 
Willis's  Rooms,  lecture  at,  186 
Wilson,  J.,  letter  to,  327 
Wilson,  R.  D.,  121 
Winslow,  Dr.,  27,  34 
Winterbotham,  H.  P.,  278 
Winterslow  House,  510 
Wiseman,  F.  L.,  648 
Woodman,  the,  403 
Wordsworth,      C.       (Bishop      of      St. 

Andrews),  186 
Worldliness,  Christian,  531,  532 
Worship,  238,  239 
Wright,  H.,  741 
Wright,  J.  S.,  476,  482 

Yale,  university  of,   48,   331,  335,  336, 

337-339.  514 
Yeates,  R. ,  2 
Yeates,  T. ,  3 
Young,   Elizabeth.      See  Elizabeth  Dale 

(mother) 
Young,  Dr.  John,  216 
Young,  Mrs.,  2 
Young  Men's  Magazine,  19 
Young  people,  sermons  to,  146,  147 
Youth's  Magazine,  9,  10 

Zwinglian  theory  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
215 


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